MDenham the Shady wrote:
Keep in mind that once you have the item, you don't have to actually sell it - just hit up NPCs, pick it once so it shows the price...[snip]
Oh, I know. But that requires a level of selfless dedication I don't trust to find in most players, and certainly wouldn't be capable of offering myself. "What's that? You want me to return your iron ore? Okay. You're 889th in line to receive your item back, just as soon as the first 888 people clear their delivery boxes -- 8 at a time."
And this ignores the fact that, keeping a mule at zero fame (and therefore minus a mog safe expansion), your best option for storage is 40 water jugs: giving a total of 10 mog safe + 80 storage + 30 inventory for 120 slots total.
Promising to return all donated items would result in a horrendous backlog to return, and would either require a strong coordinated effort by those making temporary donations to hand the item over at a predetermined time and place (to be returned immediately), or a larger number of people participating with zero fame mules.
Of course, if people really wanted to help with more specialized items, they could make their own zero fame mules, mail items to themselves, then report the results to a central collection resource. While I know my wife would trust me to check the price on her Noble's Tunic; I wouldn't expect other people to feel the same.