[Request] show visited NPC Vendor Prices and Locations

[Orenji-kun]

Now that I'm an experienced crafter, it doesn't happen to me too often, but there have been plenty of times when I've bought mats on the market board only to discover that they were priced WAY higher than an NPC vendor that I've visited before. Granted, I only have myself to blame for not being careful, but it's unrealistic to expect someone to fully memorize the inventories of each vendor they've encountered throughout the game. Also, I doubt the developers want to defend people who're just buying from an NPC, running over to their retainer, and waiting for the stack to sell to reap their profits off of forgetful players.
The solution would be fairly simple and easy to implement; just list the price and location of the last vendor you visited who sold this item. Also, if the devs are in a particularly good mood, they could even go so far as to do the same in the recipe book and items in your inventory.

[Orspeth]

I think any goods that can be bought off a vendor should be marked as such in the tooltips. Just say *vendor item* - it needn't say where. It'd cut down a lot on unscrupulous people making money off newer players.

[dspguy]

It is a convenience fee.

[Llyren]

I'll pay for the convenience.

A simpler way to limit this would be to have those npc's open up their own market board store. Priced so they get at least their regular vender fee back, or even better more.

[Orenji-kun]

It is a convenience fee.

I don't doubt that people would still pay for the convenience of shopping only on the MB, but the issue is that there are times when it is not worth it.

If I'm making one piece of equipment and I just need one or two mats, I'll gladly pay a few extra hundred gil if it means I don't have to teleport or run around to the right guild vendor, but if I need a whole stack of 99 pieces or I can get a number of different mats at the same vendor, clearly spending a minute running around or a few hundred gil to teleport is well worth it in comparison to paying several thousand gil.

The difference is in the knowledge; if it's worth it even with the knowledge that you can get it cheaper elsewhere then you're not getting ripped off. I don't see any reason why you'd think this is a bad idea unless you yourself like to rip others off and profit off of their imperfect memory.

[Llyren]

I have imperfect memory. Thing is the market board will cost me more in gil, where other methods of getting the item will cost me more in time. I will still pay the convenience fee.

This has nothing to do with ripping others off, well maybe in the other direction. I am paying them measly gill for their time. Time is expensive...

I want the items I am looking to buy to be on the market board, whether I can get them cheaper from an npc or not. If the cost is too much then I might go buy or harvest a stack or whatever myself. Let me pay the folks you accuse of ripping others off a fee for keeping items centrally located. So what if it is several thousands of gil extra...

If it seems like a rip off, then you might not be the target market.

[KisaiTenshi]

there have been plenty of times when I've bought mats on the market board only to discover that they were priced WAY higher than an NPC vendor that I've visited before.

It might defeat the purpose. The NPC's that sell materials, only exist because there might be circumstances where there are NO materials for sale. When you rank up your crafting, more stuff becomes available at the "guild NPC" that sells materials, but different guilds carry different materials, so unless you're ranking up all your crafting skills at the same time, you won't be able to buy everything from NPC's. But indeedy nearly every material you can harvest or process is available somewhere by some NPC.

Part of anti-botting is designing the game so that bots can not readily sell to NPC's (hence why items sell to NPC's at the lowest price on the marketboard) and players can't buy from NPC's and sell it on the marketboard. Like if you want to know if you're getting ripped off, look at the "sells for" value, as that's (usually) the lowest long-term price on the market.

Sometimes I have a bunch of materials that only sell for 1gil and I'll just NPC sell them instead. Because otherwise I have a bunch of materials sitting around taking up space.

[Orspeth]

No problem with selling anything and everything on the MB. I DO see a problem with selling vendor goods, unless they are clearly marked as such. Convenience is great - as long as people know that is what they are paying for. I will always and ever oppose scumbags who prey upon the innocent(or ignorant). Make your gil honestly, work hard, do your crafts and be happy.

[Milleus]

... there have been plenty of times when I've bought mats on the market board only to discover that they were priced WAY higher than an NPC vendor that I've visited before.

Ahh.. I have done this a few times too

I'm not sure if an in-game solution would be provided, but until then.. there are websites like xivdb.com where you can check if a particular material can be bought from the NPC.
It is indeed more time consuming, but at least it's a workaround to this problem.

[Squand]

They consider this a feature. People who have explored eorzea, and know the markets, (including NPC markets) have an advantage. I encourage people to do this.

With people saying, "I don't know how to make money in FF14" my response is often, "Just start watching NPC vendors on the marketboard." And then I give a few tips on things that I look at regularly.

I see what you're saying Orspeth, about praying on ignorance... but at 2 years in...who doesn't know NPCs sell items?

What if the solution was NPC sell rates fluctuate based on demand?

If you shout, there are enough rich bored crafters, that you could get just about anything for free. Should there be a tool tip everytime you buy something off the board that says, "Going to a crafter personally would be cheaper!" Everyone on the MB is gouging.

Imo, the market self corrects. No one will pay for an item that isn't worth it.