Market Ward The Market Wards were special districts in the cities of " Final Fantasy XIV " where adventurers could meet to buy and sell goods , or summon their retainer to operate a bazaar stall . Each city - state had market wards composed of twenty identical areas that players could enter and leave at their leisure . Within each ward , there were 10 ' stands ' that could be leased for one day for varying amounts of gil . A leased stand could have its appearance customized , and was a good method to gain visibility on a crowded ward . The wards were eventually radically redesigned with the release of the game ' s " Realm Reborn " update ; see below . Ward Types . Wards were distinguished by item type ; selling items in the correct wards would incur a huge tax decrease ( 2 % ) , while ' wrong ' items still had 5 % tax . Additionally , while they were collectively called " Market Wards " in each city , Ul ' dah ' s and Gridania ' s wards were called " Rows " and " Dens " respectively . ( I . E . Upper Tailor ' s Row , Upper Tailor ' s Den ) . Limsa Lominsa ' s were simply called " Wards " . This may have been done to help distinguish the locations when communicating between the user and the server , or simply for flavor . Mercantile House . The Mercantile Houses were added as a means to expand access to the market wards . The Mercantile House of any nation could be entered from any other nation , making it easier to buy and sell without having to travel . The Mercantile House offered a Retainer Bell , an NPC shop , a repair stall , and search counters . The Mercantile Houses share the entrances of the Market Wards . On their implementation , players could dispatch their retainers to a ward of their choice ( assuming it wasn ' t full ) . Ironically all NPC repairmen would only repair equipment to 99 % condition , just shy of the 100 % condition requirement for trading and selling , making the addition of one to each Mercantile House not as convenient as it seemed . Ward Search . Originally the Market Wards had no ward - wide search function at all , and players would be forced to check each and every retainer and stall to find the item they desired , assuming it was present at all . In a later patch , the ability to search for specific items within a ward was added . To do so , a player needed to enter the wards or simply visit the Mercantile House of that ward . Players could search using item names , rather than having to dig through the various categories as per the older interface . It was possible to buy directly from the search counter , although there was a proportional tax that does not exceed 4 , 000 gil . Doing so also caused everything in the area to refresh , and a player could only make one purchase at a time this way . " Final Fantasy XIV : A Realm Reborn " . The market " wards " , as they existed in 1 . 0 , were all but completely obliterated in the game ' s redesign ; while they did add flavor and were a somewhat unique way of managing a player economy , Naoki Yoshida ' s team agreed with much of the playerbase that they were too cumbersome to use in practice . There is now a single market ward in each city , fully integrated into the general city map , which now plays host to the market " boards " , which allow players to access the player - driven auction house system , as well as a number of NPC merchants who sell various basic necessities . The market boards provide virtually all of the services the old retainer - based system did , but in a single , much faster and easier - to - use interface .