You can't tell. Because the difference whether repairs are too high are too low depends too much on whether you are in a clan or not, whether you are playing start or not, whether you are buying and reselling on the marketplace or not, and whether you are selling your loom points or not. That's why I think the entire upkeep system is horribly broken, but somehow people don't seem to care much.
I can tell.
Starting a character, you never use 30k worth gear on level 1 do you, gives you about 20k gold easily until level 21. Until that level in the first gen, your waste of gold for upkeep should be zero. In certain levels, gear doesn't make sense. Use the starting gear first.
Doing the first gen without any gold from 20-31 is harder, people tend to buy lots of stuff in the first gen, probably even sell them again to get some money back, therefore doing minus gold. That is their problem though, with x1 straight through a gen it is always possible to play with 10-15k gear worth.
That's light equipment:
Tribal Warriour Outfit worth 1,569 gold (109 upkeep)
Nordic Fighter Helmet worth 1,775 gold (124 upkeep)
Rus Cavalry Boots worth 412 gold (28 upkeep)
Mail Gauntlets worth 2,074 gold (145 upkeep)
That is 31 body armor, 29 leg armor and 34 head armor, enough to survive 2-3 hits depending on the enemy, his stats and weapon and gameplay. Upkeep is low with 406 gold.
There is not much a reason to choose more expensive stuff. Plate is not a must-have, heavy armor neither. No one is forced to use those just to cry about upkeep then. There is a reason why there is a lot of stuff, not only for the looks.
Now depending on you you choose your weapon. As 2h it doesn't have to be a Greatsword, neither a Flamberge for more than 1000 gold upkeep. People choose the best weapons and wonder why they have to pay upkeep.. UUuuuh, think! There is good stuff for low money.Instead for a Danish for nearly 1,2k upkeep, choose a cheaper weapon like Longsword for 466 gold. It can even be cheaper with the Bastard Sword and 280 upkeep.
If you choose a good item, you have to face a higher upkeep. There is so much cheap stuff (money wise) that is good enough.
Same with 1h weapons. People cry about 700 upkeep. HAHA! QQ more, get a similar one for some hundred gold upkeep less, there are so many nice weaons to choose from!
Sure, while playing with clan mates it's often possible to roll x5 for hours. But even today when only I was online for an hour I had only x3 and x4, the team actually only had random people. Same in most situations.
Use the marketplace if you want, your decision.
Sell the loompoints if you want, your decision. You don't even have to retire, then you either grind gold with low upkeep gear or use medium gear.
The whole discussion is useless. There is no reason you get anything for free, anything without effort. New players need some time to get into crpg, during that time they can gather gold to use "better" gear.
I don't even know why answer here, but to be honest if you claim upkeep was too low you don't understand why it exists. There have to be people using cheaper gear, why would that gear exist then? Why would anyone use body armor below Light Kuyak for other reasons than the looks. The stats (weight/armor) of gear around the Kuyaks are best... well anyway, I'm gonna go sleep.
Zlisch is right, compare expensive items with cheaper gear. There are many better choices, as I said before.
Compare Longsword with any Greatsword, you pay more upkeep for some dmg points, some length and maybe the looks. But not more. There are many ways to save money.