I don't see how people are still complaining availability is an issue.

Amazon has 16 B-Wings in stock, and Barnes and Noble has them too, and even has a feature where you can enter your zip code and they will tell you the nearest brick and mortar store that has them in stock. They both sell them for under the $15 MSRP (which is what I pay for them) so that will most likely offset the cost of shipping. And don't tell me you can't shop online because you don't have a credit card, you can buy prepaid credit or gift cards with cash at most supermarkets. Or maybe it's time to open a checking account and get a debit card.

Seriously, anyone who says "I can't find ship X" just isn't looking hard enough. If FFG flooded the market with expansions so that every LGS had a thousand of every ship just so you'd never have to look around to find them, they'd go bankrupt.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-X-Wing-B-Wing-Expansion/dp/1616616768/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424820449&sr=8-1&keywords=b-wing

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/toys-games-star-wars-x-wing-b-wing-expansion-pack/26370054?ean=9781616616762

B&N's store locator feature should not be relied upon. I tried to use it to reserve both a Rebel Aces and a Phantom. Website said they had them in stock, I tried to put a hold, both times I got emails saying that they couldn't locate the item. Went into the store and confirmed that, yes, they were out of stock.

Had two copies of the Falcon, though, which I did not expect to see.

As far as proxying: if you're in casual play or a league environment, I don't care. If you're in an Organized Play event, playing for prizes manufactured by FFG, then yes you can follow their rules and have one of every card.

Stop pretending that you need to buy a Raider to play the Advanced. It's a moronic point of view.

In the Raider, you get 1 Advanced. Let's assume that because people aren't crazy, that the vast overwhelming majority of people with an Imperial Fleet already only have 1-2 Advanced, because you're capped at 4 in a squad due to points, and frankly they're pretty goddamn terrible with the exception of Vader.

That means anyone with an Imperial Fleet who buys a Raider is going to have at least 1-2 spare Upgrade cards for the Advanced, since you get 4 in the box. Unless they're dying to try out the quad Advanced list, and go out and buy yet MORE Advanced on top of the 1-2 they already own plus the Raider.

Where are those cards going to end up? Gathering dust in a drawer? Maybe. More likely they'll be showing up all over the place on ebay, trade threads, at clubs, events and so on. Are you going to have to pay a pretty steep price for a card initially? Yeah, probably. I wouldn't be surprised if the combo set of title, AC and ATC hit £20 for the trio, at least initially. But then the market will calm down and be less insane, and you'll be able to pick them up for £10 or less. Which is significantly less than the £70 Raider price tag.

Does it suck a little bit that you're depending on the secondary market to supply you with tools to play your hobby? Sure. But it's entirely how MTG and other CCGs operate, unless you enjoy buying booster boxes to obtain chase rares, and who the hell does that? Pay the amount of money you are prepared to, in order to play the game. Either save up, or give up. Don't get morally outraged over something that's entirely out of your control and has been indicated multiple times that is never going to change.

I think the falcons are still at the port getting offloaded...I think they confined last week that the falcon was being delayed by the Ports issue...

I have 66 ships so far, I think I have earned the right to proxy if I darn well please.

Nope. Gotta have the right card in FFG's tournaments. End of story.

iconic TIE Advanced

I don't think the TIE advanced counts as iconic. The TIE fighter, yes, but the x1? Not really.

Stop pretending that you need to buy a Raider to play the Advanced. It's a moronic point of view.

In the Raider, you get 1 Advanced. Let's assume that because people aren't crazy, that the vast overwhelming majority of people with an Imperial Fleet already only have 1-2 Advanced, because you're capped at 4 in a squad due to points, and frankly they're pretty goddamn terrible with the exception of Vader.

That means anyone with an Imperial Fleet who buys a Raider is going to have at least 1-2 spare Upgrade cards for the Advanced, since you get 4 in the box. Unless they're dying to try out the quad Advanced list, and go out and buy yet MORE Advanced on top of the 1-2 they already own plus the Raider.

Where are those cards going to end up? Gathering dust in a drawer? Maybe. More likely they'll be showing up all over the place on ebay, trade threads, at clubs, events and so on. Are you going to have to pay a pretty steep price for a card initially? Yeah, probably. I wouldn't be surprised if the combo set of title, AC and ATC hit £20 for the trio, at least initially. But then the market will calm down and be less insane, and you'll be able to pick them up for £10 or less. Which is significantly less than the £70 Raider price tag.

Does it suck a little bit that you're depending on the secondary market to supply you with tools to play your hobby? Sure. But it's entirely how MTG and other CCGs operate, unless you enjoy buying booster boxes to obtain chase rares, and who the hell does that? Pay the amount of money you are prepared to, in order to play the game. Either save up, or give up. Don't get morally outraged over something that's entirely out of your control and has been indicated multiple times that is never going to change.

I do wish you had been around when the raider was first announced. The wailing and knashing of teeth in that thread was EPIC (pun intended.)

I tend to agree with your assertion...but only time will truly tell. I will get the raider upon release (once i convince the wife that I will die without it...and even then that may not convince her.) And I do plan on selling at least one of the x1/ATC combos...if not 2x. So there...thats 25 - 50% of that combo available thats going to hit the secondary market right there...if a good portion of the buyers do that (even with only 1 combo) that will make the advanced fix more available than any other set of cards that have come with any huge...which i think is one of the two reasons the company included so many...the other was to sell more TIC adv...but again we will see.

I don't buy doubles for cards/upgrades i buy doubles for ships.

In my experience if you get atleast 1 of each pack eventually the upgrade cards will be reprinted in future sets and you should be able to have enough of a certain upgrade card that you could need. Take a look at PTL which started in the A-wing pack. Later it came out in Imperial Aces as well for all the imperial players. I got plenty of HLCs from B-wing YT-2400 Defenders and other stuff.

So in my opinion first look for the ships you want. Then if you need a certain upgrade think if adding that ship in which the upgrade is found can work in your collection. If the answer is yes then go for it. If no then don't bother.