^ that was because the Christmas content did not work as Cinco had intended (using the elixir to spawn the Grotto portal in regular Winter maps). Instead, you could just buy the 2 plat access for regular Winter maps and host the Grotto yourself. So, everyone got 4 hours of farming around 1m gold per hour for only 2 plat. This flooded the game with gold and raised prices on items, if I remember correctly.