Cash Shop: Where do you draw the line?

[Aegis]

There is an economic shift in the situation you describe which makes it unlikely. If RMT are selling 5 million gil for $20 then someone selling the $40 (platinum) ring will be asking for 10+ million gil. If RMTs then start selling 10 million for $20 then people start asking for 20 million gil for the ring. This will continue until it is unprofitable for the RMTs. This is a fairly effective way to mess up RMT profitability.

And when it becomes unprofitable for the RMT, the number of buyers will dry up (because far fewer people have 20 mill gil than 5 mill gil) which brings the price down again, which makes it profitable for RMT again.

And then SE introduces a new cash shop item that can be traded and the market spikes again.

All the while, more gil is entering the market, raising prices again.

So what? You're acting like 8 Ventures a day is a massive challenge to earn. Were I not constantly sending my Retainers off to farm up Shards and Crystals, I'd have a ridiculous excess of Ventures, and that's without even touching Company/Allied Seals. What I get from Dailies and the odd Treasure Chest is more than enough for me to set 4 Retainers off on an 18 hour Venture every day. It's more than enough for me to send 8 Retainers off...

Bottom line is, buying two extra Retainers doubles your rewards for Retainer Ventures.

Get dungeon chest drops from daily roulette, trade in for several thousand GC seals, never run out of ventures.

[Ultimatecalibur]

And when it becomes unprofitable for the RMT, the number of buyers will dry up (because far fewer people have 20 mill gil than 5 mill gil) which brings the price down again, which makes it profitable for RMT again.

And then SE introduces a new cash shop item that can be traded and the market spikes again.

All the while, more gil is entering the market, raising prices again.

That sounds true until you realize that the cash shop item sellers are those that would normally be RMT buyers. The system ends up killing RMTs because they end up competing with their own customer base. Every player selling cash shop items is someone who might have purchased gil from an RMT.