when "merit" is so valuable for beginners will it be "merit" on sale. because from now on there will be so many newbies who hunt "merit" 
Bitcointalk has a pretty fabulous community that will likely uncover these sorts of schemes, and report them to the proper authorities.
People selling merit would be discovered in fairly short order.
Sometimes, Theymos even sends out Torque and myself, to knock on people's doors, if you catch my drift.