For me, I'm more than happy to lend ships to friends. I have at least one of everything, and having them available means more people get to play who otherwise wouldn't.

Yes I am grateful for the community I have, yes I am grateful for the friends I have, the issue isn't that, I feel exploited for my own collection.

That's fair. If they have no shame in borrowing too frequently, maybe tell them "To encourage you to invest in the hobby yourself, you're only allowed to borrow X number of cards per tournanment or month or something?"

I say the question is what level of "buy in" you expect from them.

If they can afford to play the game I'd expect them to have some skin in the game unless things are reciprocated in other places. I would hope they have the basics and that they make an attempt to use what they have before borrowing everything from you. Its also one thing to borrow something on occasion or to try it out but if they want something repeatedly then they should get it for themselves.

Of course when it comes to borrowing if I need it or if they don't return stuff in the same condition it goes out then loans are just out of the question. Now if they want to fly an eight ship swarm but only own four or five is sure makes more sense to me to load them the few additional ships instead of asking someone to go out and buy those additional ships just to field a pretty specific build. When you get down to upgrades things are a lot trickier simply because some upgrades are far more popular/powerful than the ship choices you need to make to get them. How many people run multiple Defenders? How many people would run multiple copies of Predator if they have them? That is where there can be problems.

I don't think there is any single answer to the topic question because every situation is a little different.

DarkCloak has the right of it. We're talking about friends here, right? If my friends want to play this game and need some stuff, I'll give them whatever they need the next time I have the means and an excuse, give up a few of my own limited luxuries for a time to do so as needed, and be pleased that I am in a position to be able to do so.

games are meant to be played with....

Cars are meant to be driven with, but you don't let your friends borrow your car everytime you might not need it? Same goes for TV's and everything else

Everytime a ship is used, there is a chance on it getting damaged, but also wear and tear you don't see at first glance will build up over time (pegs getting worse and worse until they inevitably break, a B-wing cannon that gets slightly bended and bend back (do that x times and then it breaks)).

Dials get worn out

Upgrade/pilot cards stay fine in sleeves, but they still might get bent or dirty.

Sure loaning stuff occasionally is a nice thing to do, but (like many said before) if a friend keeps borrowing items from the same expansion, then I think it's justified that you ask him to buy his own.

OP didn't mention it specifically, but from my own experiences i know that if a friend keeps on borrowing the same stuff, I start to feel restricted in my freedom to use those stuff myself, because I don't want to disappoint him. (It's a subconcious thing that develops gradually)

And I've borrowed stuff for longer periods and after a while I didn't even remember wether a certain scratch was present before I borrowed it or not.

And I've loaned stuff to others and got it back with scratches that the other claimed were present before I loaned it to him, even though the item (LOTR Bluray-set) was only used once by myself.

Some say that freeloaders/moochers are not real friends, I disagree. I know a certain guy that tends to freeload/mooch and I don't like that side of him, but there are other sides in his friendship that make up for that behaviour.

Why not just keep things simple? If you love X-Wing more than your friend and thus invested more, so be it. I really don't mind them borrowing my stuff if they take good care of it. If he can't even do this then say it to their face. If your build doesn't need whatever stuff he needs, by all means lend it so you can share the tourney experience together. If you do, then you have the priority, unless you don't mind switching to different builds. Fly casual starts before the tourney begins. Your hobby is supposed to be a relaxing stress buster. Don't complicate your life even more.

And, God knows what is he building with 3 R7 Astromechs but if he really, really wants it he can just buy two more copies of E-Wing, take the R7s and sell the expac again to his friends / playmates at your FLGS for $1-2 less each. I've sold my Scum ships and took crackshots, predator, autothrusters etc this way. I mean who's gonna worry that he'll miss out by not getting a R7? I'd grab that E-Wing given the chance and fly with R2-D2 anyday.

Just wanted to clarify my own post, before someone gets a wrong impression:

I don't mind investing in this game as I'm selling another much more expensive game. And I want to play epic and teach my friends, so another reason to invest in this game. But I know there will come a point that I hope my friends will start investing themselves too (even though I'm willing to provide for everything), because I want to still be able to play this game in 10, 20, 30 yrs from now with my children (and later grandchildren), so extreme wear & tear would bother me.

But still if someone borrows something quite often and it isn't that expensive (like an expansion, a hammer etc) then I'd rather want him to buy his own, because I tend to forget what I borrowed and to whom and I don't like keeping asking people to give stuff back if they borrowed things for prolongued periods

Encourage them to collect a game you want to play with

Encourage them to collect a game you want to play with

Yeah, like one invests in X-Wing and the other in Armada

lol.....I am not a communist....but games are made to be played....

ok tough call. om the one hand having more friends to play with is great. but if they are constant moochers AND can actually afford the ships and or cards then i can see how that would be kind of bothersome. i think the only way around it is to come up with a legit excuse like i am "Thinking about using "Insert what ever he/she was planning to fly" in my own list" that way by thinking about it you can actually fly what ever you want the day of the tournament.. And if he asks about it tell him you thought about it and changed your mind.. i mean it is your stuff!! Now i would give them a bit more leeway if they are flat broke and or a young kid with no income etc ect...

Your solution is to lie, to make up fake excuses? That's a rather immature way to deal with it isn't it? I think if there's a real problem both parties should talk it through honestly.

its not a lie if you DO think about it..