In regards to the whole rare/ex issue, what I meant by that is not it's importance or lack of importance, but rather that availibility of an alternative means of obtaining said item. In addition, as RdmKelton said, for such items, you cannot sell them to obtain gil, and hence it is for personal use only.
I also didn't say that you should only help with 3 coffers and be done with it. I only said that it's in some way paying back to the community. I meant it as something that everyone's who's done it before can relate to. I personally have helped with about 10 coffer hunts, and I'm not even finished with my own AF yet.
To make a bigger analogy, I want a Noble's Tunic, the cloth is an HNM drop, and only an HNM drop. Since I'm not currently in an HNM LS, would it be fair for me to go up to a stranger in such an LS and say, hey, I need a Shining Cloth (I belive that's the right cloth), wanna help me get one for free? Granted the cloth is worth 3 times the value of the claw, and such a battle takes many times longer to even get together, no less do, but by your principles (you, in the general sense of those who feel the claw help should be gotten for free, rather than any one specifically) even if they were to take such a request, they should not charge for it?
Perhaps someone out there may be willing to do this service for free, but unless they're willing to do it on a consistant basis, you still have to first, find such a person (along with their friends who are also willing to do it for free) and then catch them when they're not busy. These people are performing a service, and they're offering what for most people, is the easiest and least expensive way to obtain a claw. Consider the time it would take to find 5 separate level 75 (or perhaps near that) BLMs, to do this for free, would you not rather choose to pay a small fee than do this? Not to mention, random 75 BLMs may not all have the experience at this particular KSNM to guarantee a win.
Edited, Wed Jun 8 17:43:34 2005 by Tarundi