BassTroutMaster

I am sorry to hear the Midwest has been discouraging in geocaching. I too can't get excited about the quick grabs. I have 2 caches and spent days coming up with the ideas. I have 2 others that are just as detailed, but my heart isn't in it to place them, because of: the lost travel bugs, lack of travel bugs in caches, and the trash in the caches. My 1st TB (TB3G72W) was hand painted by my wife. We really wanted to see it get to Scotland and back. Our area of Central Coastal California, has few if any decent challenging geocaches. Hence my low numbers. Quick grabs don't interest me. I like the multi caches and challenging caches. A challenging cache in this area tend to be a cache with coordinates that are 200 feet away. Wishing and hoping things improve. Bass Trout Master

I too have lost patience and interest. I have spent time, money, and put in a tremendous effort to have enjoyable caches and travel bugs. I am releasing 6 more travel bugs soon, my last TB tags. If I lose over 50%, I will never send out another TB or geocoin again. My 2 new quality caches that are ready to be placed, won't be placed. I continual feed my 1st 2 caches with TBs.

I am sending my last 6 Travel Bugs soon on their way . If I lose these I will no longer buy and send any more. I have tried to make my 2 geocaches more exciting with them, but the frustration level is too much. I am still very frustrated about Miss Maggie TB TB3G72W, my 1st TB, and have contacted everyone that knew something about her. No luck! I have 2 more caches ready to go, but have held off. In Central Coastal California, my area, very few TB exist in caches. More than 50% of the caches only have a log and don't have any swag. 10% to 20% of the geocaches have been taken out from lack of maintenance and never fixed. Premium membership may be the only solution to lost or stolen TBs. This may work only part time, but at least I have tried to help fix the problem

The amount of people using smart phones and GPS has become immense. Most of them try it and look for something listed as a trackable and never do geocaching again. I talked to a newbie that heard about geocaching online. This was a quick grab at a parking lot of the side of a freeway. He was using his smart phone and told me, "I am looking for some good treasures." I asked him about geocaching, I acted dumb, he said that a friend had told him about finding these great coins. My point is the only way to prevent this is to pay for a premium membership, just as I pay club dues with other organizations. The age of the smart phone is upon us all, I don't see any other option to avoid this type of theft. I am looking for comments for a better solution. I haven't heard solutions from many.

While, like others, I appreciate the sentiment behind wanting to find a way to keep TBs from being stolen, I don't really appreciate that idea. Because while that may (or may not) improve YOUR fun and experience, you would be taking away from the fun and experiences of MANY others, namely BASIC MEMBERS. Someone else mentioned this in their post in this thread... ...and I completely agree with that. If you choose to release TBs and request that they be placed in Premium Member Only caches, thereby ensuring that only PREMIUM members get to even see them....that's up to you. But I think it would be COMPLETELY wrong of anyone to take it upon themselves to move TBs from regular caches that even us lowly Basic Members can get to, to the "safety" of Premium Member Only caches. Because you are in essence taking those bugs out of circulation for the rest of us, and that's not fair; it's not YOUR place to decide that we Basic Members can't be trusted. It's not like you have to pass some morality test to become a Premium Member, all it takes is $30 for a YEAR. Which, as others have pointed out, isn't a lot if someone is seriously dedicated to stealing trackables. I think the best way to discourage TBs from being stolen is, as you said, to not put them in quick grab caches. I think the harder a cache is to find, the farther off the trail, the better chance it has of being safe from those who don't know what it is. And honestly, all of the best hidden caches I've found so far have obviously not been Premium Member caches. In fact, the one Premium Member Cache I stumbled across out in the field was actually the EASIEST find of the entire day, it was right at the beginning of a trail, closest cache to the parking lot. $30 is a lot to discourage the people taking trackables and never to return them. If you read through most of the comments on all the forums. The people complaining the most about the lost trackables are owners, yes "OWNERS". They all say one thing. They are upset and a thinking about no longer sending trackables. Geocachers who have put out the cash and effort to send trackables will start leaving geocaching. Then, all those that will be complaining will be the ones that don't care about moving them along. There is a marked decrease already where I live. I have only seen 2 in the last year. Yet I am giving it another try and sending out 5 move in the next 2 months. I am an "owner" of trackables. If Premium caches are the only way I can keep my trackables moving then I am going to do it. The rest of you that don't seem to care, keep grabbing the marbles, toy solders, trash, and bubble gum wrappers.

Thank you for your support. This is my belief also. I don't think all premium members will play by the rules, but I think most of them understand the rules. Hopefully this will give them a better chance. Anyone that has sent geocoins or travel bugs on a mission also realize they do mean something more than the cost and effort of just getting them placed into a geocache. My family and I monitor their travels quite closely. Someone commented that this implies that I will only do premium caches, which I won't. I like any challenging cache or at some new unknown location to me.

Some of what I do to increase the chances of my travel bugs movement to other caches, I add a tag with a short description of its mission sealed in plastic coating to protect and strengthen it and attached it to the travel bug. If anything I hope my posting stirs up enthusiam to move the travel bugs along in their journeys. Groundspeak/Geocaching.com has added a new scan-able QR Tech Tag. Each tag features a unique QR code that takes you directly to the the item's trackable page on Geocaching.com. I would like to see them adopt this with all travel bug tags. It would help increase awareness and some of the geocaching game rules.

It is nice to see the feedback. I meant to say Premium Members and Caches. I edited my post. I am sorry that many of you read this a threat to open geocaching. It isn't. Some of us would like to see things improve. This is a suggestion. I am not saying to accuse someone of a theft. I am saying maybe this will help with the disappearances. From a quick suvey 90% of the geocachers who have sent a geocoin or travel bug on its way are disappointed when it disappears. Geocaching is very fun in many ways, hiking, enjoying the outdoors, finding new location, solving mysteries, but "treasure hunting" is what it is all about, hence "Geocaching is a free real-world outdoor treasure hunt."

Several of us are owners of lost or stolen travel bugs and geocoins. My opinion is that they are stolen. I don't know what possesses true geocahers to keep theses items. All of us enjoy finding these items in caches. This makes up 50% of the fun and interest. It is exciting "Finding Treasure". My point is that I believe most of these people or muggles that are taking them permanently are not true geocachers. By the time you put together travel bugs or purchased geocoins you have spent a minimum of $6 and as much as $16 on the cheapest travel bug or geocoin not to mention our time and effort. We want to see them move on! If they continue to disappear, geocachers will stop setting travel bugs and geocoins on their journeys. Geocaching.com and Groundspeak don't seem to care. They will eventually see the lack of interest affect their business. So few travel bugs and geocoins are in our area. The numbers of found geocoins and travel bugs continue to fall and so has the geocaching interest. So I and a few other "Premium Member Cachers" are asking that out travel bugs and geocoins be moved to other "Premium Member Caches" and also avoid quick grabs. Quick grabs are too easily spotted by nongeochers and muggles, who really don't care about geocaching as a sport or hobby. Geocaching is the only hobby that you don't have to invest any additional money if you have a computer. I personally find that if you don't invest your own time and money, you don't appreciate it. I am a Premium Member and many other Premium Members are trying this new approach to improve or geocaching fun and experiences. WE ARE ASKING THAT GEOCOINS AND TRAVEL BUGS BE PUT IN PREMIUM MEMBER CACHES ONLY, that are not quick grabs. We don't know if this is going to work, but we have all felt the need to try something to keep us interested in this fun and exciting hobby. $30 a year for a private membership isn't much if it maintains our level of fun. I just know I won't continue spending $4 - 5 on a travel bug tag that disappears in the 4th or 5th geocache. I won't even consider purchasing another geocoin, unless this new system we are trying helps reduce our losses.

I am fairly new to geocaching. I'm finding that many of the geocoins and travel bugs are disappearing off the face of the earth. I now see that there are several web sites for selling and trading travel bugs and geocoins on the internet. Isn't the point of making this fun by finding new sites and interesting items to move along in their journey. My family and I find this annoying. I own my own company and was going to make a universal geocoin using my nice logo, but I'm am having serious second thoughts. Also I think that someone should make up an official geocaching highway (orange coloring, CA/Caltrans) trash bag so we not only have an excuse to look less suspicious along roadways, but we can clean up our environment.. It would be nice if maybe geocaching could stress this to the people using the site. Additionally the cache in some of the sites is junk and trash. I became intriqued with geocaching, because of the uniqueness and the class act of the geocachers. I spend a minum of $1-3 dolllars on SWAG. What is happening? We need to stress a code of ethics or Mission Statement. If I'm off base let me know. Maybe geocaching isn't what I expected. So far it has been extremely fun, but in a short period of looking for geocoins and travel bugs many have gone Missing In Action. I love watching their journeys on ones we have found.