I think merit points should only stay if the post was deleted by a moderator, or the owner of a self moderated topic. If the post is deleted by the user, the sMerits should return to the person who gave the merits. If merit selling/trading was to get popular, it would be fairly easy to hide who you bought the merit from or traded with, as you could make a temp post, wait for them to "pay" the merit, and then delete it, hiding all traces of the "trade" from the general public. Thoughts?