Yeah, the cost of converting Taurog's gear is nasty, but probably not an issue from what I've seen. I'm not sure there's another way to pull 240/280 CP out of nowhere.
One row of beads = 50 CP? Hmmm... Not sure if it beats Taurog. And yeah, stacking CP for it's own sake is bloody good from what I've seen (the penalty is nasty in any other sense, but I've converted T's gear before and in some builds it works fine)
With spirit pact and alchemist prep, if you buy and convert 3 potions that's 60 CP, and since you can prep 4 potions and save the whoopaz thats 3 more converted and so lets say 120 CP. Or have i allready counted 2 of thos in? Hmmm...
So 1700 (assuming pactmaker and Taurog) + 120 = 1820. Needs at least 300 more from shops. Let's say 250 because if you convert 5 items with spirit pact you get 50 CP. 5 items for 250? Doable? Reliably?