I don't like that they took away the option to exchange basic materials for reputation for either the Vanguard faction or the Crucible faction.
Plus it will give people something to do with all the basic materials that they have but don't have any use for them.
It would also be nice if you could turn-in a custom amount of each basic material; For example, let's say that they make it so that each individual Spinmetal you collect is worth +3Rep Points, so if you turned in 10 Spinmetals you would get +30Rep Points, and if you turned in 21 Spinmetals you would get +63Rep Points.
It might be smart for them to make each basic material worth more based on how early you can get it in the Story; the +3Rep for Spinmetal was just an example.
If they do bring this feature back, I think that they should also keep the feature where you can trade in either Vanguard Marks or Crucible Marks for materials.
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I used to go on 3+ hour farming runs just for the marks, now I have so much material that I have started storing it because it is just a waste of space and I have not gone on a farming run since they removed this feature.