Originally i wanted to use a Klingon title for this thread but the word for "buy" does not seem to exist in the klingon language. (probably because klingons dont buy something... they take what they want).
After getting my Red Matter Capacitor (ive been trying to get it for meanwhile half a year) Id like to share my observations about the STO payment options and the benefits.
The Red Matter Capacitor is an a ship device that you can only get from the Gold Edition of the game or the Collectors Edition.
(Note: Gold Edition is not the same as Gold status)
Both editions have become pretty are... especially if you are looking for "new" where the item codes are still working.
IF you have luck and patience you can get a relative cheap new box.... if not... the prices range between 50€-150€ these days. (for a game which is free to play meanwhile)
I cant tell if its a good decision to buy it or not.
Depends on what you want.
The Gold Edition contains 2 redeem codes (one for the DS9 uniform and the red matter capacitor+1 month gold status and one for +30 days gold status -> so a total of 60days gold).
It also contains a STO T-Shirt (yay o_O), small golden Star Trek pin, an (outdated) universe map, a DVD with the game, some artwork cards and some manuals.
The Collectors edition contains a bit more (addition uniform, pass, metal box... etc.)
I cant tell you whatever price you might encounter is worth it.
For me didnt want all that other crap... i only wanted the Red Matter Capacitor and i fortunatly got a halfway good price.
So what other payment stuff does exist?
You can pay for one month gold membership at the STO website which will cost you 12,99€.
If you ask me thats a bit expensive.
On the net you can find STO Game Time Cards. They cost about 10-16€ but seem to be for 2 months gold membership.
Maybe you can get them cheaper.
When I got my Gold Edition i also ordered a Silver Edition for 2,80€ (+2,50 for delivery) that contained another 30 days membership.
So it looks like there better ways for a upgrade to 1 month gold then buy the membership at sto website.
What do you get for 1 month gold status?
If you ask me 1 month gold is clearly worth it because after that month you can still make use of the benefits.
You get 20 new account bank slots, new inventory slots, new bank slots, additional BOFF slots (in my case 4), i also got a new char slot.... +500 Zen.
So for one time paying you get alot stuff that would cost you alot of Zen and if you get that month for 2,50€ or 5€ then its a damn good price.
The next best thing you can get is the Lifetime subscription.
That thing costs 299$.... which currently would be 215€. And if you live in Europe you also have to pay VAT (15-25%). So in case of Germany the total costs would be 256€.
... for a game.... that actually is free to play.
I cant tell you if its worth it or not. But i can tell you what you get.
You get a new shuttle, access to the captains table (a gamezone for veterans only), several really good looking veteran uniforms and custume options, additional char slots, additional ship slots, countless of accolades and titles... and and and... 500 Zen per month... additional Dilithium refining options (beyond the 8000 limit)... a special android boff... and the ability to refine the dilihitum for an entire week at once (so if you are away a few days ... no prob).
You also get a skill point bonus for the entire team you are playing with .... and that was a bit misleading actually.
It is NOT a bonus of 5% on your skill points that you have used on your skill tree (which would mean to have a better working ship).... NO... it actually just means that if you kill a NPC you earn +5% skill points (which actually is pretty useless since most players have millions of these).
So is a lifetime subscription worth it?
I guess thats something everybody has to make an own decision about.
Compared to paying monthly via subscription its clearly worth it.
Lifetime subscription means that you instantly get the 1000 day veteran rewards and all other veteran rewards before for 256€.
If you do monthly subscriptions (12,99) you would pay in 20 months the same amount of money as for the lifetime subscription but in that time you only would have reached the 600 day Veteran reward limit.
To get to the 1000 day reward you need to pay 34 months and that will cost you 441,66€ (congratz).
Here is a little hint from me:
IF you want a lifetime subscription then wait a bit.
With every release of a new season a special lifetime subscription sale was done where instead of the 299$ the prices were lowered to 199$ (thats 143€). With VAT (Germany) you could get a lifetime subscription for 170€.
The next season will be released in April 2014... so... yeah. Best chance.
I have no idea what the "red matter capacitor" does or why it is an advantage, though some STO veterans seem not to want to play without one; so it's hard to say whether it is worth the search, let alone the cash. As you said it is a "free" game (though I have invested 300euro/year for many years in CF, another free game). I had done a calculation of the relative a la carte costs for the actually usable items in a lifetime membership, and it only addeed up to about $85 US, vs. the $300 cost. Again, it depends on what features you actually value. Some of the wealthier veterans think nothing of buying the entire Dyson ship set just to cull the consoles for a max Science Destroyer build. The rest of us have to balance our game & life goals more carefully.
. 
I posted a bug report on STO forums, but unless this gets resolved, STO will never see any of my money ever again... 
