Wants and Needles

One allowance here buys 207,330 EXP, which places it 3rd of the 3 Lv 60 Goldsmith tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, Play It by Ear, returns 376,120 EXP for the same allowance, 81% more.

Across that rung the return runs from 207,330 EXP to 376,120 EXP per allowance — 3 distinct figures spanning 81%, so the wrong pick leaves 168,790 EXP of the allowance unspent.

On whether to wait: the best Lv 62 Goldsmith tradecraft leve returns 486,300 EXP per allowance, 29% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 58 rung behind tops out at 427,710 EXP.

At Lv 60 this data holds 27 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 24 Tradecraft ones average 415,953 EXP per allowance, the 3 Fieldcraft ones 1,098,783 EXP, which puts this leve 50% below its own category's average.

Bombfish Needle ×1 is a Lv 61 Goldsmith recipe, 2 steps deep through 2 intermediates, costing 11 units of raw material and 11 crystals.

Handing that in returns 18,848 EXP and 61 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows, and the tree needs Carpenter and Goldsmith.

The record carries a repeats value of 2. This site reads that as 2 further turn-ins on the same leve — an assumption, because the source data defines no meaning for the field — which would put the ceiling at 621,990 EXP and 2,028 gil for the 1 allowance it costs, or 621,990 EXP per allowance.