People will be going hardcore for the first 2 weeks, I think that's long enough to remove the gold vendor, or at least the runes.

This will give more of a vanilla retail experience to people with lots of gold, force them to experience the nostalgia!

I disagree with removing gold for anymore than 3 weeks after ladder reset.

Also, 2 ladder resets per year seems fine to me, although I might suggest every 5 months instead. The thing is it takes a long time to master all the new Annihilus content, in addition to seasonal events.

Short seasons are good for veterans, but new players come regularly as well and they might be discouraged if they know a ladder reset is coming in a month.