Kealia

Neither are ok. It's no different than going to Disneyland and finding out that your favorite ride is closed. Are you disappointed? Sure. Would you like to go on a ride that is not the real ride, but called the same thing? Not me. Imagine showing up for Pirates of the Carribbean and ending up sitting in a boat on the dock with a couple of people in pirate costumes saying "argh". ok, maybe some hyperbole there - but you get my point.

Do a quick search using the following terms and you will get more opinions that you can read: "fake" "proxy" "copy" "paper" "copies" "replica" This has been debated ad naseum and there are two clear camps: 1) Don't like 'em 2) Your tracking number, do what you want

Sorry to dog pile on but I see lots of issues: 1) Vacation caches that you can't maintain are not allowed 2) Caches without logbooks and/or having to email a password to you are not allowed 3) Restricting movement on TBs and Geocoins is frowned upon - they are not yours and not allowing them to move goes against the wishes of the owners. (Use the search feature and look up TB Hotels and TB Prisons for feedback) I suggest talking to a local reviewer before doing anything else.

Sorry to dog pile on but I see lots of issues: 1) Vacation caches that you can't maintain are not allowed 2) Caches without logbooks and/or having to email a password to you are not allowed 3) Restricting movement on TBs and Geocoins is frowned upon - they are not yours and not allowing them to move goes against the wishes of the owners. (Use the search feature and look up TB Hotels and TB Prisons for feedback) I suggest talking to a local reviewer before doing anything else.

Likely that he is confusing "o" for "0" or "5" for "s" or something similar.

Let me answer your question with a question: Can a dog be a cat? All kidding aside, if it's not a geocoin, you are likely talking about a Travel Bug. Anything can be a TB, it just takes attaching a TB tag to any object and setting it free. (Check out the separate TB Forum here). Now there is some subjectivity as to what makes a geocoin a geocoin, but those are nuances that I won't subject you to because you are new here. (Use the SEARCH feature and look up "makes a geocoin" if you want to read the debates). Welcome.

Shame on you for putting out a cache that is reached so easily. Hmph. It would bother me too but I likely wouldn't do anything about it. It sounds like a numbers run and that's the way that most work - although on the ones I've seen organized around here it appears that every person signs each log personally. In the end, I likely wouldn't do anything except send them a note about the "dropping" of the cache.

I'm sorry to see that this community has somewhat lost another person or turned you off to coins in some manner. These are the same questions that many of us "old timers" started asking a while ago. It's sad to see that for one reason or another these same questions keep coming up and it has the same affect on a new group of people. It really is a cycle - a sad one at that. There are many folks that were once very involved in this and got burned or burned out in some manner and just aren't here anymore. Moun10Bike, Cornerstone4, Shop99er just to name a few... So, let me just say that I'm sorry this has happened to you, too. As much as everybody wants to believe this is a 100% cheery place and everybody is good, the truth is that isn't reality.

This is what I would suggest. Get a heavy washer, print out a copy of the coin and glue it to the washers - then seal the whole thing in a plastic coin case and set it free. At least it will have some heft and feel to it.

Forum burp....'scuze me.

Cache in hand, I think you're just debating semantics now. The real point is the difference in price, regardless of what you want to call it. RK makes a good analogy when he compares it to trackable versus non-trackable. Yes, it costs more to make a coin trackable - but should it matter during a trade? The same argument exists for LE versus regular editions. It usually doesn't cost more to make an LE than it does to make a regular edition yet people assign different values to it. The same will go for activated versus non-activated. Some assign value, others don't.

I agree that it's all in the mind of the buyer. It's the same with ANY coin if you want to use logic to understand it. Why is a Moun10Bike v1 worth over $1,000 (last known price IIRC)? It's the same metal, paint, etc. from "just another cacher". Why would somebody pay more for an LE of a coin jsut because it was artifically made to be scarce and with a different finish? If the buyer/collector wants to assign more value to some coins because of scarcity, sentimental value, color of paint used, tracking number or not, icon or no icon and/or acitvated or not they will. No amount of back and forth trying to use logic will prevail IMO. You may try to understand their POV, but don't count on changing it.

Some good points made here: This is where I stand on the issue. This is great forward-thinking. Imagine owning a coin that was logged by Jeremy, Moun10Bike, dhobby and others versus the same coin that was not activated. Great food for thought - thanks for posting that. Agreed as well. All good points that I would have posted as well. I also liken this discussion to the whole LE/XLE/super extra special AE stuff. But we've beaten that one to death over the years as well and I don't want to go off topic here.

So...the people that WANT to be FTF are complaining about the people who are ACTUALLY FTF?

This is completely confusing to me. First you say that you should honor a "no sale" request. Then you say that people that say "no sale" are silly and people can do whatever they want with it?

This isn't a new question, but one that comes up about every year or so. I'll try to find the old threads later as many good opinions were stated there and I'd be surprised if many of them have changed. It may also provide some good input from folks who are no longer around much but were/are big collectors. edit to add links: What makes a geocoin a geocoin? What makes a coin a geocoin? What makes a geocoin a geocoin? (again) What makes a coin Geocaching related? What makes a Geocoin a Geocoin? (yet again)

I haven't seen newbies complaining in my area, but I have seen a number of spoiler logs written in their online logs on their first few finds. Things like "if you have trouble, look under what you would sit on..." and things like that. I typically find that a nice email to them explaining things helps, along with an invite to the next get-together to meet folks. That being said....I'll agree that caching is not the same as when I started and that a good portion of the caches closest to me are on my ignore list because a pill bottle/altoids tin/etc. dropped in the bus hand called "My first hide" is just not why I got into this sport.

You will never make everybody happy so I'm going to give you the cliche advice and say that you should hide caches that you would enjoy finding yourself. Ask yourself: What type of log would I write for this cache? Would I enjoy the area, the hide and search? If "yes" it's likely a good cache.

Not trying to argue, just trying to understand. I'm far from a stats guy and just trying to "get it". The people that I see dipping are doing it for the mileage which is what I think the majority do - thus the responses in here so far about mileage. Just trying to get an idea of what you're trying to accomplish, that's all.

WSR - What is the actual purpose of the dip if not to track mileage? As a cache owner, I would never see that you dipped a coin in/out of my cache, so if there was a message or agenda to promote, nobody would really be aware of it unless they were watching the coin/TB. Or am I missing something here?

I'm going to be brutually honest here, for the sake of setting expectations accordingly. As TheMoopAlong noted, $7 for a 1 inch coin is expensive, even with the cost of manufacturing going up. The deisgn is a bit simple to drive HIGH interest, and since it's not a personal coin you'll lose a few folks there as well. Take into account the issues recently with some vendors and the lack of anybody in here likely "knowing you" on these boards and sales may suffer as a result. (This may not be an issue if Oakcoins is selling them as they are a known entity). I'm not trying to squash your enthusiasm, but in looking at your profile you don't show any coins being owned (not everybody activates them, I know) and very few being found. It could appear that you're coming in here to make some quick $$. A lot of people are selling off their collections right now, so the coins they do buy are going to have to really be special or grab them. Good luck on your sale.

Found this weekend after it appears the coin has either been missing or sitting for almost 2 years in limbo. It's one of the first personal trackables that was put out there - and it belongs to a forum regular!

Can somebody confirm that mine shipped? I would have expected it by now since they were in stock. No issues if it hasn't, just wanted to know when to look at the mailbox again. Thanks.

To be fair, that's comparing apples to oranges as they don't have to worry about the infrastructure, stability, etc. that OpinioNate mentioned above. This happens everytime that Google updates GE and Groundspeak always fixes it: - When GE is stable and locked down and isn't constantly changing - They can fit it into the release schedule A lot of people use this and they realize that. It WILL be fixed, just maybe not on your time table. I'm sure you can make due until it's up and running again. Don't let one little thing stop you from going out and caching.

Not unreasonable at all. PM doesn't guarantee that everything going forward will be free. Groundspeak allows us to use the site for free - enough to find caches, log caches, etc. When you want to do more than that, it requires fees (mapping, caches along a route, etc.). When you want to go above and beyond that too, it's not unreasonable for it to cost money. $10 to buy an app isn't even worth asking about IMO. That's not to say that I approve of GS starting to charge small fees for every little thing - but this isn't little.