As we all know we've got GM enchants & Cs'ing warlords & Over-cap elixers now which arent all that bad in certain terms so how about upgrade/downgrade...as hard and waste of cash it is.
How about along with a tier theres be a placeholder that allows GMs to downgrade/upgrade one of your items to the certain level you want it.
or a GM system you buy a item from item mall & send in a forum and wait the time & they downgrade & upgrade...Sort of like the tier promotion but different as you dont gotta spend tons of AP just to get it when you could just go to item mall & buy that.
Note: When upgrade you lose 12% cs1 but when GMs do it it stays the same % and cs.