Also, although I'll always follow the rules when it comes to what methods of acquiring certs are legitimate, I can't say it would bother me if someone showed up at an AL game with purchased magic item certs. I know I'm in the minority on this, but to my mind AL is set up really well to deal with that.
First, the game is fully cooperative. In a game where there is PvP and competition among players there's no good reason to let players pay to win against each other. Then you're not talking about a fun game, you're talking about traveling around the country to play in cons just to get ganked by a wallet. That's no fun. But, in a fully cooperative game, I'm totally OK with a character having a good weapon, armor, augments et al.. It might allow us to tackle the module at a higher difficulty level or something. So long as the power level of items that are certed in AL remains reasonable there's not likely to be anything too game breaking.
Second, because first right of refusal goes to the person with the fewest number of magic items at the table, if one player at the table has bought several certs it just gives all the other players one less person to compete with for items.
That's my two cents at any rate.