you also have to remember the way the items are priced through the npc now. they already say what they think some items are worth and people are way below that in the wards. go check the prices the npc's are selling items and then go check the vast majority against the going rate in the wards now. 95% of the time the prices in the wards are only a fraction of the cost you would be getting it from the npc.

just go to one of the guilds(like the blacksmith guild) and check out the prices on its nuggets/ingots. after you get done with that go to the wards and check the prices there. now consider every item in the game increasing by the same percentage because the npc's had control of the pricing of every item in the game. the way the wards are setup now is a much better system than the one you are proposing.

that's not saying i like the wards. i don't like the physical retainers as they just make things more of a headache and a higher server load than needed. i'd be more of a they should be in stasis unless you are actually putting items in or taking items out of them. more of like chest in your inn room that has your items, but it is only there when you are there and not rendered otherwise. i'd personally like that much better with the wards being just a buy from a place like they have the item search setup in the merchant areas. you put your items into your retainers, but the selling is done through the search menu's at the merchant counter and not physically from a retainer.