Firestreak, as amusing as your graphic is, there is a minor diference between a Crawler, and a Notorious Monster. As well as somone's Moblin Helm scenario.
Crawlers are abundant. As are Moblins. If you Get a crawler stolen from you, you can walk thirty seconds away and get another. Where the average NM pops 3,000 times a year, your average crawler spawn (Just one spawn point) has the potential to spawn roughly 35,000 times a year. It's not a Rare occurance like a NM is. Same thing with the Moblin helms and crafting Items. There is a huge difference between camping th eAH for an item that you could in theory atain very easily, and it's rarity is not really a factor. However, Items such as a Damascus Ingot or Shining cloth generally fall into the same catigory as a NM drop, even though they are crafting items, however though.. people don't tend to waste thier time on those drops until they have a higher chance at a HQ, I.E. they do wait until they are several levels above the synth. In most cases synths are a waste of gil unless you HQ. SO if you relate that to the original topic, if a Crafter wants to spend 3,000,000 G on a synth that is 3 levels above them, to produce an item that is worth 2,500,000 G, for the 1:1,000 chance they can produce an item that is worth 4,000,000 G, they are indeed wasting thier time, and really shoudn't complain that they just wasted 500,000 G in materials. However, I give them credit for trying, albeit a hopeless cause.
Some of you tapped in on a particular facit of this discussion that I don't thing you fully realized. Yes, you are wasting a kill by not fully taking advantage of your resources (I.E you gots no TH II.) And yet you lash out at me because even with TH II there would be a rise in prices, and yes, that is the case, because as a thief, when ever I waste my time and watch some non-TH II armed person kill and get no drop, that means I just saw the over all rarity go up. In essence you have helped me decide my asking price. If I cam VE, and get a 80% drop rate, and camp it 24/7 for a week and in that time watch a WHM/WAR capture 80% of the kills by luck and attain maybe 4 pins, even though I only got 20% of the captures, I still got twice as many pins than my buddy the WHM/WAR... But in that time very few were going up on the market, because the kills were spent by somone less optimized. Therefore, i see there are none on the AH, I see there is going to be less on the AH, and I also see that I am in charge od 66% of the market. And since, i spent the same time wasting my time watching somone else kill and not get drop time after time, I am going to compensate myself for my losses. Mainly because the demand is there, and I am in control. Had I had more thieves there competeing and there were more drops peut into the AH, and I was only in control of 10% of the market, my pricing may be a little different. So stop complaining when I raise the Price because your buddies made it more rare, supply and demand.
Competition comes from success, not failure. You want me to lower my prices? Give me a reason to. You want me to lower the price of the Emperor's Hairpin? Well considering that that particular bug dies pretty much as soon as it spawns, the only thing you can do to decrease the rarity of the item, is to raise your chances of getting the item.
So don't get pissed at me and Complain that the prices are going up on select items. Quit whining. Go out and camp it if you don't want to pay, in doing so you might pull your heads out of your asses long enough to realize WHY it costs so much.