Just curious how many discs do you currently own?
~400
How many have you owned in your lifetime and how many years have you played???
I've played for 11.5 years, and I've probably been through ~1,000 discs in that time. When I started, I didn't know the etiquette for finding/returning discs, so I found a lot and gave a way a lot to new players. I also was friend's with the staff at the local Play-It-Again-Sports so I always got great deals on used discs and bought a ton that way in the early years. Then one year, a roommate and I used to buy and try one of every new mold that came out. But I've also worked hard to hook every friend I've got on disc golf, so I've literally given away probably 500-600 discs over the years, including ~100 my brother and I donated at one time a while back to a disc to a church that was doing some outreach at disc golf courses.
The reason I'm up to 400 now is that I don't get to play as often anymore, so I don't get to play with many new players or introduce nearly as many folks to the sport.
I can see wanting to have at least 20 you use regularly, but other discs you might want to have around for specific courses if you get good enough to know what to expect.
I usually have between 6 and 16 discs in my bag, depending on the round. I usually have 30-50 in the car that are a mix of backups and alternate discs, and discs that are ready to be given to other players. Recently, I've been getting my girlfriend started playing, so there is a box of my lightest drivers and a bunch of mids in the car so we can go out to a field and throw.
The discs at the house are ~15-20 wizards to practice putts. Then a lot of backups of discs I throw or old CE plastic I haven't made time to get rid of yet.
One of my goals is to reduce the collection, but it just takes time to do. I think it would be a good goal to cut it in half this year. I've been working on trading away discs I don't thrown and at least simplifying to molds I throw (or that will work for my girlfriend).
Part of the challenge is that many friends who play lose discs more often than I do, and I always try to keep backups around of their favorite discs so I can replace what they lose when needed.