Gachapon Boxes: could it be that..

Having money certainly helps, but in a game like maple you can get enough money without too much trouble. Just sell letters or witch belt scrolls for mesos, if you're dedicated you can make a pretty nice amount in a few days. It also helps being dedicated to one character, that can area boss easily or hunt for PoTs in the time temple. There's a ton of ways to make mesos, so I really don't think saying HeroTex is rich because he's rich is a fair claim. Learn the prices, learn predict future content and its affect on the maple economy (as far as reasonable, since you never know what Nexon might stick in their gacha boxes), learn to use NX as a currency in the same way as mesos, and you are set to become as rich as you have the time/dedication for. Of course a bit of luck can go a long way too, so stick to it and eventually it'll pay off.

Regular merchanting is the little money. The big money comes from market exploits such as the typhoon egg's scroll drop, agent earrings, dark tokens drop glitch, maker and crystals, icicles for 2k, etc.