I've suggested this before, but I think it got missed or ignored.
What does everyone think of this idea:
Funcom adds a new type of terminal. The terminal would be a Player Commerce terminal. Someone selling an item can access the terminal, set the price they want for the item, submit the item to the terminal, and walk away. The seller pays a small fee (and I mean small, something like a tiny percentage of the selling price of an item they're offering) every day they have an item to sell in the Player Commerce terminal.
Now, a player who wants to see what other people have to offer accesses the terminal, selects the item, and purchases it. The credits for the purchase get deposited directly into the sellers bank account and the seller receives a message saying the item has been sold.
I think this would be great because now a crowd of people with items to sell don't have to sit in one particular area and camp while the server processes a ton of messages to broadcast from a script of the items for sale. 2 birds with 1 stone.
I've seen this concept used by other MMORPG's (i.e. Ultima Online NPC Shopkeeps that can be purchased by a Player) when they experienced similar problems when they started. It works very well for them. This may be a good time to consider it Funcom.
Soulmartyr