Originally Posted by
RedAffinity
They wanted to add in a more life-like element to buying/selling. It was a design on paper that looked great, but in practice clearly fails.
I still think the market ward system is fantastic, when coupled with a TRUE menu-style auction house. Market wards can be free places for players to park their retainers to sell high ticket or rare items they would rather not sell and get taxed in the Auction House. This system already existed through community in FFXI where players stood outside Battalia Downs or wherver it was on each server, and set their bazaars and sold high ticket items to avoid the high tax of the auction house.
The Market Wards would only serve as a seperate instanced location, organized, for players to sell their goods via bazaar. If other players wanted to, they could go browsing around for stuff. Sometimes it's fun to do this.