Need help with payouts for card game Gems and Greenbacks

Let me apologize in advance for the length of this post. I've got to run through a fair bit of how the game works in order to get the advice I need because what I need advice on are payouts, which are dependent on, well, the rest of the game.

So I'll start by introducing the game. It's called Gems and Greenbacks and it's an auctioning and set collection game for 3 to 4 players played using two sets of cards, one containing gems of various types and cuts and one containing money in different denominations. The gem cards are shuffled together and separated into three draw piles that will be used during the games three rounds. The money cards are sorted into denominations to form the bank, like in monopoly, and 50G (Gazillions) are given to each player. By the way, the money cards all have the same back so you can't see exactly what players have in their hands or what they are bidding, as the cards are played face down.

One player is chosen to be the first dealer. One of the three gem decks is chosen to be the draw pile for the round and the other two are set aside. The dealer turns over the top three cards of the gem deck to become the lot and places an initial bid of 1 money card face down. This card can be of any value. Players then take turns clockwise placing bids onto the table face down until we're back to the dealer. The dealer can now place a final bid, then all bids are revealed. The highest bid is payed to the bank and the player takes the lot and becomes the new dealer. If there is a tie then the player who bid first (closest to the dealer's left takes it) Lather rinse repeat until the gem deck is empty. This signals the end of the bidding round and the start of the selling round!! YAY!

In order to better understand how sales work, I'll take a step back and explain what's in the gems deck and how players form a "Tableau".

Gems come in 5 types: Diamond(D), Topaz(T), Jade(J), Sapphire(S) and Rubies(R).
...and in three cuts: Round(r), Princess(p) and Emerald(e)
...and there are four copies of each card, for a total of 60 cards

As players start accumulating gem cards they arrange them to for a Tableau of five columns and three rows based on type and cut. Duplicate cards are placed on top of each other to form stacks.

An example of a full tableau (picture each spaced stacked four high):
Dr Tr Jr Sr Rr
Dp Tp Jp Sp Rp
De Te Je Se Re

(please excuse alignment issues)

Obviously anyone who has the above tableau has won the game and was probably playing alone... Chances are players will have different partially completed tableaus.

So how does this factor into selling off your gems? This matters because as you run out of gem cards in the draw pile and the selling round starts players can now make sales based on rows, columns and stacks. And each different sale nets you different payouts. Aaaaand this is where I'm having issues with the game.

Just, FYI, I've had the chance to play the game a couple times, make a few little changes, and the game play seems totally good, we enjoy it, the problem really seems to lie with the payouts being out of whack.. and maybe the starting money. (50g)

Ok, here's how each sale works and the payouts as of the last playtest.
You may make three kinds of sales, and you can make as many of them as you can during any selling round. Usually you make every sale you can at the last selling round as this signals the end of the game and you count money to declare a winner.
The three kinds of sales are Row sales, Column sales and Stack sales.

Row sale:
Choose a row (matching cut, different types) and sell the top card of each stack forming the row. You rake in money based on the number of columns in the row, but you only sell off the top card of each, so you could be leaving some behind for other sales, or later rounds.
Payouts for row sale:
1 card=1g
2 cards=3g
3 cards=7g
4 cards=12g
5 cards=20g

Column Sale:
Choose a column (matching type, different cuts) and sell EVERY card in the column. You make money based on the number of rows making up the column (regardless of the number of cards in each stack). A column sale will leave no cards behind in the column. You're better off selling columns made up of stacks containing as few cards as possible to maximize how much you make off each card.
Payouts for column sale:
1 stack=1g
2 stacks=8g
3 stacks=22g

Stack sale:
Choose a stack (matching cards) and sell the whole thing. The odds of making a stack are the lowest so payout is the highest. Stacks pay out based on how many cards are in them.
Payouts for Stack Sales:
1 card=1g
2 cards=10g
3 cards=25g
4 cards=50g

A player may sell a column, row or stack that isn't complete (as you can see above) but may never choose how much of a row, stack or column to sell.

Here are the issues that came from the playtesting...

-The row sale (same cut different types) was never used. The payout just wasn't good enough. The selling rounds came down to selling stacks if you could and rows for some extra cash.

-Players liquidated their money. All players finished with no money and made back they final scoring tally entirely through the final selling round.

My goal for the game is for players to have to make tough decisions about whether they are going to sell rows, columns or stacks. I would like selling rows to be a viable tactic, but still, ultimately, out numbered by the payout of the riskier column and (especially) stack sales. in the interest of choice as well, I would like players to have to mull over how much to sell and how frugal to be, because playtests are showing that you don't over think it.. just sell everything you can, spend it all and make it all up at the end.

One thing to note. We've been playing with a rule by which all gem cards sold during a selling round are shuffled in with the next draw pile, so by the end of the game you end up with every single card in the player tableaus. I'm thinking that simply eliminating this and having sold card be out of the game completely some of the above goals could be partially addressed. Suddenly the row sales look more attractive as a way to make a little cash because you know that if you sell half that stack you are NEVER making it up again, for instance. Also, by not shuffling cards back into the game, players would not end up with such loaded tableaus at teh last selling round maybe forcing them to accrue funds during the game instead of relying entirely on the last sales.

So there's the game, and there's the dilemma. Sorry again for the EXTRA LONG post.

Louard