Quote Originally Posted by Nohmaan View Post
That would only be true if NPCs sold every item, which I don't believe they do.
They sell a LOT of basic crafting material and several high end equipment (although nothing crazy). Also the Company Stores sell a fair bit of high-end gear as well. These are some of the balances and checks put in to help put some controls on min/max prices of items.

So although they do not have a 100% hold on all aspects of the economy (which would really limit the freedom of a player economy) they do have enough controls to keep it from spinning out of wild control.

For example, you will never sew Dew Thread sell for insane prices (as you can buy it from the shops). Likewise you will not see Undyed Velveteen sell for a lot as it is also sold in the shops.

This in turns puts a soft cap on the cost of a lot of weaver made items in the level 30-40 range.

Likewise, you can buy Iron and Steel ingot in shops, so items made from those will have a controlled upper cost.

It's really only when you start getting to Level 50ish gear that there are less price controls in place, and more exposed market economy. This is good for new people (they have safe prices at low level) and high people (they can take advantage of the market for selling, or use some of their gil they earned when buying).

(And this too is balanced in a way with drops from dungeons/primals/etc. Why pay 10M for an Ivory Staff when you can get something from Ifrit/Moogle/Garuda or DH/AV/GC. Which is part of the reason why you can get an Ivory Staff cheap, even if it is the ONLY 2-h THM /BLM craftable weapon out there).