Mad Scientist said:
Disclaimer: I have OCD, so naturally my tendencies will lean towards the "extreme", but anyway...
How do you deal with throwing your discs instead of collecting/preserving them? Even if I buy a disc with the mindset that it'll be a "thrower", I seem to eventually attach some sort of value and collectibility to it, making me reluctant to throw it. Consequently, this leaves me with...
A: More discs than I need
B: Less cash in my wallet
C: A bag full of crappy discs that I DO throw, instead of the really nice ones in my closet
How do you justify throwing a prized ace disc, or something rare and expensive? What about a regular disc that is beat-in just right - how can you bring yourself to throw it, knowing that you may lose it or it might get beat past the sweet spot and never be the same again?
I realize this is more about my own irrational motives for hoarding discs, but I feel like if I hear how some people justify actually using their discs, it'll help me get past my compulsions, even if it's just a bit.
Mad Scientist,
What! Are you mad?
The highest purpose of a disc is to throw it and throw it so well it brings you honor and glory and pride. That ain't gonna happen for any disc sitting in a box.
If you bought a new car, would you drive it? If you bought a new pair of shoes would you wear them? If you bought a new mail-order-bride would you...
A good disc has intrinsic value. It can fly well and true. That is why I have always collected discs which I want to throw, not just something which the market may view as valuable. So Frisbee Pie Tins and Pluto Platters are not in my collection because any random, dog-chewed putter pulled out of the bottom of a scuzzy pond will fly better than they do.
Once you acquire a really fine disc then you have the delicious prospect of deciding when it gets pulled out and tested to see if it is worthy of going in the tournament bag. Because a truly good disc is not just one which looks good and feels good, it must also fly well in your hands. It must prove itself in battle and excel under pressure. If it does all of that AND looks cool as heck then it has the WOW FACTOR!! Every disc in my tournament bag has the WOW FACTOR and keeps the WOW FACTOR or it doesn't stay in the bag.
So Mad Scientist, your WOW FACTOR discs (or at least potential wow factor discs, since you have not tested them) are sitting in a box. Gathering dust. Gathering dust on the chance that some day in the future you might decide to sell it someone else so they can put it in a box. And what kind of profit margin margin might you expect? Let's be generous and guess you can double your investment on discs (obviously some will become more valuable while others will lose value and across-the-board doubling of your investments is a real generous estimate, you might be lucky just to break even). So what have you made so far? Probably not much.
If you want to invest in something go buy stocks and bonds and securities. You won't have any temptation to fold those stock certificates into paper airplanes and let them fly. If you pick well they will appreciate nicely. And you won't be throwing substandard plastic because of them.
So go to your bag and tell every disc to get ready because you will be holding try outs for the starting lineup. Then go to your boxes and pull out a handful of prime discs for each slot in your bag and tell them about the try outs. Then go to the field and conduct try outs. Be open minded and fair. Let the best disc win. I'm betting you will be more confident in the new bag and feel better each time pull one out for a shot in competition. Since you will have tested many discs in the process make a 2nd and a 3rd string and start breaking them in and using them for risk discs and field practice.
If you are horrified at the prospect of doing this, ask yourself: how many dollars in discs have you just started using? A couple hundred bucks?? Right, a couple hundred bucks of discs which you are now investing in your game. You bought them to play with. You are now getting value out of them. Sitting in a box they will never create a good shot. In your bag and back up bags they can make hundreds of good shots for many years to come. And in real world dollars it cost you less than a weekend at a ball golf resort.
BTW, never retire an ACE disc or one which is perfectly broken in unless it fails to continue to perform. Rather than preserving discs, continually challenge them to perform, just like you do for yourself. Don't be foolish about risking prized discs in highly dangerous situations, that is why you have risk discs.
If you had a brand new Beemer sitting in the garage would you drive a beater with no muffler, a bumper held on with coat hangers and MayPops? Would you leave your mail-order bride in some foreign land until she hit old age?
I'm an abnormal collector too. Got hundreds of wall discs that comprise my stamp collection, but I have very few "wall-hangers".
