I have kind of fallen out of love with the Ace Race. I haven't been a fan of the recent molds released. The last 2-3 players packs have been "meh" at best. Last years' dri-fit was pretty uggers. I am also tired of the bad logos. I don't want a disc that has artwork akin to the album cover of a $h!tty Motorhead cover band. I am tired of the middle-of-the-road stabilities- give me something usefully OS or US, and NOT in a cheap baseline plastic. I know that this is supposed to be beginner friendly and get people in the door, but I do not necessarily see that happening where I live. 95% of the registrants for an AR are already established players. I work in a shop that sells, buys, and resells discs. Every year, within a week of the AR, I end up with 20-30 AR discs. Last year I decided to stop accepting them as trade-ins because I cannot sell the AR discs. I still have some on the shelf from 2 years ago, and it would appear that a $4 price tag still doesn't make them lucrative enough to purchase.
As an aside, I wonder if the AR is hindering Discraft. I am not a Discraft hater. The majority of my midrange disc selection is made by them. Discraft seems to really be lagging behind the competition in terms of fresh product. I don't consider old molds in new plastics to be a "new" disc. It is just a variation of an existing disc. I think that-without having done much research- Discraft has released almost as many AR discs as they have new, non-AR molds in the last few years. Unless you are a larger club, I really do not see this as a good money maker, either. AFTER you account for shipping, the club makes very little money directly from the AR. Yes, you have other activities you can tie-in with it, but you can do those for any event, too.
That said....sign me up for this year. It is like Pokemon GO for other people, I suppose. I am probably just doing it because everyone else is, even though I will hate myself for doing it.
A week late, but here is a Patriotic 4th joke:
Do you know why there are no knock-knock jokes about freedom?
Because freedom rings
(rimshot)