Does Server Population Influence NPC Retailer Prices?

Just curious if NPC retailers on a sparsely populated server would have lower prices? Maybe I'm playing wrong, but I don't see how low level players are supposed to be able to afford new gear.

Yup, its correct. Because the market in servers less populated can become saturated very easy. In these servers i'd suggest you to sell only different items (if all 10 can be different, better for you) and, unless there's none of that item selling, try and sell a bit cheaper.

The way i sell stuff is: Material cost + Equip rank -30% if its leve drop -30% if its grind material. Because stuff used for grinding and leve rewards are always overflowing the market.

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Originally Posted by Lienn

Yup, its correct. Because the market in servers less populated can become saturated very easy. In these servers i'd suggest you to sell only different items (if all 10 can be different, better for you) and, unless there's none of that item selling, try and sell a bit cheaper.

The way i sell stuff is: Material cost + Equip rank -30% if its leve drop -30% if its grind material. Because stuff used for grinding and leve rewards are always overflowing the market.

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You are referring to you retainers and PC retainers... The OP asked about NPC retailers (as in vendor).

To answer the question, I don't know if the prices are affected by the population but I would think not. I also thought at first that gears from NPC were very expensive but as you level up and do quests and leves you get more Gils (WAY more gils) that you would need to gear up. Also, gears as of right now is not THAT vital, so you don't have to buy a whole new set of gears every level.

My advise would be to just do leves when you can to earn gils, get gears from quests and buy the gears you need from the market wards (which are PC sold items) where you will find low level gears for cheap.

Boo...correct...i misread. My bad ^^: I thought you were talking about "retainer" and not "retailer".

Sorreh!

The NPC retailer prices are too high for the items of gear they are selling full stop. The prices do not change in accordance with server populations, as far as I know or else the prices listed on NPC items on FFXIV YG would be forever in flux, and they're not.

In answer to your "How can new players afford gear?" question. They can't do it with NPC items. You have to do it by way of earning gil from leves (or crafting w/e), and gearing up through leve rewards, which are often quite good actually, even if the gear colours are a little off.

The other thing mentioned by Perrin is purchasing items from PCs. That is the best way to go as equivalent items ought to be substantially cheaper by comparison at a retainer than from an NPC retailer.

Also, as a small note, and someone will probably disagree with me, while leveling if you find a higher level item that is cheaper than a lower level item (it's happened to me often enough), go ahead and buy it and use it. Yes, it will be gimped because it's the wrong level, but if the alternative is nothing at all, I would choose the lesser of two evils. In addition, at some point that item will be the right level anyhow so you'll get good full use of it eventually.

Well using a higher ranked gear can be arguable hehe :P because it can end up costing a lot just with repairs since it will get broken a real fast.

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Originally Posted by Perrin_Aybarra

Well using a higher ranked gear can be arguable hehe :P because it can end up costing a lot just with repairs since it will get broken a real fast.

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There is truth to that ya.

The answer is no.

And how can a new player not afford something that only costs 1~2k in gil? I don't get this at all. By the time you're rank 10, you should already have at least 50k in gil.

High NPC prices are not uncommon for XI players.
I don't know if SE is trying to give us an idea of pricing or what but the prices do seem very inflated.
At the very worst, all this does is promote a player market for these same items.