Within hours of getting my shipping confirmation for this game, I find out that my wife got it for me for fathers day. Is there any purpose or benefit in having two core sets?

Only if you want to be super competitive in Skirmish. If you dont plan on playing Skirmish, or at least being competitive with it, then having the second set will be of no good to you.

If you want to paint the models, having a second core set will certainly give you that. A second set would also get you a second set of dice, additional tokens, and give you a bit of flexibility if you want to have a "campaign set" and a seperate "skirmish set" for travelling.

Plus, if it is for Father's day, then that means you have a special boy or girl in your life who you must teach the game to.

I am actually considering a second core set. It isn't just being super competitive at Skirmish, it's more just having options available for it. For example, you only get one elite card for Probe Droids and Officers. You only get one 'regular' and one Elite Royal Guard. Etc.

Plus, additional dice never hurt, more command cards helps with versatility of deck builds and it's always handy to have spares of other stuff.

I play both Campaign and Skirmish. I have 2 Core sets, and I'm happy about that, though I initially only bought the 2nd Core for Skirmish reasons. However, the benefit goes beyond just Skirmish play; having 2 sets allows me to keep a separate group of tokens, tiles, etc for the 2 different game modes. And yes, having 2 Cores is wonderful for skirmish play!

So I think you need to ask yourself if you will be playing Skirmish mode or not. And if you are, then ask yourself if you will be playing Campaign as well. I play both modes with my 3 boys (8, 10, 11 yrs) and they thoroughly enjoy both, so it is very much worth it for me to have a second Core set.

I've seen eBay auctions where people paint the entire set and sell it for about $200. Even the unpainted pieces sell in sets for around $20-30 and tiles sell for $15.

Will you be playing skirmish?

Either way,

You do not need a 2nd set of dice. I can count on one hand the number of times I needed the extra dice.

And you cannot use any of the command cards from a 2nd core set because it would exceed the deck limits.

For campaign, you only need 1 core set

A good bet before cracking open your 2nd core set might be to play a dozen skirmish games with the 1st core set only and see if you want more Imperials and Merc units.

If you get Weiss, you don't need a 2nd standard AT-ST. If you plan on buying the Stormtrooper expansion pack for the command cards, you only need 2 of the Stormtroopers from your 2nd core set.