SITE OPERATORRyan morrisI started disc golfing in 2013. It didn't take me long to become addicted to everything about the sport. By 2016, a friend put a glow firebird in my hand and I have never taken one out of my bag since. I currently have four Nate Sextons in my bag and they are my most reliable disc that I own.
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The History of Nate Sexton Firebirds
In order to understand the history of Nate Sexton firebirds, we must first speak of Ken Climo. Ken "The Champ" Climo won 12 PDGA World Championships, a feat unparalleled by any other disc golfer to date. Innova Disc Golf sponsored Ken and on many older champion plastic discs, you will find the signature of Ken Climo and the number of World Championships that he had won to that date. In 2002, Ken won his 11th World Championship. Shortly thereafter, Innova put out a champion Firebird with Ken's signature and 11X World Champion on the stamp. Little did they know that this run would be the most highly sought after Firebirds made due to the consistency of their flight. In 2006, Ken won his 12th World Championship, which brought about a new stamp with the 12X World Champion script. Somewhere in that four-year span, something changed ever-so-slightly with the Firebird molds and many people who threw "11X Firebirds" stocked up on them rather than switching to the slightly more overstable "12X Firebirds". Firebirds have the flight numbers 9 3 0 4, and are classified as a Fairway Driver. People use them for forehands, backhands, thumbers, tomahawks, grenades, and even rollers. In that, they are perhaps the most versatile utility disc ever made, which certainly adds to their allure.
This is where Nate Sexton comes into play. Nate was one of Innova's best ambassadors for the sport and one of its most up-and-coming players on their roster. His ability to play and broadcast disc golf made him personable and, to this day, I don't think I have ever heard anyone say anything negative about Nate Sexton. Nate Sexton was one of the many pro disc golfers who loved the "11X Firebirds" but because of supply and demand, the prices on 11X were already doubling, tripling the original value of the discs. (An unthrown 11X is currently worth around $100+). In 2014, Nate accomplished one of his dreams of being added to the Innova Star Team, Innova’s premium pro squad. And so, the story goes, Nate had Innova take an 11X Firebird and recreate the mold for his new signature Firebird, which would be a cast in a blend of champion plastic and glow plastic. This added two benefits, obviously the disc glows and can be used for night golf, but also, the plastic blend proved to be a great combination of both grippy and durable. Could he have known what he was creating?
In 2015, Innova created the first Nate Sexton Firebirds. Whereas in the past, Innova only put player’s signatures on stamps, Innova actually put Nate Sexton’s likeness on the stamp with a background of an artistic Firebird. Reportedly somewhere in the area of 1,500 of these firebirds went on sale and quickly sold out. When people learned that Innova had a new "11X Firebird" on the market, it didn't take long for them to grab as many as they could. With 8 different stamp color varieties, collectors began to wonder, will these things be as valuable as "11X Firebirds"? So, as many people bought them to throw, many people bought them to collect. Boy, were they smart. Almost all of the 2015s made are seafoam colored. Some of the very first ones that they produced have swirls from the ink being dropped in the dye. But the single biggest factor on pricing has been the rarity of the stamps, as more and more collectors have joined the trend. Today, some of the rarer stamps are selling at over $700. (*See rarity chart below) And they sell as quickly as they are posted due to the extreme rarity of actually seeing them on the market. I am one of a handful of people who has all 8 2015 stamps. It cost me a lot of money, but fortunately for me, I started throwing and collecting Sexton Firebirds in 2017, so I got into the game relatively cheaply. Before I move on to 2016s, it should be noted that Nate Sexton himself also stamped a collection of 2015 Sexton Firebirds with unreleased stamps. I have seen dark blue, American flag, black, and other stamp colors that few have seen and fewer have touched. These uncirculated Sextons sell for $1500+ today and the prices aren’t going down.
In 2016, Innova put out a second run of Nate Sexton Glow Firebirds, marked with the classic Innova First Run Star on the Stamp. These were notably a little bit flatter topped than the 2015s, which made them more overstable. That didn't keep collectors and throwers from buying them up though! As soon as Innova dropped them on their Innova Pro Shop website, they were gone within minutes. And what's more, while the 2015s were mostly seafoam green colored, the 2016s had neon pink discs, plain white discs, bright aqua blue discs, purple discs, as well as seafoam discs. They had discs with major swirls throughout the flight plates, they had discs with halo (different colored) rims, and they had 8 different stamps again, of different rarities. Collectors and throwers quickly gobbled up the rare stamps and the pretty-colored discs, totaling somewhere in the 2,500-4500 discs produced. Of those 8 stamps, four were deemed more rare and two were deemed ultra rare, pink shatter and green digital stamps which are currently selling for $700-$1300 in mint condition. And then, to make things better, they released about 125 Double Stamp 2016s with all sorts of uncirculated stamp colors. These also fetch a pretty penny!
In 2017, realizing that they had a gold-mine on their hands, Innova put out the 2017 Firebird, and like its predecessors, it kept selling out. Even though they reportedly doubled the production (somewhere near 8,000-15,000), people couldn’t get enough of them. The 2017 had a little more dome-shape than the 2016, similar to the 2015 and came with only four stamp varieties, but again, there were swirls, and different-colored discs available. While it may not be more rare, the purple stamps have been fetching the most interest by collectors as this is the only purple stamp Sexton Firebirds made to date. (The lavender stamp from 2016 is closer to pink than purple.) It was also in that year, that our boy Nate Sexton won the United States Disc Golf Championship or USDGC for the first time in his career. To celebrate, Innova released bottom-stamp Nate Sexton commemorative Firebirds with four different stamps. At this point, the collectors started really paying attention.
The bottom-stamp Firebird actually came in two varieties of the four aforementioned stamps. People who bought them when they first came out noticed on the bottom of the stamp, there was the typical Innova Champion Discs engravement. However, when they made the later drops of these discs, a second engravement showed up “MADE IN USA”. Rumors started to spread that the 1st runs of the bottom stamps were actually leftover 2015 Sexton Firebirds that hadn’t been stamped. Now, when you see anyone selling a bottom stamp Sexton, the same question always quickly arises - “Is it Made in USA embossed?” No one has ever confirmed that this rumor is true, but the non-Made in USA bottom stamps sell for about twice the value than those with the embossing. And then Innova threw another curveball, supplying Nate Sexton with 75 top and bottom stamp 2017s. Nate held on to a few for his own collection and has given many of them away to friends and fans. These uncirculated discs are selling for well-over $500 currently and are very hard to find.
When the 2018s dropped, fans were ready. We crashed the Innova website several times trying to fill our carts. The 2018s came in with four stamp varieties, rainbow, red, green, and silver. Reportedly, somewhere closer to 13,000-20,000 of these Firebirds were made and all of them sold out very quickly each time Innova dropped a load on the website. It wasn’t until later that a fifth stamp was released, supposedly on one non-Innova website and only about 25 were reported to have been stamped with this new stamp. These “thin rainbow” or “double rainbow” 2018s are currently selling for near $2,000. I am one of the fortunate people who owns one of these and I have turned down an offer of $2,000 cash for it because it makes my collection complete. I know a lot of people who throw only 2018s because of their unique, ‘glidyness’ with an extremely overstable finish. It should be noted that the 2018 Firebird says 2017 USDGC Champion on it. Many people think that 2018s are 2017s because 2017 is on the disc, but this is incorrect. He won the USDGC in 17 and they printed it on his 2018 Sexton Firebird.
In 2019, I’m not sure how many Sexton Firebirds they made, but it was a lot. If I had to guess, I’d guess closer to 25,000-35,000. Again, almost every time they dropped another load, we crashed the Innova site and they sold out within minutes. The 2019s were, like the 2016s, more overstable than 2015s, 2017s, and 2018s, so many people enjoy them as throwers and utility discs. The 2019s came in four different stamp color varieties, with the first ever “Easter Egg” foil rainbow stamp. Being more overstable led many Firebird throwers to land on the 2019 as the bagged Firebird of choice. I personally use my 2019 solely for thumbers due to their predictable, straight flightpath. Although 2019s were produced in such high numbers, their value has also risen. Me and many of my Sexton collector friends expected 2018s to be the last “collectable” Sexton Firebirds, but we were wrong. 19s are selling in the $30-50 range with neon pink discs going for closer to $100. None of the stamps seem more rare than others, but collectors have seemed to enjoy the Easter Egg Rainbow a little more than the others.
In 2020, Innova faced a worrisome start because Sexton Firebirds usually drop in March, when our nation was facing closedowns due to Covid-19, but they dropped anyways and, what do you know, we crashed the site several times trying to buy them before anyone else. 2020s, initially came out in four different stamps: red shatter, flat green, flat blue, and thin rainbow. It is noteworthy that red is the only stamp that has been available every year. I had 10 discs in my cart and by the time I entered my payment information, they had been taken from me and the words SOLD OUT appeared on my screen. I would have to be quicker the next time. After about three drops, Covid-19 was too much, the player’s tour had been postponed and the Innova factory, much like a lot of businesses, had to close down for safety. Collectors began asking, “If that’s all the 2020s they produce, will that make 2020s more valuable?” The answer would typically be an outstanding “Yes” due to the whole supply and demand chain, but Innova opened back up and dropped a few more batches. And this time, there was another change. Whereas the first few drops were almost all marked 175 grams, these later drops were marked 173-175. Collector’s noticed and began grabbing more Firebirds so they would have one of each stamp in 175 and one of each stamp in 173-175. And just as we thought we were getting caught up, another bombshell dropped. Innova had placed, in some people’s orders, a metallic green “fresh cut grass” green foil stamp and a LVC “Vegas” metallic blue stamp. I bought one of each from people who posted them on Facebook for $180. I have seen them recently selling for 400+ each. They made so few of them, that everyone who collects Sextons simply can’t have one. Somewhere in these drops, there also came a lighter blue stamp. It is barely distinguishable from the flat blue 2020, which is actually more of a royal blue/purple. Then, in October, Innova dropped a new order that were marked Made in the USA and penned 173-5. In this latest drop, some lucky folks received a wide rainbow stamp that hadn't been released before. Collectors scrambled to gobble them up, but so far, less than 100 appear to be in circulation. This drives up demand and the supply is low, so prices are instantly super high. What’s better is that Nate Sexton announced a few days before the Las Vegas Challenge that he was going to be selling 250 Special Edition Firebirds at the event. I have friends who flew to Las Vegas just to grab two of them (the max anyone was allowed to purchase). Sexton fans were lined up at 6 AM to try to get their hands on one, and those who did, were rewarded. Not only did Nate Sexton go on to win the LVC, the LVC Firebirds are now selling at $500-1200 each. I bought mine on the day of the event for $131 from a friend of mine who was playing the LVC. My wife thought I was nuts. Let’s just say she’s a believer now.
So once the 2020s all hit the market, on July 21, 2020, I decided it would be a good time to start to document the rarity of each year, and each stamp on the Nate Sexton Collector’s Page on Facebook (where we are up to over 2500 members), with input from guys who know a lot more than I do. You see, I am known throughout the Sexton collectors for my collection and knowledge, so I have approximately 15-30 people per week who hit me up to ask about rarity and value of discs. I just wanted to provide everyone with a one-stop place to look before they PM me or one of the site administrators with their inquiries. Within the thread of this post I created, an Innova pro placed a picture of a 2020 Sexton Firebird with an Oil Slick stamp that no one had ever seen. Our minds were blown. He also stated there were two additional other stamps that were not in circulation that Nate had been gifted from Innova. Of course, I had to know more. Upon looking into it and fund-raising, I ended up landing one of these three gems directly from Nate with the caveat that I was not going to “flip” them (sell them quickly for profit), because, again, these are 1 of 1 collector’s items. I agreed to this under the stipulation that I was allowed to show off the three pictures of the uncirculated birds to the collector’s page so that people at least know that they exist. On August 10, Charlie Eisenhood wrote an article in the Ultiworld Disc Golf Newsletter about the rise of the Sexton Firebird. It is a great read with a lot of information. As of now, that article and this webpage entail the brief history of the Nate Sexton Firebird and its following.
Link to the article: https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2020/08/11/the-rise-of-the-sexton-firebird
Value of discs:
I always get hit up from people asking me the same question, "How much is this disc worth?" It is a great question and there are a lot of things that go into it. Here is a basic breakdown of the value of Sexton Firebirds to collectors.
#1 - Collectors value discs that are unthrown, uninked (even, to some extent, Nate Sexton autographs), and have little to no storage damage. Any of these three things will bring the value down on a disc.
#2 - Collectors value discs that are rare. 2015s and LVC Firebirds are prime examples of this. Also, double stamps, lightweights, team stamps, and out-of-circulation discs fall into this category.
#3 - Collectors value discs that have rare stamps. It is harder to find them, thus, they are highly sought after.
#4 - Collectors value discs with unusual colors. Pink, purple, dark blue, and white discs are prime examples of rare disc colors that are always sought after. Other things like swirls, particularly neon pink swirls, or halos around the rim also make discs unique and more valuable.
#5 - Each year, more Glow Sexton Firebirds seem to be released into the wild. The 2015s are the most rare, and therefore, typically the most expensive, followed by 2016s, 2017s, 2018s, 2019s, 2020s. (But remember what I said about rare stamps and colors.)
Any speculation as to the quantity of Nate Sexton Firebirds in circulation is researched, but none of these numbers have ever been confirmed by Innova Discs.
Discs are listed hypothetically from most rare to least rare (Circulated):
*Lightweight (170-173 penned) discs from each year are more rare than 175 gram discs
2015 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Cool Sunset (One wide strip of Yellow, Green, and Blue) 10-30
Purple Rainbow (Yellow, Red, Pink, Purple, Blue, Green) 25-50
Red Digital/Pixel (Red with thousands of tiny pixelated dots) 50-115
Classic Rainbow (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue) 125-175
Warm Sunset (Pink Innova Label, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green) 125-175
Rasta (2-3 strips of Green, Blue, Gold) 300-400
Red Shatter (Red with hundreds of tiny diamonds) 300-400
White 300-400
2016 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Green Digital/Pixel 25-50
Pink Shatter (pink with hundreds of tiny diamonds) 30-70
Blueberry (dark blue stamp) 75-150
Pink Lemonade (flat pink stamp) 125-200
Black 400-600
Lavender 400-600
Red Pixel 400-600
Blue (light blue stamp) 400-600
2017 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Purple 2000-3000
Rasta 2500-3000
Silver 2500-3000
Red 2500-3000
2017 USDGC Bottom Stamps (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
No Made in USA Flag (Red, White, Blue) (100-200)
No Made in USA Blue (100-200)
No Made in USA Gold (100-200)
No Made in USA Rasta (100-200)
Flag (Red, White, Blue) 1000-2000
Blue 1000-2000
Gold 1000-2000
Rasta 1000-2000
2018 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Double “Thin” Rainbow 15-25
Rainbow (2-3 varieties of stamps) 3250-5000
Silver 3250-5000
Red 3250-5000
Green 3250-5000
2019 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Rainbow Jellybean 6000-9000
Gold 6000-9000
Black 6000-9000
Red 6000-9000
2020 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
LVC Blue *30-75
Fresh Grass (Metallic) Green *40-100
Single "Wide" Rainbow *50-115
Thin Rainbow 4,000-6,000
Red Pixel 4,000-6,000
Flat Blue (2 different shades, royal (purple) and *classic blue (lighter blue) *more rare) 4,000-6,000
Flat Green 4,000-6,000
2020 LVC Special Edition 50 White, 200 Charcoal Smoke (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Blue 55-70
Gold 55-70
Silver 55-70
Red 55-70
Unreleased:
2015s (25 or less)
2015 Blue shatter 1
2015 Black and blue 1
2015 Pink 2
2015 Yellow 2
2015 Purple 3
2015 Flag 3
2015 Black 4 (1/4 is team stamped)
2015 Double Stamp 1
Top AND Bottom Stamp 2017s (approximately 75)
2020s (3): 1 Oil Slick, 1 LVC Gold, 1 Black
This is where Nate Sexton comes into play. Nate was one of Innova's best ambassadors for the sport and one of its most up-and-coming players on their roster. His ability to play and broadcast disc golf made him personable and, to this day, I don't think I have ever heard anyone say anything negative about Nate Sexton. Nate Sexton was one of the many pro disc golfers who loved the "11X Firebirds" but because of supply and demand, the prices on 11X were already doubling, tripling the original value of the discs. (An unthrown 11X is currently worth around $100+). In 2014, Nate accomplished one of his dreams of being added to the Innova Star Team, Innova’s premium pro squad. And so, the story goes, Nate had Innova take an 11X Firebird and recreate the mold for his new signature Firebird, which would be a cast in a blend of champion plastic and glow plastic. This added two benefits, obviously the disc glows and can be used for night golf, but also, the plastic blend proved to be a great combination of both grippy and durable. Could he have known what he was creating?
In 2015, Innova created the first Nate Sexton Firebirds. Whereas in the past, Innova only put player’s signatures on stamps, Innova actually put Nate Sexton’s likeness on the stamp with a background of an artistic Firebird. Reportedly somewhere in the area of 1,500 of these firebirds went on sale and quickly sold out. When people learned that Innova had a new "11X Firebird" on the market, it didn't take long for them to grab as many as they could. With 8 different stamp color varieties, collectors began to wonder, will these things be as valuable as "11X Firebirds"? So, as many people bought them to throw, many people bought them to collect. Boy, were they smart. Almost all of the 2015s made are seafoam colored. Some of the very first ones that they produced have swirls from the ink being dropped in the dye. But the single biggest factor on pricing has been the rarity of the stamps, as more and more collectors have joined the trend. Today, some of the rarer stamps are selling at over $700. (*See rarity chart below) And they sell as quickly as they are posted due to the extreme rarity of actually seeing them on the market. I am one of a handful of people who has all 8 2015 stamps. It cost me a lot of money, but fortunately for me, I started throwing and collecting Sexton Firebirds in 2017, so I got into the game relatively cheaply. Before I move on to 2016s, it should be noted that Nate Sexton himself also stamped a collection of 2015 Sexton Firebirds with unreleased stamps. I have seen dark blue, American flag, black, and other stamp colors that few have seen and fewer have touched. These uncirculated Sextons sell for $1500+ today and the prices aren’t going down.
In 2016, Innova put out a second run of Nate Sexton Glow Firebirds, marked with the classic Innova First Run Star on the Stamp. These were notably a little bit flatter topped than the 2015s, which made them more overstable. That didn't keep collectors and throwers from buying them up though! As soon as Innova dropped them on their Innova Pro Shop website, they were gone within minutes. And what's more, while the 2015s were mostly seafoam green colored, the 2016s had neon pink discs, plain white discs, bright aqua blue discs, purple discs, as well as seafoam discs. They had discs with major swirls throughout the flight plates, they had discs with halo (different colored) rims, and they had 8 different stamps again, of different rarities. Collectors and throwers quickly gobbled up the rare stamps and the pretty-colored discs, totaling somewhere in the 2,500-4500 discs produced. Of those 8 stamps, four were deemed more rare and two were deemed ultra rare, pink shatter and green digital stamps which are currently selling for $700-$1300 in mint condition. And then, to make things better, they released about 125 Double Stamp 2016s with all sorts of uncirculated stamp colors. These also fetch a pretty penny!
In 2017, realizing that they had a gold-mine on their hands, Innova put out the 2017 Firebird, and like its predecessors, it kept selling out. Even though they reportedly doubled the production (somewhere near 8,000-15,000), people couldn’t get enough of them. The 2017 had a little more dome-shape than the 2016, similar to the 2015 and came with only four stamp varieties, but again, there were swirls, and different-colored discs available. While it may not be more rare, the purple stamps have been fetching the most interest by collectors as this is the only purple stamp Sexton Firebirds made to date. (The lavender stamp from 2016 is closer to pink than purple.) It was also in that year, that our boy Nate Sexton won the United States Disc Golf Championship or USDGC for the first time in his career. To celebrate, Innova released bottom-stamp Nate Sexton commemorative Firebirds with four different stamps. At this point, the collectors started really paying attention.
The bottom-stamp Firebird actually came in two varieties of the four aforementioned stamps. People who bought them when they first came out noticed on the bottom of the stamp, there was the typical Innova Champion Discs engravement. However, when they made the later drops of these discs, a second engravement showed up “MADE IN USA”. Rumors started to spread that the 1st runs of the bottom stamps were actually leftover 2015 Sexton Firebirds that hadn’t been stamped. Now, when you see anyone selling a bottom stamp Sexton, the same question always quickly arises - “Is it Made in USA embossed?” No one has ever confirmed that this rumor is true, but the non-Made in USA bottom stamps sell for about twice the value than those with the embossing. And then Innova threw another curveball, supplying Nate Sexton with 75 top and bottom stamp 2017s. Nate held on to a few for his own collection and has given many of them away to friends and fans. These uncirculated discs are selling for well-over $500 currently and are very hard to find.
When the 2018s dropped, fans were ready. We crashed the Innova website several times trying to fill our carts. The 2018s came in with four stamp varieties, rainbow, red, green, and silver. Reportedly, somewhere closer to 13,000-20,000 of these Firebirds were made and all of them sold out very quickly each time Innova dropped a load on the website. It wasn’t until later that a fifth stamp was released, supposedly on one non-Innova website and only about 25 were reported to have been stamped with this new stamp. These “thin rainbow” or “double rainbow” 2018s are currently selling for near $2,000. I am one of the fortunate people who owns one of these and I have turned down an offer of $2,000 cash for it because it makes my collection complete. I know a lot of people who throw only 2018s because of their unique, ‘glidyness’ with an extremely overstable finish. It should be noted that the 2018 Firebird says 2017 USDGC Champion on it. Many people think that 2018s are 2017s because 2017 is on the disc, but this is incorrect. He won the USDGC in 17 and they printed it on his 2018 Sexton Firebird.
In 2019, I’m not sure how many Sexton Firebirds they made, but it was a lot. If I had to guess, I’d guess closer to 25,000-35,000. Again, almost every time they dropped another load, we crashed the Innova site and they sold out within minutes. The 2019s were, like the 2016s, more overstable than 2015s, 2017s, and 2018s, so many people enjoy them as throwers and utility discs. The 2019s came in four different stamp color varieties, with the first ever “Easter Egg” foil rainbow stamp. Being more overstable led many Firebird throwers to land on the 2019 as the bagged Firebird of choice. I personally use my 2019 solely for thumbers due to their predictable, straight flightpath. Although 2019s were produced in such high numbers, their value has also risen. Me and many of my Sexton collector friends expected 2018s to be the last “collectable” Sexton Firebirds, but we were wrong. 19s are selling in the $30-50 range with neon pink discs going for closer to $100. None of the stamps seem more rare than others, but collectors have seemed to enjoy the Easter Egg Rainbow a little more than the others.
In 2020, Innova faced a worrisome start because Sexton Firebirds usually drop in March, when our nation was facing closedowns due to Covid-19, but they dropped anyways and, what do you know, we crashed the site several times trying to buy them before anyone else. 2020s, initially came out in four different stamps: red shatter, flat green, flat blue, and thin rainbow. It is noteworthy that red is the only stamp that has been available every year. I had 10 discs in my cart and by the time I entered my payment information, they had been taken from me and the words SOLD OUT appeared on my screen. I would have to be quicker the next time. After about three drops, Covid-19 was too much, the player’s tour had been postponed and the Innova factory, much like a lot of businesses, had to close down for safety. Collectors began asking, “If that’s all the 2020s they produce, will that make 2020s more valuable?” The answer would typically be an outstanding “Yes” due to the whole supply and demand chain, but Innova opened back up and dropped a few more batches. And this time, there was another change. Whereas the first few drops were almost all marked 175 grams, these later drops were marked 173-175. Collector’s noticed and began grabbing more Firebirds so they would have one of each stamp in 175 and one of each stamp in 173-175. And just as we thought we were getting caught up, another bombshell dropped. Innova had placed, in some people’s orders, a metallic green “fresh cut grass” green foil stamp and a LVC “Vegas” metallic blue stamp. I bought one of each from people who posted them on Facebook for $180. I have seen them recently selling for 400+ each. They made so few of them, that everyone who collects Sextons simply can’t have one. Somewhere in these drops, there also came a lighter blue stamp. It is barely distinguishable from the flat blue 2020, which is actually more of a royal blue/purple. Then, in October, Innova dropped a new order that were marked Made in the USA and penned 173-5. In this latest drop, some lucky folks received a wide rainbow stamp that hadn't been released before. Collectors scrambled to gobble them up, but so far, less than 100 appear to be in circulation. This drives up demand and the supply is low, so prices are instantly super high. What’s better is that Nate Sexton announced a few days before the Las Vegas Challenge that he was going to be selling 250 Special Edition Firebirds at the event. I have friends who flew to Las Vegas just to grab two of them (the max anyone was allowed to purchase). Sexton fans were lined up at 6 AM to try to get their hands on one, and those who did, were rewarded. Not only did Nate Sexton go on to win the LVC, the LVC Firebirds are now selling at $500-1200 each. I bought mine on the day of the event for $131 from a friend of mine who was playing the LVC. My wife thought I was nuts. Let’s just say she’s a believer now.
So once the 2020s all hit the market, on July 21, 2020, I decided it would be a good time to start to document the rarity of each year, and each stamp on the Nate Sexton Collector’s Page on Facebook (where we are up to over 2500 members), with input from guys who know a lot more than I do. You see, I am known throughout the Sexton collectors for my collection and knowledge, so I have approximately 15-30 people per week who hit me up to ask about rarity and value of discs. I just wanted to provide everyone with a one-stop place to look before they PM me or one of the site administrators with their inquiries. Within the thread of this post I created, an Innova pro placed a picture of a 2020 Sexton Firebird with an Oil Slick stamp that no one had ever seen. Our minds were blown. He also stated there were two additional other stamps that were not in circulation that Nate had been gifted from Innova. Of course, I had to know more. Upon looking into it and fund-raising, I ended up landing one of these three gems directly from Nate with the caveat that I was not going to “flip” them (sell them quickly for profit), because, again, these are 1 of 1 collector’s items. I agreed to this under the stipulation that I was allowed to show off the three pictures of the uncirculated birds to the collector’s page so that people at least know that they exist. On August 10, Charlie Eisenhood wrote an article in the Ultiworld Disc Golf Newsletter about the rise of the Sexton Firebird. It is a great read with a lot of information. As of now, that article and this webpage entail the brief history of the Nate Sexton Firebird and its following.
Link to the article: https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2020/08/11/the-rise-of-the-sexton-firebird
Value of discs:
I always get hit up from people asking me the same question, "How much is this disc worth?" It is a great question and there are a lot of things that go into it. Here is a basic breakdown of the value of Sexton Firebirds to collectors.
#1 - Collectors value discs that are unthrown, uninked (even, to some extent, Nate Sexton autographs), and have little to no storage damage. Any of these three things will bring the value down on a disc.
#2 - Collectors value discs that are rare. 2015s and LVC Firebirds are prime examples of this. Also, double stamps, lightweights, team stamps, and out-of-circulation discs fall into this category.
#3 - Collectors value discs that have rare stamps. It is harder to find them, thus, they are highly sought after.
#4 - Collectors value discs with unusual colors. Pink, purple, dark blue, and white discs are prime examples of rare disc colors that are always sought after. Other things like swirls, particularly neon pink swirls, or halos around the rim also make discs unique and more valuable.
#5 - Each year, more Glow Sexton Firebirds seem to be released into the wild. The 2015s are the most rare, and therefore, typically the most expensive, followed by 2016s, 2017s, 2018s, 2019s, 2020s. (But remember what I said about rare stamps and colors.)
Any speculation as to the quantity of Nate Sexton Firebirds in circulation is researched, but none of these numbers have ever been confirmed by Innova Discs.
Discs are listed hypothetically from most rare to least rare (Circulated):
*Lightweight (170-173 penned) discs from each year are more rare than 175 gram discs
2015 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Cool Sunset (One wide strip of Yellow, Green, and Blue) 10-30
Purple Rainbow (Yellow, Red, Pink, Purple, Blue, Green) 25-50
Red Digital/Pixel (Red with thousands of tiny pixelated dots) 50-115
Classic Rainbow (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue) 125-175
Warm Sunset (Pink Innova Label, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green) 125-175
Rasta (2-3 strips of Green, Blue, Gold) 300-400
Red Shatter (Red with hundreds of tiny diamonds) 300-400
White 300-400
2016 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Green Digital/Pixel 25-50
Pink Shatter (pink with hundreds of tiny diamonds) 30-70
Blueberry (dark blue stamp) 75-150
Pink Lemonade (flat pink stamp) 125-200
Black 400-600
Lavender 400-600
Red Pixel 400-600
Blue (light blue stamp) 400-600
2017 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Purple 2000-3000
Rasta 2500-3000
Silver 2500-3000
Red 2500-3000
2017 USDGC Bottom Stamps (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
No Made in USA Flag (Red, White, Blue) (100-200)
No Made in USA Blue (100-200)
No Made in USA Gold (100-200)
No Made in USA Rasta (100-200)
Flag (Red, White, Blue) 1000-2000
Blue 1000-2000
Gold 1000-2000
Rasta 1000-2000
2018 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Double “Thin” Rainbow 15-25
Rainbow (2-3 varieties of stamps) 3250-5000
Silver 3250-5000
Red 3250-5000
Green 3250-5000
2019 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Rainbow Jellybean 6000-9000
Gold 6000-9000
Black 6000-9000
Red 6000-9000
2020 (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
LVC Blue *30-75
Fresh Grass (Metallic) Green *40-100
Single "Wide" Rainbow *50-115
Thin Rainbow 4,000-6,000
Red Pixel 4,000-6,000
Flat Blue (2 different shades, royal (purple) and *classic blue (lighter blue) *more rare) 4,000-6,000
Flat Green 4,000-6,000
2020 LVC Special Edition 50 White, 200 Charcoal Smoke (Click on the blue name of the stamp to see image)
Blue 55-70
Gold 55-70
Silver 55-70
Red 55-70
Unreleased:
2015s (25 or less)
2015 Blue shatter 1
2015 Black and blue 1
2015 Pink 2
2015 Yellow 2
2015 Purple 3
2015 Flag 3
2015 Black 4 (1/4 is team stamped)
2015 Double Stamp 1
Top AND Bottom Stamp 2017s (approximately 75)
2020s (3): 1 Oil Slick, 1 LVC Gold, 1 Black