Equipment - Quested stuff getting tatteredFollow

Ok, so I'm halfway through level 15 warrior and my chainmail body from Dangorel (or whatever his name is :P) is getting a bit too small for me. I've upgraded to iron chainmail (not the brigadine, the other one) as well as the rest of my armor pieces. From a miser standpoint, I wasted silver since the brigadine are the same as the other chainmail. But I like to have complete sets, rather than mismatched armor. -_-;

Here's my dilemma. The body, forearms and boots had status bonuses to them. I am completely lacking in any status boosting eq, aside from rings, earrings, belts and bracelets {I am teh(sic) metrosexual! j/k}. I'd like to know if I made the right decision in chucking my good old stuff (I believe I still have the chainmail body since I couldn't sell it or broker it) in favor of my newer better def (read, better LOOKING) but no cool stuff... stuff.

I haven't spoken to all NPC's yet, but the ones I've been talking to that gave equipment rewards, have been less than stellar (all green or lower to me).

Anyone else having these same problems... or am I just too fashion-ish conscious for my own good?

/threadjacking my thread before it even gets started
I notice many of my replies to NPC's are a bit... rude. Coming from someone living in Qeynos, that can't be a good thing.