Capricorn Dancer

I've been in the game since when we had when we had to navigate with maps, and the swaps in the early days were often quite worth having, but now it looks like stuff you might get from the bottom of a cereal box. I guess that's because of the influx of little kids, as opposed to us big kids. I've been putting one-dollar scratches in caches where they'll fit, for the last few years, and I'd like to see more players do the same. The maximum, prize for a $1 scratchy is (I think $25,000. Just think what a thrill it'd be to pull that off. Nobody has ever contacted me, though. Sigh!

In answer to those people concerned about hygiene: The sadines were in tins, and the toothbrushes in their original blister packs. (Gee!) The thrust of my argument was that many caches seem to have such junk in them, that even kids would be disappointed. This is supposed to be 'treasure hunt'.. Now, I don't want to start a flame war but we've been leaving $1 instant lottery tickets. I know some of you will worry about the effect of gambling on the kiddies, but the tickets are intended for adults (without kids) and think of the buzz if somebody actually won a major prize. My memory of the quality of the swaps (back in 2001) may be rosy, but I hope not. I like to think that GeoCachers (cool people as they are) have got enough initiative to take what I'm saying here and either leave it, or act on it. I think the lottery tickets are a good, and viable, swap— although I usually don't take anything. But if some of you would also start leaving tickets, I would!

I'm back in the game after a long absence. Years ago, the swaps had some worth— not necessarily value, just worth; maybe a set of batteries, a tin of sardines, a toothbrush . . . now they are usually items I would expect from a Corn Flakes box. Are there really that many kids doing it? I've been leaving scratchies in the hope that somebody might just rip a big prize. That'd be uber cool. Come on people, use your imagination. There are a million options.