Now a year later, let's take a little history trip starting with IceDrake's post.
1) there are huge profits being made in all but the journeyman's armor (which sells slowly as most peeps find the quest fairly easy)
2) few people get past the Expert level as they do not have the a) patience, b) interest or c) friends necessary to complete the higher level quests.
3) Even buying all the droppable items in the bazaar, there is still a market for doubling your investment at the higher levels and sales are strong.
4) PoP to PoTime is getting less and less popular due to the DoN and DoDH expansions. Many peeps persued old world progressions only to get left by the wayside by their guilds or friends who abandoned them in favor of newer expansion persuits. These cultural pieces give peeps without the new expansions, or too poorly equipped to join their friends, an alternative to equip themselves or to make enough pp to buy the higher level tradeable gear from the newer expansions.
In summery, Cultural armor DID get popular and, a year later, is still enjoying strong interest.
Edited, Thu Jan 12 17:21:13 2006