The repair system in this game is retarded. Just imagine end game content...

you are in the middle of a raid instance which is timed, and your tanks gear starts to break, he is nearly useless, and you have to stop. he trades someone else in the raid items, has to put the item in his bazzar, they fix it, time has been wasted, and slowed everything down greatly. Its just stupid IMO.

I do agree with the OP too. I leveled to 20 in a day. But i couldn't repair the shit i used to resell it till i was 30 like a week later! There is a massive inbalance in leveling speed/crafting speed for the application of player based repairs, And yes the NPC is a massive rip off. Im pretty sure no one even goes near that guy unless they want the ghetto crafting buff.