Seriously SE add an AH system!

[Alhanelem]

Are you one of the people keeping your retainer in uldah's wards permanently so that you don't have the "wards full" problem?

Nope. in fact, my retainer is out of the wards more often than it's in, because I don't sell things very often.

I don't see why it is not possible to have ONE are with THREE search npcs

My understanding is that the merchant houses are a temporary solution and after 2.0 all three cities will be integrated into a single search system.