Market Board
A Market Board allows buying items listed for sale by other players through their retainers.
Market boards are interactable objects found in the marketplace and residential areas of each capital city, and marked on the map. All market boards access the same server-wide market, showing all items listed for sale in any city. When using the World Visit System to travel to another server, players can use the market board to access the destination server's market, though items cannot be listed for sale there.
Purchases are made with gil for a price set by the selling player, plus a 5% fee on top of the price. The player-based market often offers better deals and a wider selection than vendor NPCs. Sourcing crafting materials from the market can save a lot of time compared to acquiring them by hand, and equipment from the market can be a cost-effective upgrade, particularly at certain points in the leveling process.
The market board window allows for searching by item name, either via a name prefix or via a partial match anywhere in the name. Items can also be browsed in categories, optionally filtered by required level and suitable class/job, and added to a custom list of favorites and an ephemeral wish list.
Prosaic Advice
I've put a lot of my spare time into MMORPG's over the years and with every single one I've played, there has been a very successful system that players tend to universally love; a system that MMO's nowadays should never be without – the auction house. While it may have a completely different name from what it is typically called; yet it works all the same as you would expect.
The Market Boards can be located in all three of the major cities in the game and are relatively easy to spot, so I won't go into where they are specifically; just keep your eye open on your minimap and you will find them without a single issue.
Looking inside the Market Board itself, you will find a number of different ways to locate items that you might want to find specifically for your character; with the main one being the search bar. I'm sure you'll already have an idea on how this works, but just to reiterate - you go onto the search bar, type in whatever it is you're looking for, and within a second or two you will be treated to a list of a vast array of items or equipment that you searched up. Along the side of these items you will find the price of each and every single one of those items; all starting with the cheapest, going down to the most expensive.
Don't worry if you've gone into the Market Board, not knowing what it is you're looking for, as there are a number of different search parameters that you can input to look from a set of different items, just so you can check out items that you may want. For example, if you're only looking to get a new sword for your character, but you can't think of an epic piece of equipment because you're early in the game or you just don't know what you're looking for, you can use this feature to select the category you want to search through, and even what level you don't want it going any higher.
Are you no higher than level 20? Then just set the item level to be level 20 as the maximum and you'll no longer be bombarded with a bunch of items you can't even equip; let alone afford.
Obviously the Market Board isn't a necessary feature in this game for players to get the strongest equipment, but it definitely prevents a fair amount of the grind in this game from time to time if you know what it is you're looking for.
This feature especially helps in the instances where you're following a build for your favourite character or class, as it gives you the possibility to look up the exact items you want for that character and build it accordingly; without hoping and praying that you might get a lucky drop as you grind out for hours on end.
So, if you intend on playing this game, I'd recommend trying out the Market Board at least once, just so you can get an idea on just how useful the system really is.