In the past, I've played games like Magic, Heroclix, and Dicemaster and have found that one thing all of those games have in common is a large amount of common material that one just ends up with after collecting for some time. Now, when I used to run Heroclix events, I always had a number of commons that I could use to demo the game to new players and in some instances I'd even let them keep a couple figures out of my large amount of "throw-away" commons. I could afford to do this because collectible games tend to have so much material that one acquires from trades and opening boosters that is not overly valuable but can be used to attract new gamers.

Back in the day WizKids would even send tournie organizers boxes of commons with one unique (i.e. Rare) figure thrown as a sort of demo prize. WOTC creates mini-decks of Magic card that stores can hand out to demo the game and draw in new players.

This works because the materials themselves are abundant. For example, in Dicemaster the game is based more on the cards than the dice. Common Wolverine uses the same dice as Super Rare Wolverine within a given expansion, so I'm more likely to give away a Wolverine die than a Wolverine card, even though the die is main mechanic of the game. Here in Destiny, the die is the main mechanic of the game, but is also the most rare aspect. It's already well determined that people will have a use for a second Vader die, but will have virtually no use for a second Vader card.

My question here, and maybe I'm just thinking out loud, is how can fans/supporters of the game promote and demo the game in store with product that is more or less expendable? Or will we have to use our own material and just not allow potential new gamers to keep anything? Starter decks seems to be the way to go, but I doubt most of us would let people keep material from a starter still.

I have multiple decks built to allow people to try out the game. If they like it, they can buy a starter. If they aren't willing to invest $15, this isn't the game for them. Magic the Gathering is more like a drug dealing scenario. First taste is free. FFG doesn't typically do free tastes. They'll demo the game for you, but if you like it, you need to buy a starter. That's how almost all of their games work.

Also, you're forgetting tokens. The starter boxes are a must buy for every player because you need the tokens and you'll never see those in boosters.

What I ACTUALLY do is show people how to play and then tell them that if they buy a starter, I can hook them up with some commons and maybe uncommons to round their decks out to 30 cards.

I have multiple decks built to allow people to try out the game. If they like it, they can buy a starter. If they aren't willing to invest $15, this isn't the game for them. Magic the Gathering is more like a drug dealing scenario. First taste is free. FFG doesn't typically do free tastes. They'll demo the game for you, but if you like it, you need to buy a starter. That's how almost all of their games work.

Also, you're forgetting tokens. The starter boxes are a must buy for every player because you need the tokens and you'll never see those in boosters.

What I ACTUALLY do is show people how to play and then tell them that if they buy a starter, I can hook them up with some commons and maybe uncommons to round their decks out to 30 cards.

You don't actually HAVe to have the tokens from the starter. You can use pretty much whatever you want as counters as long as you can tell the difference between shields/dmaage/resources.

Typically, players use the cardboard tokens included in official product as indicators. However, players may choose to use other items as indicators, so long as they do not obscure significant component information, are resistant to accidental modification, and their purpose of use is clear to both players. The marshal is responsible for determining the legality of an indicator and its reasonable use during a match if objected to by its owner’s opponent.

Fair. I would also expect that most of us, as with any FFG game, will have so many tokens over time that we will be able to hand them out like candy.

Certainly, I would want to attract players who will buy starters, it's just always been nice to have that disposable material to hand out. This game doesn't quite have anything like that accept for the aforementioned Commons/Uncommons.

At least with Heroclix, I could hand a dirt common figure like Spider-Man that would help reel people in, while with Destiny I certainly can't hand out a Luke or Leia. I think the Commons/Uncommons is a good suggestion though.

Eh, Jedi Robes, BB8, Rey's Staff, TIE fighter, immobilize are all in fairly large supply in my extras collection.