I remember when I was a noob, I at first thought that minerals were the way to get shards...later, I found out I did not have 100 Dark Shards, but 100 units of Dark Matter. :P
However, this makes me think: what would SK be like if there was a conversion vendor? I mean, it would allow a player (such as myself or the person reading this) to use some CR and units of minerals to produce Shards (at a relatively cheap price...otherwise it would be useless for its function).
For example, I could give to the vendor, say, 900 CR and 30 units of Crimsonite (thirty crowns per unit...prices could differ based on the mineral), and recieve 15 Red Shards. This way, you are still getting less Red Shards for Crimsonite, but the ablility to do so does not undermine the Auction market for shards either; it could, in fact, help the market and players who don't use it.
I think a conversion vendor would fit (most likely not at my prices!), but what do my fellow Knights think?
You can buy shards form other people as cheap as 10-15/unit if you know where to search (try haven 75, spanish people are cheap), althought there seems to be a green shortage.
15 red shards would costs way less than 900, plus you'd still have the crimsonite to deposit at gates and regain some profit.
Too much waste.