I mean its nice too collect stuff but you don't need too buy the same thing twice accidentally..

best way I have purchased a few of the racial unlocks and its kinda funny that it does say you own this item.. I can understand it could be for gifting purposes. but it can be a a nightmare trying too figure out what you have unlocked and what still is without going too character creation:)

thanks for your time :3

In the Collections interface (Ctrl+C), you can select to show items you have *collected* (bound on a character or unlocked for all characters), or items you have *not* collected, or both. Use the drop-down selector in the top-right of the panel to select which you want to see. Note that "not collected" does not mean "I don't own one", but rather that none of your characters have bound it. You might well have an unbound one lying around, and "not collected" will show the item.

In the Cartel Market, for unlocks like species or appearance, the unlock is (obviously) across the whole legacy or account, so the game can show you the triangle. (Note that you can buy it anyway with an eye to selling it for credits on the GTN, or giving it as a gift to a friend.)

For items like armour, weapons, and so on, select (click once on) the item in the left part of the panel, and select the "Show Items" tab in the right part of the panel. There you can see the inventory icons for the item (or for each individual armour piece in the case of armour sets), and you can mouse over them and see unlock information in the tooltip. Again, "Locked in Collections" doesn't mean that you don't own one, just that if you *do* own one, you haven't done anything to bind it to a character. (And, of course "Unlocked for Character in Collections" or "Unlocked for Account in Collections" doesn't mean you own one either. You might have bound it and then discarded it.)

But in fact, the lock/unlock state (aka Collected/not Collected) is more useful, most of the time, than "owned" would be.

There is a common request that pops up for them to add a "show only things I haven't collected" setting for the Cartel Market panel.

Final note: the 36-hour initial bind on an item when you first buy it does not count for the Collected state.