Today, I learned new things about materia:

[Shougun]

There is a crown you can earn for melding so you can use those cheap materia that were about to meet the vendor onto some cheap gear instead (or go gil blazing for some fancy penta meld gear you'll actually use lol).

• https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/I_Got_This! (penta meld)
• https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w..._Materia_World (convert 1k items into materia)
• https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w...teria_Hysteria (affix 1k materia)

Also you can combine materia for a /chance/ at a different better materia (even different type of materia).

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w..._Transmutation