Not being able to buy single items from a stack on the marketward.

[Besamel]

The system shouldn't allow you to buy a single item out of a stack, it should honour the stack size that the seller posted. Just like you can't walk into a real store, open say a multi-pack of chips and buy one of the individual packets.
The market could do with some better tools for sellers to manage their wares, but it means that some effort is required to use the market effectively - and I believe that this is a good thing.

[Jinko]

The system shouldn't allow you to buy a single item out of a stack, it should honour the stack size that the seller posted. Just like you can't walk into a real store, open say a multi-pack of chips and buy one of the individual packets.
The market could do with some better tools for sellers to manage their wares, but it means that some effort is required to use the market effectively - and I believe that this is a good thing.

And what if a seller "wants" to sell singles from a stack ?
What if a real store wanted to do that, say a market stall selling apples by quantity or selling saffron by weight.

[Loani]

The system shouldn't allow you to buy a single item out of a stack, it should honour the stack size that the seller posted. Just like you can't walk into a real store, open say a multi-pack of chips and buy one of the individual packets.
The market could do with some better tools for sellers to manage their wares, but it means that some effort is required to use the market effectively - and I believe that this is a good thing.

If i go to real market and seller tries to sell me a crate of apples instead of 1kg, then i just move on. Same in game, if i just need 3 items and lowest stack is 20, then seller wont get anything from me. I'll just harvest myself (yes, i know its time consuming, but i hate buying random amounts) or wait for right amount from another seller.

[Felix7007]

That's pretty much why I'd like them to change it to something like this;

• When selling items you have the option of giving your Retainer the entire stack to sell, but having them only sell a designated amount of that stack each time.
• For example, I put 99 pieces of Copper Ore up to sell at 10 Gil a piece, but tell my Retainer to only sell a stack of 3 each time.
• That stack sells for 30 Gil, and my Retainer takes another 3 pieces of Ore from the original stack (now at 96) to sell, until the whole original stack is sold.
• The total amount in the stack, not the sale amount, could be displayed in brackets on the Market Board/Retainer menus (eg, Copper Ore 3(99) 10G).

People still can't buy subsections of what the seller puts up, so I don't think there should be any problem with it there. All it would mean is the seller can adjust the price of a large quantity in one go, as well as not having several small stacks taking up a lot of space (something I currently suffer from). That should also mean the Market Boards would clear up a bit, currently I'm seeing a lot of 'spam' from the same Retainer selling the exact same thing multiple times, which there would be no reason for with the system I propose.

Now we are really starting to think and make good ideas. I believe this would also be a good solution. Good job!

Designating how much of a stack a buyer can buy at one time is as down the middle as it gets. It lets people who want buying singles from a stack and people who want sell stack only, have what they want.

[Almalexia]

The system shouldn't allow you to buy a single item out of a stack, it should honour the stack size that the seller posted. Just like you can't walk into a real store, open say a multi-pack of chips and buy one of the individual packets.

It's not a 7-11. It's a bazaar.

[Felix7007]

I do not like all the comparison posts. Saying that it's like a grocery store, or you can't open a box of raisins and buy just one. This is a digital world in which there are no physical constraints. We have the opportunity to be unbound by physical restrictions like a box or a sac. Buying and selling goods can be in whatever form we make it.

That is why it's senseless to constrain people to buy stack only because there is no physical barrier justifying it.

Can't buy singles from a stack? Why can't we? It's not like you have to cut open a digital sac to just buy a single from within the sac.

Putting world like physical constraints within a virtual space is absurd.

Limiting while limitless is absurd.

[Besamel]

Putting world like physical constraints within a virtual space is absurd.

I did not do a grocery store comparison to highlight physical constraints, but more that it is up to the seller what quantities their goods are packaged in, and the buyer can take it or leave it.

I guess my concern is that the market would be reduced to a glorified vendor, with the players just replenishing the stores.

[SoulsGuardian]

This was raised on the beta forums before they were locked and then later closed, so I would like to re-raise this point as I feel it is important to the economy in FFXIV.

As of phase 4 we were unable to buy single items from the MW if the seller had sold them as a stack.
In 1.0 it was possible to do this and in my opinion this is a step back in terms of functionality and ease of use.
A lot of people were complaining about this in /shout /say and /linkshell chat because it restricted their plans to level crafting classes and make items in general.

A response from the dev team would be appreciated as to why they took this approach and whether they have any plan to change it.

As far as I have read it is to maintain a balanced economy, same goes for spiritbonded gear which can be turned into materia.
I don't think this is a big deal, one can always buy the stack, use the item(s) you need, resale the non required items.

[Felix7007]

I don't think this is a big deal, one can always buy the stack, use the item(s) you need, resale the non required items.

But then you waste retainer slots trying to sell extra mats instead of your end product. It is also less likely you sell the extra mats for more than you purchased them for. Inefficient.

[Shayem]

I'm glad this is posted somewhere on the forums. It is so frustrating to go in to buy something and have someone have 99 listed and I only need 10... I should be able to buy 10 of them and leave 89 for other people to buy. I had to go in and list all my materia to sell as singles... Who is going to buy 7 materia? I should be able to put up my 7 materia and let people pick out however many they want to buy SE please implement.