Pocoto - I've been playing longer than Crystal server, it made me laugh when I saw that... if it was you that said Atropos discovered it in the post I just saw.
But to the people that aren't reading. Your max durability will automatically REPAIR when the upgrade is succesful in TC. You don't have to pay anything, just make sure if you are going to attempt this, that you see it through with TC and just don't give up and go back to using the market and pay for repairs and so on.
Again, his trick increases your chances of saving mets, but doesn't guarantee it.
On xBlacKTigeRx's upgrades... I doubt you had luck like that but if you did, that's a first I've ever heard. No way you would spend 200 mets on an item using this method then do 5 items of similar difficulty to upgrade in 1/2 mets each - definitely more fiction that fact in what you're saying.
Jigawboo - You have to go down to 0 durability, stopping at 1/2 will not work.
Odysseus - I think 3 times is the limit, though I only drop the durability once or twice mostly. I did this to a lvl 100 super shield I had once. I had already broken it 3 times. I tried again, and the durability went over 200 or something, then when I relogged it was back as if I had broken it only once or twice. So I would say 3 times is the most you can do it.
Finally, I think I explained myself clearly enough in my first post. This is NOT a Q&A thread. It's pretty simple and if you can't figure it out without being guided through it step-by-step then you don't deserve to use it. I won't be answering any more questions regarding this.