I've suggested that low level players get a spice mill and grind up a few of each spice for auction and xp. There is nothing wrong with selling one pinch of salt on auction for 10-12c. It helps new people who have just gotten basic cooking and a fry pay actually make a bun without having to go through the frustration of finding spice, getting a spice mill, maybe getting the spice skill.
It's possible that the smaller amounts are up, but lost in the more expensive 2nd page that you can't get to. (Or at least, I haven't figured out how to get to it.)
I agree tho', when I first need to make something, and the missing ingredient is in a stack of 250 at a price I can't afford, it just makes me bounce my forehead (gently) off my keyboard.
I don't understand why we can't get to the next page. In fact, in my experience, the first page is often covered with small quantities from one seller. If I want to know how much is really available to buy and in what size batches, I'd have to buy some of the small batches just to see who and what else is available to buy from.
It's always in the other direction for what I need, Treesa =)
To get started though, I posted a number of 5 unit and single unit salts to Auction, they seem to be disappearing at high speed, and to different glitches.
I'll post some more tomorrow after I've been on a spice run.
One problem is that it takes as long to create an auction for 10 salts as it does to create an auction for 250 salts. So selling 250 salts in batches of 10 takes me 25 times as long, and frankly, I (and presumably others) can't be bothered, even if I can crank up the margin on the smaller quantities; I'd rather be playing the game...
I think this would be easy to fix, though... (and maybe the devs could add a 'sort by quantity' in addition to 'sort by price' while they're at it...)
I almost always place Auctions on the "corner grocery" principle. I keep the total price below 50c when possible, and almost always below 100, and keep quantities between 2 and 4.
This is, of course an expensive (both time and currants) way to sell stuff, since the 3c fee is collected for each auction.
However, my auctions quite often are unfindable, since the high-volume sellers and buyers, who can charge a very low price per piece, usually flood the front page soon after I post, and my auction, which would almost always meet this request, cannot be found. It just sits there hidden from people who may not be buying based on lowest price per item. If you are looking for 'lowest quantity' or 'lowest out-of-pocket cost', you're out of luck. It's certainly not because people aren't posting those auctions.
There is nothing stopping you from creating auctions in those quantities, Walla Walla. Perhaps you can corner the market of small-quantity purchases. =D