does it matter where my retainer is stationed? like which city?

[papichulo123]

does this affect anything?

[fireslash]

dont know .. i want to know too

[Lucke]

It affects which market board your items are sold from. This affects tax.

If you're Retainer is stationed in UD and you ask him/her to sell an item, it'll show as being sold in UD. Taxes are lowest for buyers buying that item in UD, and higher if bought from other city states. Other than that, doesn't really matter.

[ZodiacSoldier]

I know that what city they are in affect the tax rate you get hit with, not sure if it affect anything else.

[ChameleonMS]

Beyond the tax, there no difference. Just a personal opinion I have moved my retainers to Limsa and Ishgard. Limsa for general market stuff (closeness to Aetheryte) and Ishgard for all new 50+ stuff. Trying to make the purchasing easier on my customers.

[Zohar_Lahar]

You can talk with Retainer Vocates to see current tax rates.

[Seeri]

Cerberus has had reduced market tax in Ishgard ever since HW release.
Those 5% on every sale adds up rapidly so it's totally worth it to have a look at them every once in a while.

[Tint]

the idea is: if you are in limsa you can buy without paying the taxes from retainers in limsa. so it is probably cheaper for you to buy NOT the item with the lowest price on the market board because if you have to pay the taxes it is more expensive than the item for a few gil more (or you just teleport to the other city. the teleport is often ceaper than the taxes).

soo, the theory is you don't have to be the cheapest if your retainer is on the other market or you can have exactly the same price. but the whole system doesn't work. first because nobody understands or ignores it and second as i said you can simply teleport to the cheaper price. most people are in limsa and in ishgard because it's new... so i would say you should send your retainers to that markets...

[Magictrix]

the idea is: if you are in limsa you can buy without paying the taxes from retainers in limsa. so it is probably cheaper for you to buy NOT the item with the lowest price on the market board because if you have to pay the taxes it is more expensive than the item for a few gil more (or you just teleport to the other city. the teleport is often ceaper than the taxes).

soo, the theory is you don't have to be the cheapest if your retainer is on the other market or you can have exactly the same price. but the whole system doesn't work. first because nobody understands or ignores it and second as i said you can simply teleport to the cheaper price. most people are in limsa and in ishgard because it's new... so i would say you should send your retainers to that markets...

Apparently this is suddenly false now.
Tax is everywhere now, even the same city-retainerCity apparently.
So no point in shopping around anymore, or teleporting to avoid the tax on big ticket items / high quantity purchases. They just gonna cost a load more no matter what.

-Edit-
In otherwords, fk new players.

[Jojoya]

In otherwords, fk new players.

New players are the ones least affected by the buyer's tax. They were the ones most likely not to know how it worked and so were not taking advantage of it assuming they even had the gil to buy from the MB in the first place (most don't).

The players getting hit the hardest are the wealthiest players who were teleporting around to avoid the buyer's tax on their big purchases. And that's who SE needed to be targeting if the point of the buyer's tax is to have a gil sink to get some of the excess currency out of the economy. A new player might be paying a couple of thousand gil in tax. The wealthy players pay hundreds of thousands.