Gil Spam

[aesteval]

Yes and no.

If the prices of required items (such as Relic parts) are out of sync with what a non crafting character can generate within reasonable amounts of time, then the motivation to "cheat" by buying gil from ext sources is increased.

Prevalent spam and apparent inaction on SEs part only further incentivize people to take shortcuts

And if people wouldn't buy overpriced items then the price of the items would have to come down so as to sell anything.

In theory anyway. Things are a bit more complicated in that some markets just aren't competitive enough to bring down prices. But the entire issue is circular with no beginning and end and everyone is to blame in some way or another.

[Granyala]

Things are a bit more complicated in that some markets just aren't competitive enough to bring down prices.

Ding, ding, ding, we have a WINNER!

Now Go ahead and ask WHY there isn't enough competition and you will see that this is something only SE can fix.

How?
Lower the grind associated with crafting. (More supply)
Combat the Gil sellers and punish buyers harshly. (Less people with way too much gil to burn)

Net result: Prices will fall.

But here is the kicker: THEY DON'T CARE. JP servers are fine, NA/EU... doubt they give many flying intercourses about us.
They don't even care enough to give us proper control of our chats (Whitelist, custom filters, ignore by level function etc etc)

Just for kicks though:

What is the price on Chocobo for a "Dhalmel leather" (Lv 54 leather)? On my Cerberus, they are 10-12K a pop depending on the day.