The Horn Hunters

I say remove the obvious trash and remove items that are not family friendly. I've only cached a few weeks. I won't bother describing what I found at a cache this past weekend. Forunately, I saw it and removed it before my 8yr old found it. Really frustrating how some people get their jollies these days. My wife spent a good 10mins cleaning out/drying out/dumping out water in one cache we visited this past weekend. There was no "garbage" in this cache, but the water damage could have possibly ruined some of the items. When I finally place my first cache, I would be thankful to have have considerate geocachers 'take out the trash' for me when they find that kind of crud in one of my caches. Never would of thought a broken CD could have value though. Guess I'll leave it in if I ever run across one of those.

Ah, thank you. Somehow skipped right over "gold" when the non-trackable was mentioned. I do love it here, but geocaching in December/January in N Idaho is for the insane. They are coming to commit me.

I just ordered one. It will be my very first geocoin or possibly my second depending upon which coin arrives in the mail first. I think this one will be #1. Tried to order that German Reviewer coin last night, you guys are fast. I saw it posted as I was on my out the door to a hockey game. Got home and the it was sold out. Newbish question here. Not that it matter, but how are these coins numbered yet not trackable? The original sale of coins were trackable, yes? Color me confused.

Miragee - Those are great GSAK tips, but for the life of me I can't figure out where to enter them into GSAK. I assume there is a place where I can put %smart=9 %con1%typ1%dif1%ter1 And form then on any imports will contain that name as its smart name. But I can't figure out where I enter that line anywhere. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Yeah as much as I fell in love with the first geocoin I found, if its activated, you need to look it up and see what the new owner wants to do with it and send it on its way.

I'm very new to this hobby, but in my two short weeks I've learned there is something there for everyone. If you are looking for a day long hike, just pay attention to where the cache is and look at google earth. If the cache is next to a parking lot, avoid it, if that is your wish. Its pretty easy pick and chose which caches you want to visit. Most caches also accurately rate their terrain and time to retrieve which will give you an idea of the walk/hike required as well.

You'll hate me forever SCB, but as a Seahawks fan, today was as perfect as can be.

Sign me up

Yeah, I thought I have stumbled on some coins that were trackable through other websites. Few and far between but I think I've seen one or two like that. Thanks everyone.

Heat of the Night

Blues Brothers

Did I say Flash Gordon, I meant to say Coin Vault.

Easy, Flash Gordon.

Its not a coin, but a earthcache for you photographers to appreciate. I've been there, but at the time I didn't even know what geocaching is. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gc14np3

Ah ok. So the Creepy Crawlers (thread that prompted my question) is likely someone all you vets probably know, but they created an alias, made a coin and are now handing it our through various avenues? Got it! I thought there was some mystery to solve or something and the coin was the clue! Regarding your link of approved Groundspeak coins, I would assume that list is a list of only geocoins that are trackable by Groundspeak. There are also geocoins out there that are either non-trackable or even a handful that a trackable from other websites, correct? Unfortunately, I am bitten. Just dropped a check for my first 2 geocoins. One to keep, one to trade. As soon as I get that single coin marked for trade, you'll find me here, looking to trade it! Thanks all

Well I was good for almost 24hours! Can anyone tell me what a mystery coin is?

Any opinions on mint condition sports cards that are 11+ years old? My son loves the treasure hunt/trading aspect, I love the hunt and see/watching coins/bugs travel. I've been struggling to come up with something semi decent/affordable that my son can trade. We've been leaving about 1/2 inch stack of cards in protective baggies and only in caches where we are sure they will be protected (water proof/tight/etc). When I was a young kid that would be about the coolest thing in the world. But times have changed and it doesn't do much for most little girls I'm afraid, but I am still a boy at heart and just have one son, so all we got are boy stuff! I been waiting for some of the few caches we have traded to be visited and try to guage by what people might post in the log. But in Nothern Idaho with either snow or melted snow swamp lands every where right now, it appears only us "dumb newbs" or a few serious die hards are out caching about right now. I definitely want to practice the trade-up policy and my son likes to swap stuff everywhere we visit when/if he can (been leaving loonies in the smaller caches when he trades). I am just struggling to come up with something decent that I have or can get in large quantities so my son can trade swag at any cache we visit. He likes the keep anything he gets, sort of like a memento of that particular cache. So trading swag we receive isn't a great option for us.

Thanks very much everyone. I'm good to go now!

Helps tons, thanks! Never noticed the Inventory section of the right hand side of the screen on the account page. Although, now I am slightly confused about one thing. What is the difference between 1. Inventory that is displayed on the right hand side 2. The list travel bugs you have found link 3. And the list travel bugs you own link An easier question might be, if I take an unactivated geocoin and activate it, does it show up on any of these lists? Now if I drop this coin into a real or virtual cache, which lists, if any, does it show on? Sorry for beating a dead horse, I'm just trying to make sure I understand things right. I really like the idea of getting two coins of each I want to collect (one to activate and one to keep unactivated for trades/whatever). I just want to make sure I do things right and when I get my first coins, I don't end up doing something I didn't intend to do!

Could someone explain this further? What is your "inventory"? Since I started geocaching last weekend, I found one geocoin that I'll be moving along this weekend. I see that geocoin shows up on my Travels Bugs link. Is that my "inventory"? So would the 'Mine' link next to the Travel Bugs link show my (activated by me) Travel Bugs that are released into the wild then? So if I simply activate it, it wouldn't show up on the Mine link? I would have to activate it and drop it into a cache (either real cache or virtual cache) to get it to show up on the Mine list? Also, shameless bump of my questions late last night in case they get lost in the shuffle. How do you find out about new coins that are released for public sale? Is there a single best place to keep an eye on? Is there a geocoin database that has organized and listed all the geocoins out there? Thanks everyone!

How do you find out about new coins that are released for public sale? Is there a single best place to keep an eye on? Is there a geocoin database that has organized and listed all the geocoins out there? Thanks again everyone!

Thank you everyone that has replied. The information has been really useful. Unforuntately, I already have the "bug". The old numisatist in me is all over these geocoins. What is a caching zone? That term was completely new to me.

Hi all. The family and I recently discovered this fun hobby (from an article in a boating magazine believe it or not). Cruising the forums and reading FAQs have been very helpful in finding answers to all sorts of questions, but I have some questions about collecting geocoins that I can't quite figure out. What is the common practice with trackable coins regarding activation? Do most folks generally keep them unactivated? If so, why? Does it make them easier to trade? Sort of sounds like you have to go through some sort of ownership transfer if you were to trade activated coins, but this is where I start getting confused. I guess what are the pros/cons of activating/not activating your geocoins? Seems like geocoins were originally cache swag and/or trackables but have now sort of evolved into an almost completely separate collection hobby. Is that a correct statement? Is purchase/trade generally the way most go about collecting geocoins now? If so, is it just understood/expected that when you purchase a trackable geocoin that it is unactivated/uncirculated geocoin? Obviously buyer beware and all that, but are those the geocoins that are generally coveted by collectors? Thanks for any help!