Back when I was a noob, every server gave 5 TC and clans bought their own servers for 50,000.
Used to be able to get TC from playing blender
i had my own personal server, i think i paid extra for it
a few weeks later servers became free to make :l
also i remember when it was very uncommon for a black belt to have full textures >_> (because they were priced the same as 512 is now)