hoteltwo

I guess I will only put CHEAP travelers on trackables from now on. Over the last few years my CARDBOARD travelers continue to move all over the world but the ones with toys and nicer travelers DISAPPEAR. This especially happens with cachers who have found only a few caches.

"Many seek guidance from above, Geocachers actually get it."

The IOS Groundspeak app has a tab at the bottom right of the main menu for Trackables. Lets you enter the ID/Tracking # and search or View your own inventory.

I wonder sometimes if CO's don't mark TB's as missing in their caches because it keeps people coming to their caches. I have emailed active CO's about caches with a large number of TB's in the cache inventory but the cache is empty of TB'. I ask them to mark the missing TB's as missing. No replies, no marking as missing, nada.

If you want to find a huge amount of various D/T caches on Federal Property go to the Eglin AFB Reservation in Northwest Florida. 250,000 acres of the 464,000 acre reservation are open to recreation. First get a range pass at the Jackson Guard located at 107 Hwy 85 North, in Niceville, FL. This is a MUST. Check this map, inside the area marked in grey, to see the amount of caches available: http://www.geocaching.com/map/?ll=30.46135,-86.54687#?ll=30.46135,-86.54687&z=10 You'll find caches from 1/1 to 5/5. Some require TOTT including 4X4's, canoes, hip waders, etc.

I just came across this today with a noob (7 caches found) who made a comment about the micro being very small (duh). Tried to email them but this is their over 1 month old profile: Member Since:Wednesday, 20 February 2013 Last Visit:Never Status:Not Validated Member E-Mail Address:The "send message" feature is disabled because this email address has not been validated by the user. I think an account over one month old should have been validated by now!!

Go to Dollar Tree or Family Dollar or similar and buy something made out of cardboard or cheap plastic at 4 for a dollar and attach one of them as a hitchhiker to your TB. Start it off in a Premium cache. Most people will not take such an item. When you go caching and find a keychain or similar swag that you swap something from you for, use that as the hitchhiker. No way to connect it to your TB? Drill a hole in the hitchhiker.

Maybe they decided on all the grey icons to save disk space as the grey icons are less intricate. What's next, removing and no longer allowing images (photos)?

To stop my Trackables from being "stolen" in the first cache I place them in I try putting them in PREMIUM caches. That mostly works....

On eBay I bought a bag of 150 lapel pins for $15.00 and placed them as swag in caches and sold some at swap meets. They were from all over the US and most were great. My two daughters had a bunch of Beanie Babies that no one wants to buy anymore. I use them for event drawings for kids and place some of them in large caches. I put a comment on my descriptions for my caches I've place about please trading fair but I guess no one reads it. I end up with business cards and small erasers and pennies. I guess you just have to decide to take the higher ground or just TNLNSL !!!

When I saw that this, and looked at some recent photos, I noticed the container had changed AGAIN. It was a large can and in the photos it now is a tupperware container. In Colorado the container for the oldest Colorado cache (GC18) was recently taken again and it is a 5-Gallon orange bucket!! A great cacher drove over 100 miles RT to replace it for the CO. I have stopped putting TB's in any container unless it is a premium. Cuts down on stolen TB's (not always). Due to its location whomever is messing with Mingo is doing it on purpose! Maybe the CO should change it to a Virtual.

I agree that finding TB's in caches is about a 50/50 proposition. I did find a geocoin last month that had been placed in a cache in 2008 and the cache had been marked as missing. It really was still there but well hidden for 4 years and after time got archived and replaced with a newer cache but as an LPC. So there is always hope. I have had some of mine disappear for 6 months then reappear. Sometimes they reappeared because I sent some emails out. One thing that would help is more cachers including remarks in their logs like T-2TB, L-1GC or similar. Also great is when it says there are trackables, and there really are none, is for cachers to say that in the log. I have learned not to spend very much or any money on the hitchhikers. Dollar Tree items work good or swag you get from caching. Four cardboard items for $1.00 are still out there with over 10,000 miles each on them. I bought a simple $1 Pepe Le Pew Locket as a hitchhiker and it didn't go past initial placement. A Darth Sidious action figure from Mickey D's got the same result. You don't pays your money, you don't take any chances.

I have sent emails to some TB/Coin owners for TB/Coins that have not been found in 6 months to a year asking them to mark them missing so they won't show up in listings. About 25% actually mark them missing.

I just happened to find a cache, that had been archived since 2008, and inside was a geocoin, from Australia, that had been marked missing about the same time. It was never logged into the archived cache but it was nevertheless there. The owners were delighted that it had resurfaced after nearly 4 YEARS!! You never know with these TB's. On my last 4 TB's I put cardboard hitchhikers from the Dollar Tree Store (4 for $1.00). Young kids love them and no one has taken any of them. I wish people who take TB's would take the hitchhiker, if that is what the want, and drop the Travel Bug Dog Tag itself back in a cache.

I have started using TB's with very inexpensive items attached including key chains picked up from other caches. They get lost or stolen - - so what!

Spend the $5.00 or so for the trackable but find something you already own to attach to it. It is easy to place a small hole in an old toy or item that is just sitting in a box at your home. Check with your children or relatives for an attachment that they think would be fun to see travel along. That way your are not out very much money at all.