Hot stamp ideas

[Bruce Brakel]

These are some hot stamp ideas I've had.  If you have some ideas feel free to post them.

Because Rockford calls itself The Forest City, I was thinking about sticking with the tree theme but maybe going Celtic with it, maybe using this with circle text:

[Bruce Brakel]

That tree is not my artwork.  I had to do a lot of work to clean it up and adapt it for a hot stamp.  I suppose if it is really Celtic, it is public domain by now. 

This supposedly is a symbol for the Mayan Sun God, and if it is the Mayans are all dead and not objecting to our use of it right?

[white_rhino]

A celtic disc like that would be awesome.

[Bruce Brakel]

The whole point of doing tournament stamps from my perspective is simply to get the tournament deal and pass the savings along to the players.  The main difference between a tournament stamped Z Buzzz and a stock stamped Z Buzzz is the $4!  But it is nice to have something not butt ugly on a disc and tastes vary. 

I'm thinking that anything I "steal" off a commercial site, I'll buy the product and make it legal.  The tree was on a site that was selling the art supplies needed to reproduce that tree.  For $15 or so I can buy the right to reproduce the tree, so long as they don't have any disclaimers about commercial use. 

[discmonkey]

I definitely dig the tree.  I think that the cooler the design, the more you will sell.  Black Wizards with that stamp in silver would be super cool.

[stpitner]

The whole point of doing tournament stamps from my perspective is simply to get the tournament deal and pass the savings along to the players.  The main difference between a tournament stamped Z Buzzz and a stock stamped Z Buzzz is the $4!  But it is nice to have something not butt ugly on a disc and tastes vary. 

I'm thinking that anything I "steal" off a commercial site, I'll buy the product and make it legal.  The tree was on a site that was selling the art supplies needed to reproduce that tree.  For $15 or so I can buy the right to reproduce the tree, so long as they don't have any disclaimers about commercial use. 

One thing that I've noticed that while the savings are great, people do get picky about hot stamp.  An example of this: I picked up a bunch of Star Wraiths from Tom with a mix of tournament stamps and stock stamps.  I had the stock stamped ones sold almost immediately (within 2 weeks), and the tournament stamped ones have slowly trickled out.  I still have a couple of those tournament stamped ones (and I've had them since IOS #6).  I think the biggest couple of factors that they don't sell are 1) they reference a tournament the potential buyer didn't play at, 2) the stamp looks terrible, 3) seemingly the non-tournament customer wants something that references the name of the disc on the surface, and 4) needs to be a popular disc.  You won't see too many custom-stamped Elite-X Eclipses purchased in droves.  A Star Wraith and ESP Surge, sure.  

It's an interesting dynamic, but I think that if you had a really good looking stamp that doesn't reference a tournament or specific date you would get more interest.  For me I like the tree stamp design, but I feel the second stamp design is a little too busy.  It's neatly done, but I guess I prefer full disc dyes instead of close to full-disc stamps.

Where it works for you is that with the IOS stamps, you get a ton of people that are playing IN the IOS that would want one of those discs (myself included).  I think I have 5 or 6 of the various hot stamps from IOS 2006 in my personal collection just because I wanted discs that talked about the IOS 2006.  Outside of the tournament you find very little interest, although I did give away a bunch of IOS-stamped discs at the tournament I ran last October to help promote the IOS series

I definitely agree, tastes vary.  I don't know why some people would rather just have a stock disc than anything else. Sometimes it's the color of the disc, some it's just they don't care, they want to launch it rather than have something "pretty."  I love a good dyed disc, and you'll always find at least 2 or 3 in my bag.

[Chainmeister]

Its a matter of taste.  If it looks cool it should sell.  How  did the tree stamp discs from Rockford sell two years ago? I thought that was a very cool stamp.  The disc is still in my bag.  The Parkside stamp with the hole #8 basket on the supercolors were very cool.  I hated to trade that one away.  A generic stamp that tells about the tournament or series seems less attractive. If you didn't play there you will not care.  However, if its a cool stamp, it should generate interest.  I liked the Celtic tree and the Aztecish thing you posted.

[Bruce Brakel]

If you are feeling stuck with IOS stamped discs from that trade we did, I'll trade back for them.  I think I told you that then too.  I find that the better the player is, the less likely he is to notice or care about the stamp, except when the stamping process changes the dominess.  Sometimes a stamp will sell the disc because the 2006 run was stable and the 2007 run came out flippy.  

I just wrote to "Julie" asking if I could use the tree if I paid for the art supplies.  Usually when I do this I don't get a reply and I take that for a "yes."  

This is funny, sort of.  I bought this how-to-draw book so I wouldn't feel bad about doing Peanuts characters on discs, and Kelsey wanted the book anyway.  So inside there's legal disclaimer basically saying that even though you've paid $15 for a how-to-draw book, you can't actually draw these characters without written permission from the cartoon syndicate that owns Peanuts rights who isn't actually giving guys like me permission to do discs one at a time.  

Someday, we're all going to jail.

[Fox Metro Discer]

  I think the biggest couple of factors that they don't sell are 1) they reference a tournament the potential buyer didn't play at, 2) the stamp looks terrible, 3) seemingly the non-tournament customer wants something that references the name of the disc on the surface, and 4) needs to be a popular disc.  You won't see too many custom-stamped Elite-X Eclipses purchased in droves.  A Star Wraith and ESP Surge, sure.  


I would have to agree with the above comment. Not many people want a disc that does not look too "cool". I, on the other hand, would always rather have some sort of custom stamped disc rather than a factory print. I am always hunting for the custom satmped discs at any tourney I am at for 3 reasons. 1) I think it helps promote the sport more to let people know there are tournaments all over the country. 2) They look a lot better than the factory prints (most of the time). 3) With Discraft discs, it seems that the custom hot stamped discs seem to be more stable than their factory pirnted counterparts.

I think you are going to run into the names/dates for any tourney on a hot stamped disc nowadays. As for a popular disc, I, myself will always take a really cool printed Blowfly over some ragtag Elite X Avenger anyday. But that is just from the viewpoint of a disc maniac as well.

[stpitner]

 I think the biggest couple of factors that they don't sell are 1) they reference a tournament the potential buyer didn't play at, 2) the stamp looks terrible, 3) seemingly the non-tournament customer wants something that references the name of the disc on the surface, and 4) needs to be a popular disc.  You won't see too many custom-stamped Elite-X Eclipses purchased in droves.  A Star Wraith and ESP Surge, sure.  

I would have to agree with the above comment. Not many people want a disc that does not look too "cool". I, on the other hand, would always rather have some sort of custom stamped disc rather than a factory print. I am always hunting for the custom satmped discs at any tourney I am at for 3 reasons. 1) I think it helps promote the sport more to let people know there are tournaments all over the country. 2) They look a lot better than the factory prints (most of the time). 3) With Discraft discs, it seems that the custom hot stamped discs seem to be more stable than their factory pirnted counterparts.

I think you are going to run into the names/dates for any tourney on a hot stamped disc nowadays. As for a popular disc, I, myself will always take a really cool printed Blowfly over some ragtag Elite X Avenger anyday. But that is just from the viewpoint of a disc maniac as well.

You guys did a nice job with the Ice Bowl stamps.  I've had a couple people comment on the "no wimps. no whiners." text on it.  They all thought it was nice.  The hot stamp color has a lot to do with it too.  This disc was a blue star teerex with a metallic "circle gold" I call it where it has sunburst gold prism type effects all throughout it.  It was a sweet looking hotstamp so I picked it up.  Plus now that I have found I can turn over a 168g TeeRex more easily than I should, I'll probably start throwing this one since it's a 175g

oh and Bruce - I don't feel like I'm stuck with the IOS stamped stuff yet... I've sold a few, but I think most of it is due to just that given any time frame, I sell about 75% Innova and 25% Discraft.  So I can't expect to have insane sales on it anyway   My inventory is rapidly shrinking too (guess that's a good thing), so once it's expanded some more I think some more people will pick up the IOS stuff.


And one other thing - someone buy these exclusive Bruce-dyed discs that I have up for sale on eBay lol...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290083066689 - 2006 Peoria Open Stamp Elite-X XL
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290083067330 - this one has the IOS #4 stamp, Elite-X Challenger.

I didn't win these from a tournament or buy them with brass or anything.  They are specials from Bruce   I have more too.  Buy Bruce-dyed discs, they are great!

[Bruce Brakel]

Is it a coincidence or a conspiracy that you would mention Blowflies here and then five hours later Derek from DGA would give me a sales call?  I'll talk about that in another thread.

Tony Kroes has done some cool mandala-like artwork for Jaybird Discs.  That and labyrinths offer possibilities.  This is the Labyrinth at Chartres:

[Bruce Brakel]

This is the Labyrinth at Reims.  I don't know what Labyrinths have to do with disc golf.  They are just cool to look at. 

[Bruce Brakel]

And, I like St. George's dragon.  If I had a plotter I'd be dying this bad boy on some discs:

[SERG]

Are you looking for different designs for each event or for the IOS in general? Or both?

I really liked (and have in my bag) the first Forest City Frenzy Celtic tree stamp.

Personally, I prefer a custom hotstamp over the "factory stamp." Keeps your opponent guessing "What did he/she just throw?"

[Bruce Brakel]

Ideally, I'd like to do a different stamp for every tournament, but Innova's stamping "deal" doesn't really make that possible. 

[smyith]

This supposedly is a symbol for the Mayan Sun God, and if it is the Mayans are all dead and not objecting to our use of it right?

They aren't dead they just abandoned the city-states of old. And Mayan isn't a civilzation its a culture area, yucatan penn. and guatamala mainly. In fact, they still find Mayan people you haven't seen the outside world since before "contact." Sorry just wanted to clarify.

And the bigger the stamp the better!!!!!!

[arendow]

Out of all the stamps, the tree is by far the best IMO. Very cool, kind of balanced between simple and complex, I like it a lot.

[SERG]

What about a stamp that is a "word search" so when you're waiting on holes you can play a game on your disc. Perhaps their could be different topic word searches or disc golf related, etc.

Just a stupid thought but here's a site where you can make your own.

[stpitner]

What about a stamp that is a "word search" so when you're waiting on holes you can play a game on your disc. Perhaps their could be different topic word searches or disc golf related, etc.

Just a stupid thought but here's a site where you can make your own.

sudoku puzzles would work too

[white_rhino]

I think puzzle discs are an awesome idea.  I'de buy em