Or do the opposite. On my server, Det / Crit IV materias went from 550k to 300K in a couple of months. Buy 20 of each and you can make the prices start all over from 550k again and get a fair margin. MANY players can afford doing this.


About those crafted gear some mentionned. As in crafter's i60 sets. On my server you can usually buy those for an average of 1,2m ALREADY MELDED. Take the Artisan's Apron, for instance, it requieres mastercraft demimat, along with other quite expensive materials. MCD itself, on my server is worth roughly 300k. It also takes 3 Elcahtl Sealant (3x70k), Vany Silk (25k).
Now what does it take to the seller to meld them ?
- craftmanship IV x3 : 600k in total
- Control IV : 200k
CP III : 5K

Added altogether, selling this fully melded piece of gear costs no less than 1,340m gils. Considering the 1,2m selling price, believe me, they aren't making much profit, if at all. Their only chance to make profit from it would be to gather the mats themselves and not buy them, which takes an incredible amount of time and expenses. To get the MCD you need to desynth at high level, that includes failining many times, loss of mats to level up... Elcahtl Sealant requieres the highest rank achievable in Ixali quests. And only a limited number of players have the patience to reach that.
Same goes for the materias, if you're lucky you can make them in an hour, if not, it would take 2 days non-stop of farming. All that considered, 1,2m is definitely not expensive. Not everyone can afford them, but what would be the point if any lambda players could anyway ? If that were to happen, Squenix might as well sell those gears from NPC..