Retainers, confirmed, you have to pay for them.

[FoxiLady]

Funny thing is, do people really need to carry all grades? Like what gear would people wear under 20 on a serious note? Who says you NEED to carry them? Just buy or get what you need use it and voila you still have 35 spaces in your inventory. Using your head to make/save space (also even with those 35 spaces I would still have 131 space) :P. It's still a non issue personally.

OMG Star you are being far too pragmatic Of course we all carry the lvl 1-5 *5 spaces* items to meld with, we also keep 1 of every materia in our bag JUST IN CASE we need it. So of course we have to carry every lvl of every craft JUST IN CASE we need it /sarcasmoff