For me it seems that the supply has decreased. Those who have paid attention to CLD sales when the auction prices started to rise rapidly might have noticed something too. I quite often saw that the auction was close to empty - 1-1.5 pages with mostly 1 deed auctions (a lot of them overpriced), some 2s and maybe only a few 5s or 10s (sometimes none).
I'm not going to run around in a tinfoil hat saying MA is silently buying them back, that would be only possible in very small amounts, would be unethical and dangerous to their reputation. Could it be that the number of CLD owners is decreasing and large "investors" are owning more and more deeds with every week, by reinvesting their weekly gain, Land owners buying CLDs with their tax income, more deposits from wealthy people etc?
I find this scenario troubling. A random average player with a few deeds, 10, 20 etc. will most likely use this income to buy a new gun, fund his activities, buy new clothes etc. But what does a person with lets say 500, 1000 deeds do? Unless they are gathering funds to reinvest they will most likely start to withdraw money regulary. With 500 deeds its ~ 8k ped a month, I woudn`t mind a nice withdraw every 1.5 month or with 1000 deeds a nice withdraw monthly. Or just save up a bigger sum by waiting a bit longer.
MAs gamble with CLDs was that they offer high returns, hoping that most of the money will stay ingame and make the players stay longer here. Could it be shifting in the future?