Walking on Pins and Needles

One allowance here buys 87,840 EXP, which places it 3rd of the 3 Lv 54 Carpenter tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, The Darkest Hearth, returns 473,220 EXP for the same allowance, 439% more.

Across that rung the return runs from 87,840 EXP to 473,220 EXP per allowance — 3 distinct figures spanning 439%, so the wrong pick leaves 385,380 EXP of the allowance unspent.

On whether to wait: the best Lv 56 Carpenter tradecraft leve returns 656,800 EXP per allowance, 39% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 52 rung behind tops out at 423,990 EXP.

At Lv 54 this data holds 54 leves paying EXP across 3 categories: the 24 Tradecraft ones average 400,590 EXP per allowance, the 3 Fieldcraft ones 938,680 EXP and the 27 Grand Company ones 205,186 EXP, which puts this leve 78% below its own category's average.

Dark Chestnut Lumber ×1 is a Lv 54 Carpenter recipe, a single step, costing 5 units of raw material and 4 crystals.

Handing that in returns 17,568 EXP and 63 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.

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 263,520 EXP and 945 gil for the 1 allowance it costs, or 263,520 EXP per allowance.