I seriously doubt that during the first week of next season you will be able to buy a 99% player at whatever level for less than 40 tokens. Especially not under 21 year olds. So these players on the negotiation lists will still be a bargain depending on how badly you need to replace a player who has just lost 20% thanks to levelling up.
Once a selling manager has set the minimum price you can see, with difficulty, how many tokens they want. Double that, plus the starting "fee" for Nordeus, and if a manager is asking for 5 tokens you will end up paying a total of 20 tokens for the player. Half the number you would have to spend on the auction. Possibly?
It would be nice if Nordeus could make negotiations more user friendly though.