tokencollector

Fast, often and far. I like to see them move. If they have a goal, toward their goal is nice. Otherwise, It doesn't matter much to me how they move - though I do love to see them rack up mileage and pictures. When I move a TB, I try to move it a significant distance (50+ miles) unless doing so is not in line with its goal. I gues that doing so is a reflection of how I like to see my TBs move.

What I do depends on the situation. If I find an unlogged TB in a cache that hasn't been visited in a while, I'll typically grab the TB, drop it in the cache, then retrieve it from the cache. If it's been found recently. I'll check to see if it has been held by a recent cache visitor. If so, I'll give them a little while to drop it in the cache. If not, I'll do the grab/grop/retrieve described above. Although I'll occasionally hold onto a TB for a while, I try to get it dropped within a week or two. After all, a TB's mission is to travel - not wait around to be logged. In that spirit, I'll give a previous finder a little while to drop it then I'll grab/drop/retrieve it so that it can get proper mileage credit. If I'm out caching, it can be a bit frustrating to log a cache and wonder where the TB is (in my profile) that I dropped. On the other hand, It's not really a big deal if someone "grabs" it from me AND marks it through the cache where I dropped it. As long as the TB is properly logged and keeps moving, it's mission is being accomplished.

Like other TBs, a few geocoins manage to complete their goals. Many disappear before attaining their goals and others move randomly despite their goals. Their probability of attaining their goals depends on how specific they are - specific or complex goal = low probability; simple goal = higher probability. Most of the coins that I have released have a generic goal to travel from cache to cache. That goal has been very successful. A few have had specific goals - travel to a particular cache or place. I can think of a few that have made the trip successfully. When a geocoin meets its goal, you can update the goal on its homepage. Once coin whose (initial) goal I helped to achieve (TB1WNYB) is now on its fourth goal. Editing goals does bring up a bit of a potential conflict. Coins with missions attached (I laminate mine and attach it with a bit of ball chain or aircraft cable) are more likely to move toward their mission than those with no indication attached. But, if the coin meets its objective, there is no way for another finder to see the new mission until they log it. If they pick it up based on its attached mission, they may move it away from its new mission. So after all those words, my advice breaks down to the following: If you decide to set a mission, send the mission out with the coin Simple missions are the most likely to be successful (e.g., travel widely, visit/photographed at types of sites, etc.) Be prepared for the loss of your geocoin. (They tend to fare about as well as any TB, and as such, they have a relatively high attrition rate) Enjoy your coin's travels - many do travel far and wide

There must be a story there somewhere. Greenbriars, snow and sand spurs have been an occasional nuisance, but I would hate to give up my sandles when caching! Edited to add: Wait a minute, I can use this as an entry. I resolve to contune wearing my Tevas whenever I can while caching!

Neither? I like to release them as TBs. (OK, I collect them too, but I enjoy following their travels more than knowing I have some stashed in a box.) In general, I won't pay any extra for any "special" version unless it looks way better than the "regular" version and only costs a little extra. I think it s*cks when a seller makes the best looking version the (really) high dollar one. But then, more often than not, I'll blow off the RE too.

It's tempting to break this into 6 posts ! Goal 1 will be tough if I don't hit goal 6 as well. 1) Reach 3000 geocaches 2) Release 500th geocoin into wild 3) Hide more of the caches that are sitting around in my workshop (mostly ammo cans and unusual containers) 4) Find 100th cache in SC (so I’ll have 100+ in each state bordering NC) 5) Find a cache in a state that I haven’t cached in previously 6) Keep up with caching when my son heads off to college (could be the toughest – I’ll miss my caching buddy)

Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name:yes (10/31/08) 3. Mission Complete: (11/20/08) 4. Package Received!: WOW! ahem, yes (11/17/08) Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/28/08) 3. Mission Complete: (11/26/08) 4. Package Received!: Yes!!! - 12/11/08 Where to begin? I mentioned the arrival of the package in my previous post. I guess I should start by introducing the dogs. Daisy is our beagle. She’s about 8 years old and is nicknamed booger because once she sticks to your fingers (when being scratched / petted), she is hard to disengage. Pinot, an Airedale, is our newest addition. Our previous big dog passed away in July. By August, my wife was ready to start looking at other dogs. She has wanted an Airedale for longer than I’ve known her (and our 25th anniversary is coming up next year). She contacted Airedale rescue and we met a dog and brought it home that day. He’s about 1½ now. And, yes, he was named for his whine. Both dogs were interested in the package, and when I removed the inner bag, Daisy surprised me by putting put her paws up on the table to investigate. (No, she is not normally allowed to do that!) Upon opening the bag, there were two wrapped presents inside – one labeled for each dog. Both investigated their package and Daisy grabbed hers and darted off to the living room. The dogs got a bit of help opening their presents and what nice ones they were! Each dog had an individualized stocking containing a toy, a beef stick, and some treats. (My wife adores the stockings - we needed one for Pinot this year. I like them alot too!) Daisy can be seen jumping for half of her treat – a bit of a feat in itself. She was recently very overweight; she’s still heavy but she can get some air for the right incentive. It’s a good thing I broke it into two pieces too. She got it the first time on her first jump before I could snap a picture. I think she swallowed it without chewing too, something that beagles are prone to do. It took some effort to get Pinot to settle down for a picture with his swag. He was more often seen stealing Daisy’s toy. I guess that’s only fair, Daisy often steals his chews as soon as he looks the other way. Oh yeah, there was something for me in the package too. Two great geocoins! There was a Garmin UK geocoin (I figured I’d never have much of a chance of getting a Garmin geocoin) and a “Get out of jail free” geocoin – which I didn’t get when they came out, so I’m very glad to have one now! MANY THANKS and Happy Christmas to the Geo-Gophers!!!!!

Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name:yes (10/31/08) 3. Mission Complete: (11/20/08) 4. Package Received!: WOW! ahem, yes (11/17/08) Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/28/08) 3. Mission Complete: (11/26/08) 4. Package Received!: Yes - 12/11/08 I went home for lunch (as I often do - it's nice living just 4 mi from where you work). While I was eating, the dogs started barking wildly at the door. I looked in that direction and saw the postman standing up. After giving him a chance to get back to the truck, I grabbed the package and saw that it was from Scotland. That, and the description on the customs form, could only mean one thing - the dogs' mission had arrived! I was running late, so they will have to wait until later to see what is in the package. I just wanted to get my receipt notice up so there would be no worries on the other end. Pictures will follow when the dogs check out the package later.

Add a year and drop NZ (I haven't been there yet) any you pretty much have my story exactly! The interesting icons were / are an added bonus. I think I'm starting to rein in my addiction, though some months it's a bit harder to control. I originally bought with the intent or releasing (I've released over 400 as travelers) but ended up unwilling to part with some. They were just too pretty or meaningful, or I hated the thought of it going missing. I still get discouraged when I sit down to mark coins as missing. But, it's cool to see where an how some of them have travelled and I get an especially good feeling when one finds its way back into circulation from the void.

If you do, you can send them out to go from cache to cache.

Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name:yes (10/31/08) 3. Mission Complete: (11/20/08) (CanadaPost reported delivery on 11/24) 4. Package Received!: WOW! ahem, yes (11/17/08) Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/28/08) 3. Mission Complete: (11/26/08) (Shipped FedEx Ground) 4. Package Received!:

Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name:yes (10/31/08) 3. Mission Complete: (11/20/08) 4. Package Received!: WOW! ahem, yes (11/17/08) Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/28/08) 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!: I was able to mail my adult mission while I was out of the country. The domestic mission will go out next week.

It looks like Christmas will come a bit early this year. I'm glad I noticed this in time to hop the sleigh! Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name:yes (10/31/08) 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!: WOW! ahem, yes (11/17/08) Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/28/08) 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!: It took me a couple of days to have time to get a picture of my contents so that I could make a more complete post. I received my box on Monday, and WOW ... the picture starts to do justice to the contents, and I'm not sure that words can. The package was meant to share. There were chocolates - which my daughter will doubtless dig into when she comes home from college this weekend. I'll be out of town when she arrives and if she spots the chocolates, I may not see them again. My son collects path tags, so I've passed them along to him. He thought that the copper plating was cool! There were also some Utah items (postcard, stickers, salt), a bunch of GBOTS signature items (I collect sig items too), and geocoins galore. The coins included three nerds, a 7th anniv geocoin, a POS geocoin (cool because I met them at an event they sponsored) and ... the one that really was topping my most wanted list ... a NCGEO unnumbered coin. Actually, the NC coin was the first one that I saw and that coin by itself made my day (the rest of the box could have been filled with lumpy oatmeal and I would have still been ecstatic). Of course the box was filled with other great stuff and I sincerely thank my mystery secret santa.

It looks like Christmas will come a bit early this year. I'm glad I noticed this in time to hop the sleigh! Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!: Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/28/08) 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!: Piping in with a requested mission update. All the goodies are in hand. One mission is domestic, so I'll send it off after Thanksgiving - it should arrive the first week in December. The other mission is international. I'll be traveling to that country next week and hope to post it domestically from there to save some time and $.

Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/31/08) 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!: Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/28/08) 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!:

It looks like Christmas will come a bit early this year. I'm glad I noticed this in time to hop the sleigh! Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!: Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: Yes (10/28/08) 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!:

I've seen one on a local car driving round town. I didn't have a chance to write the number down though - kind of hard to do while driving. There is a company that makes nice vinyl ones with the Groundspeak TB logo (licensed). I've seen the link in the sidebar of the home page and I'm considering one for myself.

It looks like Christmas will come a bit early this year. I'm glad I noticed this in time to hop the sleigh! Mission 1 - Adult 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!: Mission 2- Pet 1. Participating: yes (10/17/08) 2. Received Name: 3. Mission Complete: 4. Package Received!:

Another vote for geocaching! I bet it is the winner.

I have the Vista HCx and my son used a Legend HCx. Both are great units, but ... The adhesive attaching the rubber surround to the unit is defective. We have both returned our original units for that problem (under warranty). The surround on his replacement unit just failed (4 months after receiving the replacement unit). It is out of warranty and I do not know yet if Garmin will provide any relief for the defect. We don't want to send his unit back yet because the replacement unit that I received doesn't work properly; it freezes up - and was just returned today. Other than the surround falling off, they are nice units. But, if I were to do it all over again, I might choose the 60CSx - those units seem to be a bit more durable - if also quite a bit more bulky. Garmin customer service is US based and I have no complaints with that side of the business (other than their shipment of defective replacement units). IMO, for Geocaching, the electronic compas in the Vista is worth the extra few bucks.

The moderators may eventually chime in, but I don't necessarily see a problem. And, there is some prescident for what you would like to do. There are a number of duplicate coins out there that share a tracking code. Two that I can think of are the badandy gold and silver set and dorkfish's boiled lobsters. Similarly, quite a few people release geocoin copies and keep the originals in their collection - which presumably might be discoverable. (I believe that this has been condoned by Groundspeak, or at least by the moderators in threads related to the practice.) I also think that a few people may have copied tracking codes onto water meter covers to make MEGAgeocoins.

LOL I've released hundreds of geocoins and some do go missing - as do regular TBs. Generally, the missing coins have not been "stolen." They are more typically picked up by noobs who quit caching before dropping them again or are lost when a cache is muggled. I don't care to move replicoins, I will do them no harm (they belong to someone else) and have fixed one up that was in poor condition (I've been called sour for that attitude, but I don't plan to change it). I do enjoy geting the icon for coins that I've moved. A copy just doesn't seem like a coin to me. It is a traveler - and legit from Groundspeak's POV. I'm cool with that, but finding one is a bit hollow to me, so I choose to leave them be for someone more inclined to shuffle paper. If you do put out a replicoin, please make a quality fake and not just a piece of paper with an enlarged picture of the coin on it.

"ADDED: No vacation caches. I want you to cache in the place you live. So for instance if you live in the United States (Montana), I expect you to find your caches in Montana." I live in the US (North Carolina), but there are 3-5 other states within my normal radius of caching. If I, or someone else like me who often caches across state lines, were to be selected you would really want us to stick to our home state? (Or not include other states/countries if we happened to take a road trip - vacation or business - during our four week period?)

Wow, what a lot of discussion about appropriate discussion. I’ll be uncharacteristically brief and say cointests are cool. I tend to ignore them but think they are ultimately about coins and have no problem with the here. Missions are about coins and community (especially some of the more interesting ones – souvenir mission as an example) and I would really hate to see them go. If I don’t have the time or inclination, I can ignore them too.

Seeing the thread on trackable patches brought this old thread, and others like it, to mind. Who, a couple of years ago, would have guessed that we'd have trackable pins, patches, frogs, and other assorted toys? Is it bad? Probably not - if it helps keep Groundspeak afloat then I can keep on caching! But it does seem a bit bizzare to me. Good luck. I still love coins and traditional TBs and think that they are great. But, some of the new stuff makes my head swim.