I would suggest doing away with gear breaks. Although the money spent on repairing gear insures that your company makes money, doing away with gear breaks means that as players get better gear they then post on the auction house for large prices.. This means, players will have options for larger purchases over time, which will inspire players to spend money to purchase them. This will be especially apparent when someone gets a rare drop that is better then a rare equip that they already have. Any player with sense will sell rare equip for large gold portions.