I like the risk/reward aspect here as much as I like the 100% success rate for materia #1.

I haven't heard for sure one way or the other, but I'm going to assume that materia can be traded and bought/sold. This concept really seems to be backwards to the whole premise behind materia. I would think that since a materia I generate from my old gear is essentially my memories of past battles, etc, then not only how, but why would I want to give those memories to someone else? Shouldn't my memories be my own? (i.e. Exclusive)

We've all seen how taking on the memories of another as one's own can really screw with a person. *cough*Cloud*cough*