So...I finally managed to nab something from the token shop, and it says I can only buy again in 12 hours the stuff will probably be gone within 12 minutes). Is there always a timer like that?

Yes, the timer is always there and set at 12 hours. The only exception I believe was some time ago when there was a big TS restock of old items, way back the timer was reduced to 6 hours for a whole weekend but that was announced as a special happening in the news as well.