its been said a 100 times guild tagging was the greatest thing and the worse for this game.. great cause it ment it stopped the thieves and damn there was alot of them and worse because it was the games natural way to get rid of stuff everyone had to own there own so that kept the price of everything up and two it rid the game of gear when a player stopped playing ..
that one simple act alone destroyed the markets
That is the true, underlying problem. Guild-tagging is great against thievery, but has caused an incredible increase in begging and free-riding. I'm glad that I "grew up" in FS when not everything was served on a silver platter, and before guilds started to pay FSPs for the "services" of their members ... and I'm proud that I can say that most gear I ever used was my own. Luckily my guildmates think the same way and we have decided to go back to what we call the "Teachings of Olde": we don't provide gear (with the exception of a few pieces of buffing gear). If that means that we will always remain a small guild because most players prefer to have dinner served instead of learning to cook, then so be it.
The drop in market prices, not only regarding SE items, can mostly be explained by a drop in demand. It is simply the way markets work, in the real world and virtually. Why buy when you can get everything for free from your guild storage?