Thank you for tolerating all my new guy questions.

So I found this guy on eBay that sells X-Wing ships with everything BUT the upgrade cards. So you get the ship, base, dial, cards.... everything except the upgrade cards. So you could buy an E-Wing for under $9, but if you bought the full blown pack on Amazon I think it would be like $13. I'm guessing in some packs it's worth paying the extra for the upgrade cards, but in some cases it's not.

So, what ships do you think would be good to buy..... naked?

The upgrade cards are usually the more important part of the package, as certain upgrades can go in many, many ships. I probably wouldn't buy a naked ship unless I already had the upgrades it came with and new for certain I wasn't going to need more.

Depends really - if you want to run swarms or duplicates, it could be worth buying just the minis, because each expac will come with two or three pilot cards and tokens for that ship, but only one ship for that ship. You can run 3 T70s, for instance, with just the Core Set cards and tiles, but you only get one T70 model. E: worth noting this may not get you enough dials, which are a limiting factor, so if you're buying a naked ship on ebay, make sure it comes with a dial as well.

There are definitely some ships you only want one of though; I don't think I've ever seen a list with two E-Wings, for instance.

But conversely, there are some ships people buy a lot just to get the cards in them (StarVipers in particular) which are definitely not worth buying just the ship.

Hmm... Definitely an interesting question.

I could see doing it for:

TIE Bombers

TIE Advanced

TIE Fighter

TIE Interceptor

Z-95

Y-Wing

I've bought several ships in this way ... but only when I already have the upgrade cards that I need/want for a build and I just need the ships, dials, pilot cards and related tokens.

For example, most of my swarm builds are made up of 1 or 2 full expansion packs with all the upgrade cards (which I purchased new/unopened) and the rest of the ships in the swarm are made up of several opened packs that I purchased from ebay (ship, dials, pilot cards and tokens).

I do that because it's a more affordable way to put together multiple swarm builds ... but only if I really don't need the upgrade cards.

As others have said, the upgrade cards are sometimes the most valuable part of an expansion pack. Even if you don't want the upgrade cards you might want to buy a new/unopened pack and then sell the upgrade cards if you don't need the cards and just want the ship.

Here the link in case anyone was interested:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Wars-X-Wing-Miniatures-Game-Unused-Ships-with-NO-upgrade-cards-/121813954938?var=&hash=item1c5cad717a:m:mtYI8a7mcFYWPqOZ8Sojvag

In most cases, buying the whole ship is not much more expensive. Check out miniature market or coolstuffinc.

Even check out your lgs, sometimes being able to look at each expansion they have hanging and choosing the one that isn't bent, glued lopsided or painted funny is worth the extra couple bucks.

Cool stuff is about $9 a piece. Order all of this upcoming wave + two ships and you get free ship....

(I miss the days I lived 15 minutes from their physical location!!)

Great advice guys, thanks.

X-Wing Strategy: buying ships and developing lists.

X-Wing Tactics: playing them.

Ohoho wow.

That's kinky.

Yeah...I just checked out this persons link and they are selling the upgrade cards separately. If I were you I would just save the money and buy brand new ships, if you do not want the cards then you can sell them.

Probably all the ones that are sold out.. hypothetically.

Ships I might by without upgrades:

TIE Fighter

TIE Advanced (only because the upgrades that matter are in the Raider)

Z-95 (either form)

TIE Interceptor Expansion(which doesn't have many upgrades to begin with)

If I were a painter/modeller then the list could expand but that is just for alternative versions of a ship.

Looking over what that seller is listing there is nothing that I'd really be interested in when the price saving for those ships is minimal compared to other online sources I've seen.