Does any body think they will rerelease ship cards with upgrades we have now. Like Y-Wings with bombs/EPTs or X-Wings with more astromechs or even more system upgrade ships?

No, not until they go to a 'second edition' of the system. My feeling is, when they decide to patch something, they'll release titles or other such cards to shore up previous deficiencies.

Just getting into X-Wing and this is honestly the biggest pain for me. Getting Core is fine so I have 2 X-Wings and 4 TIE fighters but the chances of me finding Wave1 kits and the pilot cards without paying some absurd price on shipping to Australia

Then if I wanted to field two ships with the "Draw thier Fire" upgrade do I have to have two YT-1300's?

I would buy a card pack if it was released.

I'd love some sort of print-on-demand option for the existing upgrade cards. I'd like more copies of some of my cards, but not enough to buy a whole other ship for it.

FFG wants to sell as many ships as possible. Theyr smart enough to put limited upgrade cards in expansion packs to sell them. Its why i own two A-Wings. i wanted two Push The Limit upgrades. If they didnt do this i probably wouldnt have bothered buying 2 falcons.

So to answer your question.

No.

I emailed FFg one time about card packs. I also asked about replacement packs for damage as the answer was there were no plans at this time to issue cards on their own

Yeah, I think the Imperial Aces pack pretty much sealed the deal on cardboard only expansions for ships. Repaints are great money, since they already have the mold.

I have found, that while FFG really does tempt you to buy everything, and in multiples, for the various upgrades available, they are not too bad about it. Having all available options is nice, but not super important to have a playable squad. Though I really do feel for Interceptor enthusiasts, who did not play Rebels, when they announced the Imperial Aces pack.

I'm pretty sure they will introduce card packs in the coming year. Possibly print on demand stuff. That'd be a great way to keep us interested (and happy) while they take their time with Wave 4

I don't see anything drastic being printed though - maybe reprints of upgrades we got so far plus a couple more. Possibly a new pilot or for each ship? I'm still thinking they will put out a 20pts 1PS Advanced pilot...

There was an interview I saw with Jay Little where he mentioned card only packs as a possibly, said in the context of finding a way to add a crew slot to the Y-wing. I doubt he would be speaking/thinking about this if FFG wouldn't consider it.

http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/_/afm-articles/x-wing/snagg-chats-with-jay-little-r49

I would welcome it. I'm hoping for additional crew characters, as well as alternative versions of characters already available. Han as a Falcon gunner for instance, a nonsuicidal Vader etc.

If FFG wanted to make lots of money, they'd release randomised card packs, divided between pilot cards, upgrades, crew members and modifications. But fortunately for our wallets, it seems they're keen to stay away from that sort of release model.

Thank god for FFG's absolute hatred of "randomized" packs.

Packs for the existing cards? Probably not.

New Pilots/Upgrades as a pack? I think that it's likely at some point. Unless they just plan to do endless repaints of the same ships (which I frankly doubt - its a bad idea for several reasons) they would have very few ways to release more pilots for the existing ships.

I hope so anyway. Would love to see a pack of new pilots/upgrades for the existing ships and maybe new scenarios/tokens bundled in, even if they charged $15-$20 for it. I think I'd be okay with it though if they did what they are doing with the Rebel Transport. Get a new big ship and repainted existing ship(s) with some new pilots for the existing ship(s).

FFG wants to sell as many ships as possible. Theyr smart enough to put limited upgrade cards in expansion packs to sell them. Its why i won two A-Wings. i wanted two Push The Limit upgrades. If they didnt do this i probably wouldnt have bothered buying 2 falcons.

So to answer your question.

No.

Except, putting the largest price tag you can on something is not usually the best way to profit from it. I, for instance, want Porkins, but don't want the ships he comes with, and I'm not spending $60 for a single card. Instead of getting a handful of money for a card pack with Porkins from me, they're getting none. I'm just one example, but I would be surprised if I was in a minority that didn't think a slip of cardboard was worth that much money.

Not to mention, FFG is having a problem right now where they're selling too many ships. They're unable to keep up with the demand, and I've seen more than a handful of people to decide to not even get into the game because they almost literally can't. FFG would be making more money if some people bought packs for extra cards instead of extra ships, leaving those extra ships for new players. They'd be selling the exact same stuff and more in that case, especially as new players are probably one of the biggest single sources of income, even if they give up on the game after their initial purchases.

I'm not trying to tell FFG how to run a business, just trying to point out that there's a perfect economic niche for card packs to fill.

I doubt, that FFG didn't make those calculations themselves and they have better numbers for it.

From the data I have, I certainly can't estimate if increasing the motivation to buy models by adding unique cards to them outweighs offering cardpacks as additional item and decreasing the value of the models.

One thing it seems to enhance is the general diversity in ships people have as their preferred lists aren't just determined by the ships, but also by the available cards, which I would see as positive.

As for production speed/numbers, from my experience people who are genuinely interested in a product are usually willing to wait for some parts as long as it is usable in general and doesn't appear to be completely dead. Moaning in an internet forum doesn't necessarily tells you much about buying habits, it's just the internet and people complain and moan about almost anything.

FFG has a good problem on its hands. More people want to buy the ships than the stores currently stock.

i agree with Jokubus that there is definitely a niche out there for card packs for pilots and upgrades. It is entirely possible that once the demand for the newest ships subsides they will make these card packs available. As for their marketing model its working for them at present so they will probably keep things going as is.

Ive heard rumors that there may be as many as 20 more new ships in the pipeline. Iv also heard speculation there may be a new starter set with different ships in the future. What does seem pretty clear is they are aiming to release a new wave of ships at regular intervals (annually would be the ideal) but as already stated here the supply and demand for new ships is not as smooth as it should be resulting in a lengthy wait for some of the new (and old) ships to reach LGS's.

Let's just all be glad that FFG isn't taking the standard business response to a demand that is greater than their ability to supply: namely, to raise prices until supply and demand balance out. Because, yeah, people would whine and complain about it, but they are still willing to pay $30+ for a SINGLE ship (as was seen on eBay during the time that wave 1 was out of stock).

Let's also be glad that they don't take the route that some companies do *cough cough Disney cough* where they intentionally release a limited supply in order to artificially inflate demand for their products, and thus prices and profit margins.

In short, if there are any FFG employees out there reading these threads: Thank you, from all of us, for not being d****bags. Thank you for being an awesome company that produces awesome products at reasonable prices. Thank you for working your tails off to try to get us all the games and expansions that we crave, as well as to develop and release MORE of said games/expansions as fast as you are able to. And moreover, thank you for doing such a dang good job at it! Your games are all top notch in quality, appearance, and are just plain fun. Keep up the good work, FFG employees!