As flying discs have evolved since Wham-O released the first commercial one in 1957, it’s been only natural for companies to stop making some molds in favor of newer designs or to use different logos and plastic blends over time.
But when a certain type of disc starts to disappear from store shelves, a certain type of person starts to take interest: the collector.
We wanted to learn more about the mindset that drives people to collect discs and get a glimpse at the ancestors of the plastic currently filling bags around the world. To do this, we spoke with collectors about how they got into their hobby and what some of the most prized pieces in their collections are.
Mike Hughes
Mike Hughes is the director of the Flying Disc Museum, a web-based museum featuring the images and history of a huge range of discs from all time periods and for all purposes. He’s also a self-professed “longtime collector of all things that fly,” a Maximum Time Aloft World Champion, and was the tournament director of the 1990 Professional Disc Golf Association World Championships.
Hughes’ inspiration for collecting began as a child when he gathered baseball cards and Hot Wheels toy cars. As he grew up, he developed a love for frisbee sports and in 1979 became an avid collector of flying discs.
“I think it was a natural extension of who I already was,” said Hughes.
Hughes' collection tallies well into the thousands and includes important pieces of disc history most casual players know little about.
For example, Hughes' prized possession is a purple High Durability eXperimental (HDX) frisbee with a white hot stamp made by Wham-O. According to the Flying Disc Museum, the HDX was first created in the late 70s when Wham-O was interested in creating a plastic "more resistant to cracking."
But the particular HDX Hughes loves above all others is tied to a pivotal moment for disc golf that included two eventual co-founders of disc golf equipment giant Innova-Champion Discs: Tim Selinske and Dave Dunipace.
“[Tim], Dave Dunipace and I went to a nondescript industrial complex,” said Hughes, remembering a day back in the early '80s. “I watched as a new ‘frisbee’ was being molded and was fascinated how the engineer cut this big block of plastic off the bottom. The three of us went out in the parking lot and threw it. We all thought, ‘Wow, this is going to revolutionize disc golf.’ Innova was born that day.”
Though special, that HDX has plenty of companions. Hughes boasts the largest collection of HDXs on the planet, and the same goes for Wham-O's International Frisbee Association, North American Series, U.S. Open, and World Flying Disc Federation frisbees, too.
Another special part of Hughes’ collection hangs on his office wall in a shadow box. The box houses a white Master, the original ultimate frisbee disc from Wham-O, and the original printed ad. He said he picked the frisbee up from the house of disc golf and ultimate frisbee legend Dan “Stork” Roddick (PDGA #3) because he felt like it looked familiar.
“A few months later, I saw a frisbee ad being sold on eBay,” said Hughes. “Lo and behold, the disc being held by the model was the white Master I now owned. Stork told me Wham-O would normally make up four or five of these discs for the shoot and they were taken by the actors or the crew.”
Bryan McAlees
The Innova collection of Bryan McAlees is over 2,500 discs strong. But along with sheer size, the collection is special for the number of pre-flight number (PFN) discs it contains.
Flight numbers are intended to give consumers an idea of how discs are meant to fly by detailing their speed, glide, turn, and fade. Innova began printing these on discs around 2009, and discs made before that time are now sought after by collectors like McAlees.
Though he officially began collecting in 2015, McAlees' prior career as a disc golf equipment seller allowed him to build quite a stock from 1999-2015.
“I started selling discs in 1999 and when they would change the stamp, if I had any left, I would put them aside,” said McAlees. “I started doing research on value from the Facebook collector’s page. Then I started organizing and became a collector of PFN Innova.”
The collection has opened several doors for McAlees. First, he was asked to be an administrator for a Facebook group dedicated specifically to the Innova XD putter, which has been in production since 1984. Next, he was asked to moderate an Innova-only collector group. Finally, he was asked to contribute to the Flying Disc Museum.
“The Innova Gallery [of the museum] is where I’ll add most of my collection,” he said. “It’s an honor.”
The XD Facebook page also meant a lot to McAlees because the XD is his favorite disc to collect. He has amassed over 300 through having backups for throwing for the past 25 years and keeping new runs as they were released.
He scored great additions to his XD collection, along with a few other gems, in 2018 at the Treeze tournament at Lums Pond State Park in Bears, Delaware.
“I see a guy selling out of his trunk and I go over to see what he has,” said McAlees. “He says he’s selling them for $15 each and I proceeded to get an amoeba glow Stingray, three glow XDs, two original football Rocs, a prototype glow Stingray and a Cobra. They are definitely a main part of my collection now.”
His XD collection is enormous, but his Ching collection is quite noteworthy as well. Ching discs are known for their vibrant stamps and colors and were formerly manufactured at Innova's factory. McAlees has gathered over 150 of them.
“Ching has the cool colors and designs,” said McAlees. “I was lucky to keep a lot from the early days [of selling].”
Mark Ellis
Unlike some collectors who meticulously organize their treasures, Mark Ellis said finding a specific one of the thousands of discs boxed up in his basement could be an impossible ask in some cases.
“I have people over and they go through the boxes and pick some discs they like,” he said. “As they look, different discs end up in different boxes. I know I have some things that I could never find if you bet me on it. But sometimes you find stuff you wouldn’t expect.”
Ellis, who's played disc golf competitively for around three decades, lives just 20 minutes from Discraft's factory in Michigan and is sponsored by the company. Naturally, the majority of his collection is Discraft, and every now and then he finds a blast from that company's past while perusing his stash.
For example, Ellis said he recently pulled out a 25-year-old Discraft Stratus. As he continued to look, he realized he had stored away a whole box of them. A box of those could fetch a decent price in the right market, but value is not what Ellis is after.
“Every collector has an essence and for most people that essence is value,” said Ellis. “For me, I collect what I like. I like frisbee art, I like hot stamps, and I like things that look cool.”
On the walls of the Ellis' home hang 10 original oil paintings from frisbee artist John Notedoom, along with stacks more stowed away. Also displayed in the house are sculptures from Tom Holston’s frisbee-related bent metal collection, which Ellis is quite fond of.
“I think my frisbee art collection is more impressive, one of a kind, one-off, original, unique,” said Ellis. “When it comes to the frisbees themselves, the great challenge of life is whether you throw it or collect it when the stamp is beautiful.”
In the end, a lot of those attractive and unique stamps end up in Ellis’ disc golf bag where he can throw and appreciate them daily.
More to Come
If you've enjoyed learning about these collectors and their small pieces of disc sports history, you'll be excited to know that it's a topic we plan to expand on. We're currently working on an article fully exploring the efforts of the Flying Disc Museum referenced in this piece. To be sure not to miss that or any Release Point post, subscribe to the newsletter in the gray area below.
UPDATE May 26, 2020: You can find the article on the Flying Disc Museum here.
