Ok, so I currently own at least 1 of every ship and card in the game and in most cases anywhere from 2 to 4. Keeping in mind that I am expecting to have to provide minis for both sides most of the time how many of each card should I own? I would like to participate in tournaments as well, so would 3 of most cards be enough?

One thing I should mention is that I am not going to buy another Tantive, or Transport as 1 of each is enough (3 for mission 8.. really?). Is 3 too many? I kinda hope it is as it will take awhile for me to save that kind of scratch.

It depebds highly on your builds.

If you want to run BSP mini swarm with an EPT you need at least 4.

But for most squads 3 should be enough. If you provide for both sides I suggest you use a pri ted roster for casual games as to not need 7 copies of an upgrade.

For tournament you should be fine as you only need to orovide for yourself

With GSP or BSP swarms you could easily be looking at 5 of a particular EPT for one side. In reality though you aren't likely to use that many very often (staples like PTL excepted). 2-3 should generally be fine.

I have 4 of each non unique card in my album. A few exceptions are torps and missiles. I have 8 of those. I think I have 8 PTLs just because.

For casual play you need one of each. Just make an armylist that says which pilot has which upgrades and make sure your opponent knows about it.

For tournaments it really depends on your playstyle. If you like HLC's for example you could have up to 3 (4 will never fit in 100pts. At least until the S&V M3-A Interceptor comes out then you can probably fit 4). 2 or 3 is probably just right, ofcourse there are exceptions for very situational cards like Marksmanship, Deadeye or Daredevil which are only usefull on very specific pilots or cards that are good on pretty much every pilot like PTL or Predator.

For the huge ships you only need one each since most upgrades are either unique or only really usefull once per ship. The Laser for the Tantive are the exception, but you get 3 each and a Tantive has 3 weapon slot so you'll only ever need one set.