Spencersb

No, I mean the ID number that was assigned to it when it was activated. Should start with a TB and be 6 alphanumeric digits log. Look on the coin's page and you'll see something like this: Owner: Xxxx Xxx Released: Saturday, December 10, 2004 Origin: Somewhere, United States Use TBxxxx to reference this travel bug.

Yes, you can "adopt" it if you or the current owner have the "TBxxxx" number. You do it just like adopting a cache.

2006 Geocachers of West Tennessee Geocoins

Thanks for the unique perspective. Having experienced a devastating house fire in March where a mostly volunteer FD did an incredible job, I appreciate the difficult job you do. But this is another good reason not to hide one there.

My personal coin has never been sold, only traded, given, and placed in caches. I'm down to 4 coins and I thought about selling #100 to fund my next version, but $3.42 wouldn't help much toward new coins!

maybe it's the fact that I only mailed out the last packages this morning. I've been working on it every night this week. But the USPS definately has some major flaws anyway!

If you placed separate orders for them, it's possible that you will get two packages. I tried to combine the shipping for those folks, but I might have missed some.

I was very pleased with the job they did with the 2006 GOWT coins. Great coin, on time, and very reasonable.

I always call them "Commemorative coin, non-monetary" Maybe I should say "Commemorative token"

When I worked as a cashier at a grocery store, I'd have taken that coin!

The one's I've seen have the year in the number box, like "2004-XXX". The one I have in my collection (sorry no pic, I'm at work) just has the number, 162, so I'm assuming it's a 2003, before they got the idea to start putting the year in the box. Just an edumcated guess.

They didn't know what it was until they got there, all they knew is that a neighbor called 911 to report a suspicious looking person (see above) attaching something underneath the mailbox. I know, I know, I've used the "little bitty bomb" argument before, too, but anyone who has ever had a firecracker go off in their hand knows what a small "bomb" can do. It's probably not a terrorist, but it could be some low-life's idea of a joke. Our best defense is good relations with local LE, educating them on what we do, and being responsible in how we do it. If even you think it might cause a problem, the paranoid public that never heard of "gee o'cashing" will likely jump to the wrong conclusion.

The icon is finally working! Last dozen or so packages will go out in tomorrow's mail! Thanks for your patience!

Oh! Didn't catch that, thought you had to pay when ordered, I stands corrected, thanks! Not if you live in Arlington TN!

I recently discouraged a local from doing a fire hydrant hide because I didn't want to wake up and see the newspaper headline" A lot of time, LE overreacts, but imagine this headline: We also had a recent bomb squad call for a magnetic keyholder on a blue USPS mailbox. Those mailboxes (and even the one outside your house, that YOU paid for) are Federal property. Thank God the local deputy was a geocacher and diffused the situation (no pun intended), but the Postal Inspector was NOT amused! Of course it didn't help that the "suspicious person" (one of our members) looks a lot like Ted Kazynski!

This takes 3-4 business days. If you don't already have the funds in your PayPal account, there's no way it will be there by Sunday if you transfer today. There's no way I'll make it home in time for this one, I'll have to hope for a trade.

FYI, I spent 32 minutes standing at a postal counter today (not counting time waiting in line) while the slowest human being on earth still capable of gainful employment entered 11 Global Priority Mail packages BY HAND! That's 22 separate 12-digit tracking codes (one for the package and one for the Customs label) each painstakingly entered with one finger of his right hand! On average, I lost a little less than $1 each based on the estimated postage I charged buyers.

Hi spencer, you can print customs forms online now. On the USPS site. It saves loads of time and they are much neater than hand writing them. Alex. I thought so too, but I must have clicked the wrong link. It took me to the USPS store where I could order 100 of them to be mailed to me! It was easier to just go to the post office and get some, especially since I had to hand deliver 7 domestic Priority Mail boxes, even though they were already paid for online, just because they were over 16oz.

'Twern't me! I charged you (I think) $10 and spent $9 on GPM! (BTW, Lynn, I'll mail your coins tomorrow. I ran out of Customs labels and had to go get more from the PO)

FYI, the large Global Priority Mail envelopes are $9. But again, GPM cannot be insured and you have to physically go to a post office, which is a pain, but I don't charge extra for it. Either envelope will hold a padded envelope inside the USPS provided envelope. Time in transit is a factor, IMO. With Global Priority Mail, you at least have some idea how long it will take. Parcel post can take weeks. Highest quote I've seen personally is about $23 to send 3Lb from US to Germany, Global Priority Mail, variable weight rate, 4-6 days. Parcel post was $18.25 and would take 4-6 weeks. I suggested flattening it out into two large GPM envelopes, $18. Keep in mind, some sellers may choose to price themselves out of the international shipping business, just to avoid the bother, not saying anyone has, just that they could. It is extra work. I know because I just packaged up about 15 international orders for the 2006 GOWT coins, requiring a lot of handwritten forms and 2 trips to the post office. To top it off, we forgot to charge extra for Int'l shipping, so we generally ate between one and four dollars postage on each package. Our own fault though, so we didn't ask anyone for extra shipping after the fact. One or two buyers, God bless them, included a few bucks extra on their own accord!

One gold here, please! Tks! Steve

People infringe copyrights all the time. Heck my old avatar of the White Tree of Gondor was a copyrighted image. It depends on whether or not you get caught, and whether or not they think it's worth going after you. But then again, I'm not a lawyer, no legal advice here!

I'll betcha a coin that logo is trademarked.

too good not to pass up... too good not to pass up Sorry, couldn't resist, just kidding! Made another trip to the post office today. Still printing shipping labels and sealing packages.

The coins have arrived and I am very pleased with how they turned out! Frankly, I think the pewter coins lent themselves to the design better than the limited edition gold coins, which are really shiny! Pretty! Just REALLY shiny, and some of the detail is harder to see, Now, in the interests of FULL DISCLOSURE, I have to let you know something. Due to the CRAPPY inventory control capabilities of PayPal (or rather, the lack thereof), we oversold the pewter coins by 44 coins, and undersold the gold coins by 27. This left us a net 17 coins oversold! So, I reduced my own personal order, and another member reduced his to make up the difference in the total number. But, as I said, we were short on pewter and long on gold. We could have sold the extra gold and made more pewter, but instead, to keep the editions at their originally advertised numbers, we took all orders that did NOT get a gold coin, and as randomly as I could, I selected 27 orders and replaced one pewter coin with a gold. If you only ordered pewter, and your package contains a gold, congratulations, you're a winner. Also, regarding the cost of the coins, we set our prices to do 3 things: Not lose money; not make much money; and not lose money! The final figures aren't in but we should break a little more than even, and any excess funds will be used to support the website (which just added a cool new chat feature, I might add!) One last thing, mainly to leaders of coin groups and others who ordered for multiple buyers. The tracking number activation codes are obtained by visiting a URL. We included a business card in each package with the URL on it. Unfortunately, we had all of them packaged up when it dawned on me that we still only put one card in each, no matter how many coins were ordered. Sorry guys and gals, I guess you can share it with your members by hand. Many thanks to my good geocaching buddy Hoot Owl for helping stuff envelopes and boxes for several hours today! They will start hitting the mail tomorrow. Everything should be out by the middle of next week. Thanks to all who made the coin a success!