nashuan

I thought the 2006 Compass Rose from Coins and Pins/Yemon Yime should have been included as well as the 2006 Petrified Wood Compass by Oshndoc/Go Jaybee. My head said I should have given the nod to history, but my heart got drawn to one of a series that brought me into geocaching and I cast my vote accordingly.

There were dozens of people that were complaining when all of this was blowing up but only six that actually filed legal complaints. I have to assume we're talking about thousands of dollars that were lost. I'm still upset over this issue even though I was one of the fortunate few who managed to get a refund. I don't remember how big my order was now, but it was probably in the $150-300 range, so I was willing to pursue legal action where if it were $15 or $30 worth of coins, most would have just let it go. All those small orders had to add up. In the end, I think AEtoys did more damage to the community than what is measured in dollars and cents though. I used to follow these forums pretty closely but after that episode, my coin buying went from about $300/month to close to zero now. That is not to say that I've ever had any complaints of suspicions about other vendors from here. I thought the world of every single one of them that I did business with, more often than not on a multiple return basis, but the whole affair just left a bad taste in my mouth - like rusted metal.

Speaking for myself, my interests in geocoins has diminished a tiny bit, but the far bigger issue is finances and school. The economy has affected everybody. I am fortunate to still be employed, but times are tough, I have an empty apartment in my three-family during the middle of a New England Winter, which is losing me over $1100/month. Folks naturally don't want to move till Spring and even if they do, getting the security and first months rent is a big deal for a lot of people. That in itself kills the coin-buying budget. As I said, I am currently employed, but not making the money I need to live comfortably. Every week is a scramble to pay this off or that - never feeling like I'm close to being caught up, so I started going back to school to try to better myself. School + homework = less time for geocaching and shopping for the coin designs I like. Frankly, I'm also bitter about the whole AE Toys thing - one of the biggest buzz-kills I've ever had. I was one of the lucky ones to have received a refund (after filing complaints with the police where they live), but things weren't the same for me buying-wise after that. I have great admiration for Tsun, Karma and several others and have had great success buying from them, and so many others, but I really hated how those people (AE Toys) handled that whole situation and as a result, my love of geocoins diminished a bit. I was out caching a few weeks ago and found a Pirate Treasure geocoin/travel bug in a cache and I cringed ever so slightly. I still retrieved it and will move it along, but I would have been happy to see any other coin in the box but that one. I used to follow this forum religeously and though I have fallen off the radar for a while (because of school), I thought about it and coin-collecting often, so I can't say my actual interest has diminished. I have a 3-week break before my next (final) class begins and what do you know, I'm back reading the forum. And as far as my collection goes, I still go through it from time to time and marvel at the creativity and beauty of the designs. No matter how bad the buzz-kill of vendors past, there is no tarnish that can dull the magic they still seem to posess. I won't be having a sale any time soon and in fact I hope to start adding a few new faces to the mix. Now if I can just get that better job and my apartment filled, , , , , Take care every one and I hope that this New Year brings us all fresh slates of every kind.

Hey tntjoe: I have the same unit and I'm not certain I understand your question, but I think I have an idea. I don't bike to any caches, but often when I hike I might be experiencing the same problem you are describing. If you move too fast, it seems the innards of the machine just can't keep up and sort of freezes. I believe this is what you are referring to when you are saying that it "stops tracking". I also run into a situation that if I move too quickly toward a cache and then stop just as I reach ground zero, the icon that is supposed to represent "me" keeps moving. I have often experienced, and have often read in other people's logs that they had to let the GPSr settle down for a minute or two to get a true reading of where they are. I'm not an expert, but believe it is a combination of the satellites shifting and always trying to take an average of where you are in relation to them and the electronics of the unit trying to interpret what it's receiving. At times this gives me the moving icon problem when I'm stationary and at times the whole screen just seems to freeze, even if I do keep moving myself. Odd thing is that when I drive with the unit mounted to the dash, I don't seem to have the problem. When I do experience this problem though, I usually just hold still for a couple of minutes and let the unit catch its breath and soon enough I'm back in business. Try not turning it off and then back on, but rather just letting it sit for a minute. Your riding your bike with it might be moving it too fast to give decent readings. My two-cents worth.

Thank you for the cointest Hollera. That was very generous of you and it got me thinking about how many things I am thankful for. Congratulations to 57 Chevy. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I am thankful for friends and family and good health of course, but this year I am particularly contemplative of the people we have lost and am thankful for the opportunity to have met them, even if it was for far too short an amount of time. I am thankful for two strong legs with which I can go out and explore this fascinating world (my knees are not included in this) we live in and that I don't have so many tribulations that I don't have the time to enjoy precious life.

Added July 25th, 2009: I would like to note that an hour ago I received a money order from AEToys on the Dragonfly coins and received the Pirate Treasure coins a month or two ago, so it looks like we're square. I've said it before on this forum and will reiterate it now that what happened with this company is a real tragedy. None of us know the particulars of their situation, but up until these folks seemed to disappear, I thought they were top notch venders. I liked thier designs and their customer service and it's still a mystery to me how things turned the way they did.

2) Nashuan pd $119.30 on 5/30 for Pirate Treasure coins - not recieved (Also pd $161.25 on 5/27 for 2008 Dragonfly coin sets - not received) Added on July 25, 2009: I would like to note that an hour ago I received a money order from AEToys on the Dragonfly coins and received the Pirate Treasure coins a month or two ago, so it looks like we're square. I've said it before on this forum and will reiterate it now that what happened with this company is a real tragedy. None of us know the particulars of their situation, but up until these folks seemed to disappear, I thought they were top notch venders. I liked thier designs and their customer service and it's still a mystery to me how things turned the way they did.

I activated a Groundspeak TB and uploadded 14 photos (so far, but expect more shortly) to it with a paragraph of text associated with each photo as comments. Suddenly though, the pics stopped showing these comments. It's still there if I want to edit the photo, but only the pics themselves show on the TB page now. The text was showing when I did the first several pics, but it seems like when I hit a certain amount of text overall, that it all disappeared. Am I doing something wrong or did I somehow max out or something????? The TB in question can be seen at: Cast of Characters

I received a message from the police last week asking if I recieved a refund on my order and to contact them so that they could close out the criminal case file. I had always hoped that the coins would somehow come through, but at this point, I'll gladly take my $161.25 and hope that someone else will produce these coins, which I think are outstanding. I phoned back that I had not received a refund and I just re-checked my account and mail (was told to expect a money order through the mail). This whole situation is tragic, it really is. Has anyone else been contacted recently?

I sat in on a GSAK class a couple of weeks ago and was going to finally dive into this program I've heard so much about when the server went down - ARGHHHHHH ! I had caching plans for the 4th of July, and was eager to load all the new caches into GSAK and then choose the ones I wanted to transfer to my GPSr. When I saw the site had gone down, I didn't think much about it at first, but after a few hours, I started to get antsy. A few hours after that I was "eager" (ya, I'll stick with that description) to find out what had happened. I checked into my local state-forum (New Hampshire) and found that others were asking questions too. Soon thereafter, I tracked down Jeremy's Twitter feed (never used Twitter before) and though still nervous about not having the info I wanted at my fingertips, at least I was getting updates as to where we stood. I'm not tech-savvy enough to know if we could have had redundant servers in separate locations - if that is even possible, and maybe this could have been solved as easily as throwing a switch, but I will say that with what we had set up that everyone did a great job in getting things back up quickly under the circumstances - thank you for your efforts.

I'm wishing for far too many to list just five, but I would really LOVE to get my hands on the 2008 Dragonfly coins I ordered just about a year ago. Oh, did I say that out loud?

The other one just sold for $236. I'm suprised it went higher than the spice island one. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=120419459572 I'm surprised it went for higher than the Spice Island myself, though both are beautifuly done. The ad didn't mention how thick they were (guessing around 10mm) to allow room for the working compass. Most I've paid for coins? I think I paid $250 or $300 for a Compass Rose Sample one time and over $100 for a Yemon Yime version. Also paid just over $100 for a 2005 Compass Rose.

Now that's what I call FAST ! ! ! I sent my order in on Saturday and got them in this afternoon's mail - hot off the press ! They look great. I'm not even into firefighting or anything, just thought they were a cool concept and now have another point of interest in my coin collection. Thanks. Nashuan

I haven't been following the boards for a while, but thought I'd check in to see what's new and have to say that these are great looking coins. Email sent - hope there are some available.

Still looking

Awesome job ! ! ! Great creativity and execution.

Anyone have a 2006 Austrailian geocoin (has a kangaroo on its face) that they would be willing to part with? Please email me and either I will buy it outright or will trade. Don't have a list available right now, but do have a small stockpile (would prefer just to buy the coin but will talk). Thanks, Nashuan (Michael)

Anyone have a 2006 Austrailian geocoin (has a kangaroo on its face) that they would be willing to part with? Please email me and either I will buy it outright or will trade. Don't have a list available right now, but do have a small stockpile (would prefer just to buy the coin but will talk). Thanks, Nashuan (Michael)

Hey FatPants: Welcome to the forum and I'd like to add my congratulations on a fine camo job. I've used one of those same containers for one of my caches and it's working like a charm through its first New Hampshire Winter. Hope you have similar success.

That is just awesome ! ! ! I don't know if I would have the guts to place it (fear of muggling), but if I came across that in my travels, I would have an ear to ear grin for the rest of the afternoon - very creative.

Great job on the pics ! Those Missouri folks sure are devious cachers. It blends in perfectly.

I have a cache in my front yard that would not have been possible to offer in "the wild". I get pretty good reviews on the cache itself, although admittedly I also get comments from cachers who are intimidated to walk onto private property. In this case in particular, you are walking onto someone's yard in an urban environment; not a pretty little patch of woods out in the "back 40" - but right up to the house and under a front porch. I have stated clearly in the cache listing that it is on private property, I have placed a Groundspeak logo just above the cache (which can be seen from the sidewalk) and have even placed a photo of the outside of the container on the cache page. All of the neighbors are aware of the cache and all think it's a great hide and a great idea. Frankly, the caliber of cachers who seek it out has helped convince the neighbors that it's OK to have strangers among us, and in several instances, they have "helped" a few lost souls find their way and have struck up many friendly conversations with my "customers". There has only been one incident of Mrs. Nashuan being spooked when a cacher popped his head up and caught her off guard and to be honest, I still laugh five months later when I remember her screaching at the top of her lungs. Poor thing, I think she scared him half to death I know that this won't be for everybody and to be honest, I'd be intimidated to walk onto someone's property myself, but I think that the people who have found my first cache, have really liked it and I have certainly enjoyed offerig it for people to find. I wish I had hundreds of acres and I'd put out more caches that you would care to seek, but I only have room for one and I'm glad that I have had the opportunity to have it published.

Hey TKK: Wecome aboard. One small problem with your search is that different vendors will sell different coins, so it is a matter of figuring out what styles of coins interest you. I'd check out the pinned link mentioned by Jackalgirl.

It looks like you're talking about the geocoin thief TB that is trying to go to Alkatraz. I would drop and retrieve as you suggested - I wouln't think the cache owners would mind if it's not staying in their caches. As ATMouse said "It is a TRAVELER, after all", but if in doubt I'm with Droo that you could simply contact the owner to settle it. If it were mine, I'd be happy that someone was moving it around, even if it were not exactly the stated goal. It will then become part of that TB's history for the owner to enjoy. It's great that you've been taking pics with it as you go along.