Here are my two cents for the sake of discussion.

Off the market list, a player maybe a few skill points away from the star, but he is not guaranteed to give you a consistent performance throughout the season. Scouts cost 50T but are mostly a few skill points away from World Class status and will be consistent over time and can last you for 3-4 seasons if you buy a 22-24 yo. Some may not agree that scouts are worth the hype but a lot more will agree that scouts are longer term investments and will perform in 80% if not 100% of matches in 3-4 seasons.

My Scout AML has not dissapointed me in 99% of matches despite me losing some of them and this is his fourth season and still going strong and will maintain his Scout level. My DC has been immense last season, and his second season seems to continue where he left off. My MC had a mediocre first season but is delivering in the second season. My DMC/DMR is not great but he does the job better than players off the market.

I would not bid 40 tokens in the open market because the performance of players in the list is random. I would, though, at most, bid up to 10T for a good player with solid historical match rating (I'm talking about 8-8-8-9-8).