does newbie need merits to rank up !? I don't think so, if I'm not wrong.
Why do they buy merits ? I guess they don't read the rules properly. and
who would sell merits ? Legends ? Hero ? Senior ? I don't understand if they would like to sell merits for some bugs. they have been here that long and still needs some bugs ? if they does, what have they done in that long time in this forum ?
I'm not fool enough to suspect those old members would sell Merits, I suspect multiple accounts do this.
Let's be positive, no need to be panic, coz all will be fine..

As a newbie you don't need merits to rank up but after you become a jr. member that's the time you need to have merits, 10 merits is good enough in order to become a member. And the higher your rank is the higher smerits you'll have. And I don't think an old and valued high ranked members would sell their smerits because their name and reputation are the ones that will be affected by that move. We all know that it's hard to get a higher rank, you need time and effort in order to have that so its a nonsense idea to destroy your name for just some money.
So lets just enjoy whatever happens and remove all the bad vibes because we all know that they implemented it for us to have a better life here in the forum.