Collecting: to duplicate or not to duplicate?

[sutasafaia]

I appear to have hit a bit of a dilemma in my collecting. I recently re-installed TQIT, I missed the game, what can I say? Anyway, I restarted entirely from scratch, including wiping my entire TQ Vault (yes, I know, I'm insane). Thing is, now that my friends see me playing, they also want to play. I figure great! They also know that I have a head start, including a vault with quite a few useful low level blues and greens, and they are pestering me to "gear them up". I'm also at the point where I've started to get quite a few duplicates on blue items (I have 3 Obsidian Helmets...why do I need 3?).

Now, in theory, thanks to Vault I have unlimited storage space for gear. I can have all the toys I want and never have to throw any of them away. On the other hand, holding onto 3+ copies of the same blue is kind of annoying to my sense of neatness. I could of course just toss two of them away and just make duplicates of the helmet that I have if friends need them, but that just...bugs me. On one hand I want to give my friends lots of cool items, but on the other I don't want to give away the items I only have a single copy of and just copying them seems to make my collection feel less valuable, it's like completely removing any of the effort I put into farming them. That said, the game isn't an MMO, it's not like I'm destroying any economy or anything by making duplicates, but...

I know it's stupid but this is driving me bonkers. What to do =/

[Tyr]

Personally, I will sometimes create copies of items that are easier to find (like the Obsidians) but I would never make copies of the strongest, rarest items I have. It devalues them, imo. I've given away starter sets to friends, but when it comes to end-game items...

[Fozzie]

I used to keep duplicates (even three or four of them) but I don't like to have to many vaults for the same item type, so I tend to throw out duplicates now and then to make room for items I found for the first time. Sometimes, I give them to starter characters to give them a little financial boost.
Sometimes it's worth the time to look at duplicates in the actual game, though, because some equipment properties have a randomized value range and the Vault doesn't always show them correctly. So make sure you keep the best version

[Medea Fleecestealer]

I'm with Fozzie on checking out your items before passing them on or selling them. But I do sell items at the merchants if I have duplicates; I just give them to whichever toon's bags happen to be open at the time to sell on.

I guess it depends on how friendly you want to be with your friends. Are you playing co-op/multiplayer or are they playing single player game and just want to you give them stuff via trade? I can't advise much as I only ever single play, but if you're multiplaying then if you all come across an item which you know you already have then you can let one of your friends pick it up. For me a large part of the fun is finding/restocking my Vault with items so maybe compromise by saying to your friends that you'll do an initial gear up with stuff that you already have, but after that they find their own gear. It's what they'd have to do if you'd all started at the same level anyway.

[Laurrrr]

My humble opinion is that you should let them work and don't give them anything. Where would we be if we would take things for granted? Or if you really want to help your friends then spare some low level equipment for them and after that tell them to work for it, because I am sure as hell they will ask you for even more.