Come back recently, AH is dead.

[UltraBlackone]

As a returning player myself, I think the best way to gear up now a days is the old fashion ways of going out and finding it. There is still all the conquest gear sold for conquest points. There are still vendors littered all throughout the world. If you have a buddy still on they can still craft for you while you start new or get back into the grove. Finally let's not forget all the lovely old NMs that have been getting ignored for so long (we miss you Spiny Spipi). Yes the AH is dead for now but that's no reason to run around under geared.

[Auriga]

I complained about this concept awhile ago.. I've yet to determine a solution to it/agree
with other proposed solutions. Still it is an issue an I feel your stress.

[pheare]

I have multiple crafts that I could craft lower level items for, but the profit is just not there. The only players in dire need of low level armor are newer people who since they're new won't have the gil to play inflated prices(veteran players usually just leech naked inside abyssea).

Another thing is that players would buy the gear, level, and then sell it back via AH. But I feel that since leveling is mainly higher level, those players who bought from AH are just NPCing it to free up space without the hassle of waiting, even if they're losing gil.

I think for at least that aspect they should offer more NPCs for a wider variety of armor because it is sad to flip through the bottom half of the auction house list to see 0 listed for every one.

[Fretion]

Fortunately, I've always been a hoarder, so I've got a decent supply of gear for all jobs on various mules. However, I agree this is definitely a problem. I get a good amount of gear from chests, but when I've gone to place it on AH, it doesn't sell ... or rather, won't sell for more than I can get from an NPC for it. I do occasionally bazaar it on the mule I keep in Jeuno to run bazaar ... but I refuse to sell for only NPC price, and if it doesn't move within a week from my mule, I NPC it to make room. I have hopes that the merging of the auction houses will help with this, but not really high hopes.

[Zerayla]

There are still some good sets of gear that you can buy from NPCs:

Leather Set (lvl 7)
Nation Gear - Royal Footman/Legionnaire (lvl 10)
Chainmail Set (lvl 24)
Brass Scale Set (lvl 27)
RSE Gear (lvl 27+)

Etc...

So while the AH might not have low level gear, the options are still out there if you want to gear yourself up. You just have to look into the options, be it conquest points/quests/NPCs in towns.

But as its already been said, no one cares to put low-level gear on the AH anymore because the chances that it'll actually sell, are rare. Mostly everyone has access to some kind of "power-level" friend to get them from 1-30, and then they leech in an Abyssea pty from that point on. Or sometimes people team up with a friend or two, and just do Fields of Valor and don't care to put much effort in their gear. These days with the experience points bands and exp bonuses, you pretty much fly through the low levels anyways so gear isn't going to make or break you. It can help make things go faster, but these days it's faster anyways...

As for other AH stuff, i've never seen any issues with items not being on sale in Jeuno/Whitegate. Materials, food, higher lvl gear... I haven't seen a significant decrease in these items being up for sale.

[Usukane]

Just a thought.

Once the auction houses unite, or even before, that the 7 item listing on the auction house be lifted. This could also contribute to the problem of lack of items listed. Just an idea. =)