First of all, welcome to the server. (: I hope you'll enjoy playing here. Now in answer to your question, the economy is based on tokens. You can obtain tokens by participating in events/mini games and converting the event tokens to regular tokens, donating, trading/buying them from other players, or purchasing them for zeny. Unfortunately, the best items (Emperium auroras, Frigg's shield, Valkyrie weapons, rucksacks) are all rather costly. (I have a guide to average pricing that Seraphine made that I'll be adding to the wiki later today, most likely.) However, for a new player starting out, I'd recommend doing quests instead: Elite equipment, the Sun/moon aura, and quest rucksacks. All of these items are very good and about 10-5 stats less than their more expensive counterparts. This will be a good way to start off and save up tokens so that you can buy the better gear later on.
MvP Cards sell for a decent amount of tokens here, ranging from 5-50 (on average). MvP card drops are 10%, with the exception of Thanatos, which is .01%. Consumable items like Yggdrasil Berry tickets etc. are also in demand here, though they do not sell for much.
Not to my knowledge, no, since they're not hard to obtain.
I hope this helped you. If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me or add me to MSN at
[email protected].