For coaches and team managers, here are the best ways to purchase high-quality discs in bulk quantities for your team(s), ordered from least to most expensive.  Costs are approximate, based on late 2014 early 2018 quotes and conversion rates, and are somewhat specific to orders being shipped to Seattle (shipping costs vary regionally).  If you order from one of these sources and want to share your experience (cost, delivery time, quality, etc.) — just leave a comment and we’ll add your data to this post.

All makes/models listed here are approved as meeting USA Ultimate’s Disc Technical Standards.  Be careful to order the right size disc, though!  (They are listed here together…)  The 175 g discs are used in most ultimate; the 145g discs are intended for younger players, generally in 4th or 3rd grade, or younger (although they’re great for traveling or camping, too).

Cheap discs (<$7)

$3.32-3.84/disc – Discraft Ultimate Juniors Program

• These are misprinted Disccraft discs only for use in K-12 programs in the U.S.
• Order either Ultrastar (175 gram) or J*Star (145 gram)
• Must ship to a school address
• Order must be placed by a current USA Ultimate member
• School must be listed as a USA Ultimate team (as of 2014, USA Ultimate member/coaches can add a team on-line)
• Max order size is 50 discs per calendar year
• Minimum order size is 10 discs
• Price range is due to variable shipping ($16-42 for 50 disc orders, more as you get further from Michigan)
• 2016 cost data: An order of 50 discs sent to Seattle cost $150 + 41.80 shipping = 191.80, or $3.83 per disc
• Turn-around time:
  • 2017, March: turn-around time of 10 days (mailed order from Seattle on 3/3; school received on 3/13!).
  • Other Seattle coaches reported (in 2016-17): “received discs as quickly as 1 week after ordering” and “still waiting after about a month…”

$4.00/disc (-$6.80/disc?) – Aria Ultimate practice discs (175g)

• New in 2017, these high-tech discs use a slightly softer plastic but fly great (see our 2017 review).
• Minimum order for bulk discounted orders isn’t clear, but non-discounted custom disc orders have a minimum of 100
• 2018 cost estimates: for minimum (100) bulk order of single-color custom-printed logo on white is $6.80 ($6.53 for 150 discs)
• In Feb 2018 they offered free domestic shipping for orders >$100
• They offer discounted pricing for bulk orders via inquiry; $4/disc has been reported by a Seattle team in 2017 (for a 110 disc order). In a Feb 2018 email they confirmed “$6.80 is our base price (max.) and we lower the cost/disc from there.”
• Turn-around time is not yet clear for discounted bulk orders (but their custom orders typically take 4-5 weeks overall, 3-4 weeks from payment).
• Based on their 1-for-1 donation model, for each disc sold at retail price , the company gives a disc to a social partner! But there are caveats for discounted quantities…
  • They offer a 10-pack of practice discs for $12/disc, often on sale for $6/disc, and donate a single disc for each pack sold.
  • “Because we offer large discounts for bulk orders of discs, we are not able to match each disc in custom team orders. However, if you order 100 discs, we will donate 10 discs to your choice of one of our organizations. We encourage you to host a discussion with your team about the impact of discs and the impact of the sport of ultimate and its value system, and imagine the effect that 10 discs can make on another team somewhere that is just getting off the ground.”

$5.50/disc – 10-pack of Discraft UltraStar (175g) misprints from their factory store

• 10-pack of misprint of 175 gram Discraft UltraStar discs
• Random assortment of  (assorted colors, designs)
• Not guaranteed to be “kid-friendly” designs
• Usually cheaper than Ultrastars through their retailers
• 2018: $55 and free shipping by ground (to Seattle), so $5.50/disc…

Inexpensive discs ($7-10)

$7.00/disc – DiscNW  discs (175g Ultrastars)

• $7 is the price for youth (confirmed in 2018), regardless of how many are ordered (retail price is $12)
• Obtain a youth discount code by emailing ops@discnw.org
• Order through the FiveUltimate web site
• Can be shipped or picked up from their HQ downtown
• 2018: free shipping is being offered for orders >$100.

 $7.00/disc – USA Ultimate’s custom prints (175g Ultrastars)

• A great benefit of becoming a member of USA Ultimate ($36/yr for coaches)
• Nice variety of designs on mostly white discs
• Can order any combination of J*Star (145g) or Ultrastar (175g) discs, each costs $5.00 $7.00, including shipping (2018: price increased to $6/disc + $1/disc shipping)
• Can specify any combination of nifty designs
• Order via the USA Ultimate merchandise order (Google) form
• $5.00 is actual cost as there is no shipping charged
• If you are a coach, team manager, or PE teacher (and especially if you are already a USAU member) the cheapest source of 10-15 discs may be one of the USA Ultimate kits (60-70$ $107 [$90/kit for members in 2018, plus $17 shipping/kit] for members) because they come bundled with valuable supporting materials…  $70/15=$4.67/disc e.g. the PE kit comes with cones, curriculum, DVD, rule/spectator guide.

$7.99/disc (?) – Daredevil 175g misprints

• Assorted colors or all-gold USA Ultimate Championship Series misprints
• 2018: $7.99 Canadian/disc (plus shipping?), ~1,500 in stock

$8/disc (?) – DiscNW 5-disc grab bag (175 Ultrastars)

• leftovers from DiscNW tournaments like Potlatch and Spawnfest
• portion of sales goes back to DiscNW!
• 2018: $40/bag (reduced from $48), so $8/disc (plus shipping?), only some ink colors in stock (no rainbow!)

$9.03 to ~$10/disc – Discs for Development (VC Ultimate + Discraft) Ultrastar misprints (175g)

• Bulk quantities of misprinted 175 gram Discraft UltraStar discs
• Choice of assorted colors or white-only
• Can request “kid-friendly” designs (check-box on order form)
• 15% development discount offered on orders from youth teams (upon request and review of your team’s story)
• 2018 prices:
  • 1 disc for $7.95 (US)
  • 3-pack for $7.75
  • 10-pack for $67.50 ($57.37 with development discount)
  • 10-pack to Seattle via standard shipping (4-7 days) from Canada is $9.03/disc with development discount (quoted in 2018)
• Shipping charges may be lower per disc with bulk orders (but are determined based on quantity)

~10$/disc – 175g ultimate disc via Amazon

• Used discs are often offered in the $5-7/disc range
• Amazon Prime you can sometimes find deals offering new Ultrastars for ~$8-10/disc

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Archived/broken sources:

$3.00-3.49/disc – Discraft misprint J-star (145g) 10-disc packs

• Note these are smaller, 145 gram discs good for younger players or portability (fits better in a kid’s backpack)
• These are misprinted Discraft discs direct from Discraft (which has much better shipping rates than other distributors, e.g. Sportdiscs.com below)
• Listed as 29.99 in November, 2015
• 34.95 for 10-pack with $5 standard shipping = 3.49/disc
• 59.98 for two 10-packs with shipping included = $3.00/disc
• Assorted colors: white, blue, red
• 2017 (March): out of stock!
• 2018: link is broken. Only J-stars on their site now seem to be a 3-pack for $24 plus $5 shipping, or $9.66/disc.

$3.57-4.37/disc – Discraft J*Star (145g) misprints from SportDiscs.com

• Note these are 145 gram discs good for players less than about 10 years old
• 10 discs for $30.00 (before shipping); with shipping to Seattle, the total cost is 43.66, which means shipping costs ~45% of the disc cost…
• 50 discs (5 orders of 10-pack) is $150+$28.60 for shipping (about 19% of disc cost), yielding a total of 178.60 or $3.57/disc.
• Random assortment of 145 gram Discraft discs (assorted colors, designs); these are best for 3rd or 4th graders, or other youth with small hands
• Good source for schools that need more than 50 discs (the max Juniors Program order)
• Be sure to specify “kid-friendly” designs
• 2017: broken link, sportdiscs.com redirects to http://discraftfactorystore.com/

$4.00-5.20/disc – Discraft UltraStar (175g) misprints from SportDiscs.com

• Random assortment of 175 gram Discraft discs (assorted colors, designs)
• Good source for schools that need more than 50 discs (the max Juniors Program order)
• Be sure to specify “kid-friendly” designs
• Cost above varies with order size ($4.32 is for max order of 75 discs) and does not include shipping
• 2018: broken link; can’t find anything on their site related to misprints (other than disc golf discs)

$5.80/disc – VC Ultimate practice package

• This is an example (from Oct 2015) of an intermittent or seasonal special deal
• Package of ten 175 gram Discraft  UltraStars
• Mix of colours and misprint designs
• Not sure how much shipping would add
• Original price listed as $14.00/disc…
• Single misprint discs going for $5.95 (w/o shipping)
• 2018: new program called “Discs for Development” in partnership with Discraft (see above)…

$8.06/disc – Discraft J*Star (145 g) from DiscAce

• $5.99 before shipping (looks like ~18% of cart total for shipping to Seattle)
• Discount code might help?
• 2018: link works but leads to “Sold out” notice…

$8.79/disc – Daredevil (140g)

• Note these have a mass of only 140 grams — the lightest available for young (<10 year old) players who have small hands
• Made in and shipped from Canada
• $9.99 Canadian (plus shipping?)
• 2018: They don’t seem to offer 140g misprints anymore…