As a lvl 25 you get:
250 for Recruit Status
500 for non-fighting quests required before joining
1,000 for Toto-Rak
300 for listening to Leader speech
300 for the quest before initiation
1,000 because it's Foundation Day

That's more than 3,000 you need for Chocobo. I doubt people would really want to spend on GC equipments apart from look, their stats suck. I do agree though that the manual should be purchase-able through DoH/DoL Guild Marks.