I accidentally shrined my lvl 30 axe (+1 crit), can I buy a plain lvl 30 axe for 1 fg since I've sold 7 fg worth of gear, or does this kill the point? I found a lvl 30 club but I'm hitting zeros too much at 48 so I want my axe back.

The point I am doing this climb is to show new players that it is possible to play this game with zero fg. I'm lvl 48 in less than a week, on HC, mobile only.

So I felt the same thing. I sold a ton of whites one time and I wanted to know if I can spend that fg towards climbing.

Buffcore is all kinda on you. It's a personal challenge.
I had a staff on the mp I found on my original hardcore char before I made him buffcore. And I took it off the MP and used it and kinda felt guilty lol.
So honestly it's all what you want it to be.

I personally don't use the market place
But in ur situation, you gotta do what you gotta do lol. I'm using a crap crit strike set up too lol

If your goal is to show new players that it's possible to start with 0 fg, you don't need to play bufcore, so this is fine. Bufcore is solo self-found afaik, so you wouldn't be playing bufcore anymore, but I don't think you need to stick to bufcore rules to prove what you want to

Up to you and others that want to play Bufcore rules or not.

My personal preference would be to say to stick with your club and slog it out, but as you said, you are showing people that you can play without using FG.

I play with heavies only and I accidentally deleted char with battleaxe lvl 25.

Even though I will not buy it from mkt ... will be rerolling chars till I get new lvl 15 / 25 battleaxe and play it only what I find.

I chose to grind on, found a 40 sword. Got to 50. Found a 40 axe. So it all works out eventually

Good luck on the only heavy buff grind!