Problem: Items are Worthless

[sWhiteboy]

In a competitive market, the seller does not set the price. That's what OP wants to do.

Here's a basic outline of what happens in an open market: A producer recognizes a product that can be sold for a profit, then they produce it; other producers recognize that there is profit to be made, then they also produce said product; the market is now flooded, causing the price to tank; the producers stop producing and prices normalize.

I suggest that the OP sell their stock and move to an unsaturated product.

[Raijin]

In a competitive market, the seller does not set the price. That's what OP wants to do.

Here's a basic outline of what happens in an open market: A producer recognizes a product that can be sold for a profit, then they produce it; other producers recognize that there is profit to be made, then they also produce said product; the market is now flooded, causing the price to tank; the producers stop producing and prices normalize.

I suggest that the OP sell their stock and move to an unsaturated product.

that is correct, however in an economy things are perishable, decaying, outdated. This is not occurring in this economy and all items that are being made arent taken out of the market, so preety much every item that can be flooded to hell i already with a very limited profit margin or negative profit margin.

[JakeRoon]

that is correct, however in an economy things are perishable, decaying, outdated. This is not occurring in this economy and all items that are being made arent taken out of the market, so preety much every item that can be flooded to hell i already with a very limited profit margin or negative profit margin.

Both of these are solid and valid points, other games have solved this problem.

While some of the item do in fact perish when a player quits or decides to NPC an item (which the OP could simply buy all the NQ and NPC them if she was so inclined to "fix" the market)....but this is rare.

Other games solution is to make some weapons/armor "customized" once equipped , or for WoW players "binds on equip"; meaning once the item is used by a player it cannot be sold. I know a lot of you may think that's kinda harsh for the buyer, but it's really not that bad because prices are much more stable. IE: only those who NEED the item buy it usually. Once the item is no longer useful it can be sold to an NPC (taken out of the system) for a FAIR price (not a total slap in the face) allowing players to recoop about 50% of what they should have paid for the item; which in turn allows them to purchase a newer weapon/armor from the crafter. It's a fair, and useful system; that makes sense. (How can a Roegedyn, buy, re-use, and wear the same acton that was customized and worn by a Lalafell?)

Again, as with most of my posts I'll mention.....this isn't rocket science....these methods to combat the problems the OPer and other see have been around for a decade already. SE just didn't bother to do their homework.

EDIT:
I'll also add in that the only way to have a stable market is to make most every item/weapon/armor available at NPC's for 5 times the crafting costs (or a fair price for base mats) thus making the player sellers unable to over inflate the price of that item, yet keeping the crafting profitable when the crafter sells the item under the NPC price. In turn players prefer to buy from crafters because they should get a steep discount on the item by doing so.

If a player base attempts to over-inflate the price of a base martial, rather than allowing the trickle down exponentially inflate prices of crafted items; the crafters simply go purchase the item from the NPC until the player base realizes no is gonna buy that item at such a ridiculous price.

Again, this isn't a new idea, or speculation, or one that "may or may not" work....it's a system that has been in place in many MMO's with success for quite a few years.

[Sephr]

Personally, I can totally agree with what's been said a lot here, the lack of perishables and easy introducing new items is only going to degrade the market as we go on.

However, I think there's got to be a better solution that the absurdity of merging 512 bows (which not only makes no sense, but is also an incredibly dull grind). I'm not one to propose some radical new system, especially as I really don't feel like donating the time to it as you so generously have. However, I'm confident there's a better way of doing it.

It just feels like a system suggestion that's made by someone tailoring it to themselves and the situation they're in personally, is the main impression I get.

EDIT: I also don't agree with a bind-on-equip system being added personally, WoW's economy might work relatively well, but the crafting system is an awful example of MMO success being as it becomes near-redundant after the first 3ish months of the game, as everyone who has the items crafted already does and cannot pass them on. There's no circulation outside of the 'service' crafts such as enchanting where new items are constantly requiring new upgrades.

The suggestion of making gear available from NPCs seems good for lower levels perhaps, a decent way of removing some gil from the economy (5x is a bit steep) whilst pushing people to buy from players (although is that likely to change anything? Most people use the wards to buy everything anyway).
Given the state of gil at the moment, it might not actually be that hard to generate enough to be 5x the crafted value of an item, so introducing later items to NPCs might undervalue them in the long-run