Shopkeepers rarely sell enough to keep up with their buying. With fewer crashes/reboots, this means that shopkeepers will run out of money more frequently, and spend longer with no money. It seems to me the trend of the MUD is to spend less time down, and to have OOC events like crashes and reboots have less affect on IC happenings. Such is demonstrated by the new Request code. Also, there is a rush right after every crash or reboot from every thief in the game to snatch up items and sell them. It is these fanatics who abuse OOC events who end up being the head of their guild or making the most money, etcetera.
So I wonder.. to make shopkeeper's monies less dependant on crashes and reboots (OOC events), and to be fairer to more casual players, what if shopkeeper gold respawned after it was reduced below a certain level for a certain amount of time? To balance this out, to give it RP sense, the shopkeeper closes shop for a few days, to sell his extra merchandise to a market, or to go to the bank or something. Or we could simply recode the entire game to include a realistic economy with inflation/deflation, taxes, and interest...

Keep in mind that there will be some shoppies that are better to frequent when the mud hasn't rebooted in awhile. These shops can be quite profitable if you have the right goods to sell, or are a thief with quick fingers.

In my opinion, it is a draw and just forces you to rethink your strategy on accumulating coins depending on how long the mud has been up.