My point in mentioning what people spend on other more populated games is just to show that you are suggesting going from this game being 20x overpriced to 19x overpriced and thinking it will attract new players. The same new guy that laughed his ass off and left when he found out how much it cost for an upgrade isn't going to spend 30 bucks on a temporary weapon(and still suck because he has junk armor/accessories) just to figure out if he likes the game enough to buy a permanent upgrade. Even if given a free temporary bound weapon at level 100 or something, most people simply aren't going to spend hundreds of dollars on a pixel weapon in an old game with a low population lol.
More reasonable suggestion to be quite honest...5 dollar permanent fully forged +15 upgrades. Let people get their weapons cheap...they'll still spend on armor and accessories and other temporary items in the item mall and game parlor. What's a better game...a dwindling population of morons who spent hundreds of dollars on an OP pixel weapon or make the biggest mistake ever of OP cash only weapons go away by selling them dirt cheap, maybe more people will stick around, and the people the want to pay to win will still have an advantage with better acessories, armors, and scrolls. In the end everyone competitive is going to have an upgrade anyhow, its not like making them cheaper is going to screw up end game "balance" at all...it would hopefully just get more people to stick around.