[Question] the 'boutique disc' problem

[Blobfish]

Do you prefer wide availability, or do you favor the 'coolness' factor of the special runs and plastics? There's not really a wrong way to do it - to each their own!

I love the Ace Race and I played in 2016, 2018, 2019, but collected some from overstock past years when I was new and tried all of the ones from 2010 on and liked a bunch of them. The problem is, a lot of the ace race discs I liked either went OOP (2010 hornet) or changed their plastic (2018 sol) or the mold slightly (2013 mantis). I ended up buying a few of the AR mantises here from another DGCR person and I bought a bunch of the ESP FLX-ish AR sols from the local TD.
But otherwise, I stick with stock, and even then sometimes it's not that easy to find what I'm looking for unless it's max weight.

 

[JRW III]

...If I lose a disc, only lost three in a decade plus...

Damn, that must be nice. I quit counting my lost discs a long time ago when I hit over 100. Guess it is the casualty of having a home course with water and super thick brush.

 

[JRW III]

I love the Ace Race and I played in 2016, 2018, 2019, but collected some from overstock past years when I was new and tried all of the ones from 2010 on and liked a bunch of them. The problem is, a lot of the ace race discs I liked either went OOP (2010 hornet) or changed their plastic (2018 sol) or the mold slightly (2013 mantis). I ended up buying a few of the AR mantises here from another DGCR person and I bought a bunch of the ESP FLX-ish AR sols from the local TD.
But otherwise, I stick with stock, and even then sometimes it's not that easy to find what I'm looking for unless it's max weight.

I have bagged the 2010 ESP Hornet ever since that Ace Race. The ESP plastic version never went into production, so I considered it OOP from the get go. I picked up a stack of 10 or so in 2010 for cheap. Lost a couple over the years and bought a few over the years when I saw them selling for $15 or less. Still have 13 of them. Love the disc, but still won't pay over $20 for one. Will switch to a different disc before I do that.

 

[Blobfish]

I have bagged the 2010 ESP Hornet ever since that Ace Race. The ESP plastic version never went into production, so I considered it OOP from the get go. I picked up a stack of 10 or so in 2010 for cheap. Lost a couple over the years and bought a few over the years when I saw them selling for $15 or less. Still have 13 of them. Love the disc, but still won't pay over $20 for one. Will switch to a different disc before I do that.

I had three AR hornets, but I lost the 165 that I liked. I had two 160s, and I gave one away because I didn't need it, and the other one I dyed but I never really liked it as much as the 165, also because it had a huge gouge in it. There was a brief moment a couple years ago when Infinite must have gotten some old stock to sell and I bought a 165 Z hornet, but either my technique changed significantly or the Z never flew like the AR. I'm guessing it's a little of both, though probably heavier on my technique. My Z hornet will hold a nice hyzer line, but if it turns at all, it never comes back, kind of like my BigZ Heat, except that I expect that from the heat when I throw it. The Z hornet is too picky for me.

 

[ThrowaEnvy]

I had a couple two or three hornets, I liked one of them, too finicky for my extra crappy FH back then..

I tend to buy collector or SE run discs and throw em, I don't lose many around here.. I "try" not to but damn I love em, usually get a backup or two. Keep a bunch of utility stuff too.. I don't really collect as much as acquire too many.

Yeah I love custom discs too I just gotta admit it, I have two custom dyes that are totally awesome, the chainsaw arm Ash dye is on my profile, I got him to add the red disc there in the left hand, I'm a lefty. I f___in love it!!!! 165 plasma orange pearl Envy.. Flat almost puddle top, it's a thrower. So sexy..

See what happened to me!!! I even believe different colours fly differently. I swore I'd never believe that crap! I even believe dye makes it better, largely due to stamping and the cleaning before hand but I'm crazy.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I was going thru my discs this past week and noticed I had a First Run 150 Z Storm. Don't know much about them. Is it generally worth anything used with ink on the inner rim?

If you really want to know, you should post it in the what's this disc worth thread along with some pix.

I'm no expert on the value of OOP plastic, but...
it all comes down to finding the right buyer.

I don't think it's particularly valuable, because:
A. The Storm's simply not really popular as a mold. You aren't gonna find a bunch of Storm throwers, and...
B. If you find one, chances are they throw something in the 170-175 range, not 150's.
First Run adds a bit of exclusivity.

Yes the supply might be limited, but demand for that disc might be even limited. Just basic economics. Rim ink isn't that bad, but it can only be a negative on value.

I already have a few of backups, myself.

 

[BigFlickLuke]

Damn, that must be nice. I quit counting my lost discs a long time ago when I hit over 100. Guess it is the casualty of having a home course with water and super thick brush.

Haha, I have brush, but no water on any courses I frequent.

One thing I've almost never done is thrown a second disc off the tee. Maybe ten times ever.

 

[disco40]

Heh, just fell victim to this when I got the 1010discs email that new Discraft signature stuff was out. Within 2 minutes I had missed out on my first choices, but grabbed an Elite Z Luna & Buzz, a Hades, and Malta. Oh disc golf, you are a silly bugger. Suppose I'm part of the problem, sorry lol.

 

[ILUVSMGS18]

Heh, just fell victim to this when I got the 1010discs email that new Discraft signature stuff was out. Within 2 minutes I had missed out on my first choices, but grabbed an Elite Z Luna & Buzz, a Hades, and Malta. Oh disc golf, you are a silly bugger. Suppose I'm part of the problem, sorry lol.

I feel that. MSt was already sold out of most pf the good Hades, and all PP Buzzes when I got on at 12:15. I ended up spending $450 between MSt and Infinite to get what I wanted amd free shipping. About $125 or so isn't for me, but by far the biggest order I've ever placed (previous biggest was $210 when the first 4x stuff came out for 3 of each).

I ended up with 6 Hades (4 MSt, 2 Infinite), 3 Buzzzes, 1 Zone, 2 Lunas, 2 Stalkers (1 from both), 1 Wasp, 1 Raptor, 1 Comet and a bunch of others that were interesting to me. In total I've got 26 (17 @ $300 from MSt, amd 9@ $160 from Infinite)discs coming to me.

 

[Yankeecock]

I guess I like fancy then cause I've been through several phases in my disc golf career where I threw stock to start and then started collecting OOP stuff and throwing several. Before I knew it my whole bag was the expensive hard to replace stuff. Then I realized what happens if I lose this or that then what am I gonna do. So I sold most of it, made my money back and started buying stock stuff again. Fast forward to recent I pulled all my old stuff back out that I didn't sell and for ****s and gigs started taking them to the course and that was it...I fell back in love with the old destroyers, 11x teebirds, eagles, firebirds, etc and because of this god forsaken pandemic I've been finding myself with more time on my hands and have been hitting the Facebook sites nonstop for the old stuff. It's been fun now that I'm older and have some disposable income and can find some gems. Even though I'm buying the good stuff I still try to find some bargains and the way I look at it I'd I can go spend $17-$20 at my local shop for the stock stuff or I can enjoy this $30 11x eagle or AJ destroyer for a few bucks more. For my final thoughts I will say this...I've never been a great golfer but I can play alright and I've never been playing better until recently when I put the oldies back in the bag. Take it for what it's worth just sayin

 

[Casey 1988]

For many years, I've tried to only throw easy to find, off the shelf, available at the local pro shop kind of discs. And that works really well, or at least it did for a long time.

I'm finding lately that special runs, tour series, and limited edition discs have crept back into my bag lineup, and at a level that I don't like one bit. My fav Hurricanes are Shasta tour series, my fav Undertaker is a Gannon tour series, my favorite Drone is a cryztal Z, my favorite Aftershock is a Shastashock, my fav wasp is a 2018 jawbreaker....and so it goes. In fact, half of the discs I carry in my bag right now are tour series or some sort of limited run.

I would be more than willing to bet that there are a few people on these boards like me, who typically have kept things super simple, but have fallen into the trap. It seems easy to do these days, there are *so many* 'boutique' discs out there. So many tour series, limited plastics, tournament fundraiser only (looking at you Ledgestone) discs that are being pushed out to us, the consumers.

The thing that triggered me on this post was seeing Rubber blend Matt Bell Pro Series Steadys on Sunking pre-order for $20. And that a lot of tour series discs are going for $20-25 off the shelf. I actually considered spending $100 on a set of 5 Steadys - then thought better of it, because I can get 5 nice Wizards in base plastic with stock stamps at about half of that price. Sure, this supports the players 'directly' (though no one seems to know at what level), but at what point do people stop buying these simply because there are too many out on the market? What's the saturation point? What's *your* saturation point? I think I've hit mine, and I'll be making a point once again to keep things as simple as possible.

Do you prefer wide availability, or do you favor the 'coolness' factor of the special runs and plastics? There's not really a wrong way to do it - to each their own!

I have a number of disc in my bag that are either OOP or not made in that plastic today and some got hard to find so I stocked up on discs on most of them. The ESP XL was not one, had to switch the old Elite Z XL for a Z Stalker. The Proline Titanic was one I got a backup 2 set for if I loose the disc or I mess up a disc on the course most reacently when I first got the Proline Titanic in 2019, another is the Star Shark, the higher weights got hard to find being the plastic for the mold has been oop for years, each disc could be an F2 so I see, Star just does not have a disc made for it, then ESP Impact I have used since 2007 went oop so I have a bunch of backup discs due to liking the mold. The only ones I wished I could get a oop of was Pro Shark ~175 grams and the Z XL/ESP XL. The XL in ESP was made then in 2008 only ESP FLX was made and in 2009 ESP cameback the XL in ESP was gone and when Z XL went oop the disc sold out in hours so I got the Z Stalker a mold I thought I would hate but the disc flies like a X Eagle that before Infinite Disc took the L mold for a disc you needed to buy the mold in stores to get an Eagle X. The Pro Shark was one that once I found the disc in 2014, the mold went oop for people everywhere due to original Pro plastic being stopped by the main company supplying the plastic for a tiny bit and the Shark in Pro got bought out of every place it could be found as people love the versatility of the mold and regular Pro cycles very well. Modern Pro from 2016 is nearly the same thing is reserved for distance drivers only for some odd reason, not sure why when regular Pro plastic came back not make discs for all plastic in that.

 

[SaROCaM]

Stock discs for me, and Innova because they are the most available and I am used to them. DX Aviars, DX Rocs, Teebirds, etc. Some might call it boring, but I think of it as appreciating the classics.

Sometimes I'll buy a tour series disc to support a player, but it isn't necessary for my bag.

Exceptions in my bag:

-USDGC Champ Roc: mostly so I don't have to keep putting in a fresh KC for that particular Roc slot. Spend $20 once a decade to save spending $11 every few months, still actually cheaper.

-2017 Philo Destroyer: got a good mellow thrower for $12. If I lose it, I have backup beat Star Destroyers. Or even a Pro Destroyer.

 

[4ormal]

For the longest time I've tried my hardest to just throw easy to find stock Innova/Discraft stuff. I look in my bag now and I see PFNs, LE's and custom stamps/dyes. Uhhg... I think after a while these sort of discs just make their way into your bags and become familiar. I get mine from friends or as gifts, so they all mean something to me. That positive juju helps on the course

 

[discerdoo]

Venturing back into the world as they lift our lockdown. Visited my favorite shop in Tulsa yesterday and they have Lunas spilling off the shelves but not a JB Roach in sight. Same story at my local shop in OKC. Not seeing any JB Roaches online either.

Luna isn't necessarily a boutique disc but I still refuse to pay the McB premium for midgrade plastic.

Bite me, Discraft.

 

[doth_savek]

Venturing back into the world as they lift our lockdown. Visited my favorite shop in Tulsa yesterday and they have Lunas spilling off the shelves but not a JB Roach in sight. Same story at my local shop in OKC. Not seeing any JB Roaches online either.

Luna isn't necessarily a boutique disc but I still refuse to pay the McB premium for midgrade plastic.

Bite me, Discraft.

There are 9 JB Roachs on Infinite right now. Also some on Disc Baron and OTB.

 

[Streets]

This thread makes me want to throw primarily Dx discs again....

 

[discerdoo]

There are 9 JB Roachs on Infinite right now. Also some on Disc Baron and OTB.

Thanks detective, they're all 167g at Infinite. Most prefer max weight for putters and I like to feel them up, especially putters.

 

[elmexdela]

This thread makes me want to throw primarily Dx discs again....

im considering this too

then i wouldnt have to waste so much time looking in the overgrown weeds or spend 30 min fishing a disc out of the water

 

[geo_08]

This thread makes me want to throw primarily Dx discs again....

im considering this too

then i wouldnt have to waste so much time looking in the overgrown weeds or spend 30 min fishing a disc out of the water

This is a large part of what I keep boomeranging back to gateway. They are local, so I can by stacks at a time of sure grip mids and putters and never stress too much about losing them.

Now the opposite is true about gateway drivers. Being that they don't regularly produce premium light weights, and their light weights seem to have the most variation from run to run, I find it hard to justify throwing their stuff anywhere where I think I may lose them.

 

[ajcloutier]

At the end of the day its all just plastic. Its easier to adapt to marginal differences in feel or flight than it is to fight what time and availability does to discs. People forget disc polymers break down over time, shrink, and all kinds of whack things. Think putting your discs in a protected sleeve and keeping it in a dark corner will preserve it? LOL Discs have a shelf life. I learned this the hard way with old CE and old Z plastic. FYI..if your discs is "finger printy" or waxy feeling, whats happening is the plastic is leaching. DO NOT TRY AND WASH YOUR DISC CLEAN. I had an old firstrun Reaper practically fall apart in my hand at the kitchen sink doing this

For reasons stated above, I will only use stock plastic types and I will also rotate discs out far before they become "essential" to my game. The only exception are my First Run Pro Line Quakes. Its so hard to look past how great this disc feels and flies.