TheSapaFamily

I'm a businesswoman so I always laugh at questions like these. A smart business person would never share their secrets on how to make money. Why help the competition? I see several possibilities on making money for geocaching. Would I share them? NO! Think of your own ideas and try them out, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I forgot what your original question was after reading these two pages but I do not consider players leaving geocaches for us to find as leaving trash for us to find. On the other hand, after finding 20 caches, most of the stuff/swag in the caches I would call "trash." Sigh, yeah I am a little disappointed in the swag I have come across. The first couple of caches were awesome but the swag has been going downhill. Just a bunch of "trash", real trash in my opinion. I love the phrase "one person's trash is another person's treasure" but definitely no treasures lately. No biggie, I now have two types of swag items in my bag to trade, pins valued at 4 to 6 dollars for any good swag and plastic charm beads for crappy swag that might still hold my interest. What do I consider trash in geocaches? Soggy business cards, broken happy meal toys, broken mardi gra beads, soggy origami swan, cardboard trading cards, loose dirty batteries, paper coupons, etc. After 20 cache finds, I might be at the point where I no longer trade and just sign the log cause I still love geocaching, just get tired of seeing "trash" in the geocaches.

I downloaded the Geocaching Stats application but I can't figure out who to get the box to show up on my profile. Do you know how?

St. Louis - Missouri No real animal dangers besides snakes. We do have bobcats but I've never heard of them attacking anyone. We have lots and lots of deer so ticks are a major annoyance. Poison Ivy is a big problem for me but I get it every year even before I start hiking so I just deal with it with some shots from my Doctor. Drowning is pretty common occurrence in Missouri. People underestimate the power of currents when swimming in rivers. Flash floods happen a lot. For Urban Caches, there are definitely some areas I would not go to, even in daylight. We do actually have some very beautiful parks. I don't think we will ever run out of caches to find.

I've only done 11 so far and 2 were Urban. I do love hiking for the Forest ones but I thought the urban caches were more creative (placement, etc). I'm going to keep trying both.

I'm with you. I haven't come across any restricted areas in Missouri. After reading all the posts, I think the issue is the OP's area has endangered animals, plants, etc that get damaged by people ignoring the signs. If that is the case then I would say a cache should not be placed there. I'm sure there are plenty of other places in the area to place caches that aren't going to result in the environment getting destroyed.

I am so confused. So when is straying from the beaten path in a park ruining the park? Every park I have been too has no problem with hikers straying off the path. Each cache I have found involved a little hiking thru an unmarked path.

Hmmmm....I would say in my vast experience of 8 caches ;-)... Best Swag: Foreign Coins Worst Swag: Tie between a night light and a tea light.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I will just start putting notes in the travel bug log if I don't see it in the cache. Thank you for the nice comment Team Sagefox. My husband and I are having a blast. I mentioned it to my nieces over the weekend and showed them my swag so far and they couldn't contain themselves. BIL now has a new GPS device and St louis has 6 new geocachers ready to hunt!!!

How do you handle a cachet that lists a bug that doesn't have one in it? I have been reading the forum and I know the general consensus is that sometimes it takes a while for players to log a bug they have picked up. But can I go ahead and make a note in the travel bug log that I just visited the cache and did not see the travel bug? The last goecacher visitor was in April. I just visited the other night. I have visited 3 caches so far that said they had travel bugs but they did not. I found one travel bug in a cache that didn't have it listed. I'm starting to get the impression that travel bugs disappear in St. Louis.

You really can't go wrong with trading as long as you're leaving something of equal or better value; even if you didn't really need to trade for it. I feel good. I have totally traded up so far. I have been putting in a Disney Pin and taking 1 swag or 1 sig item. I also started putting my Disney pins in a ziploc baggie in case the cache does get wet the pin won't rust.

Thank you so much. Your post totally clears up my confusion.

Yes me too, I've been reading the forum nonstop for the last day, love all the pics, just started Geocaching on Saturday and am already addicted. . I didn't realize there would be signature items but have found 2 wooden nickels so far. I love them, much better then a plastic toy for me. But after I traded for them, I started second guessing myself on whether I am suppose to leave them for the owner of the cache or not. I am debating on whether to do a wooden nickel or dog tag, both are neat but I think I am liking the classic style of the wooden nickel. But then I read that signature items are regional so maybe I should leave a signature item and a swag since not everyone likes sig items? I think I am totally over-thinking the whole game, LOL.

Yes I am a newbie so bare with me (and yes I used the search feature but i still have questions ;-)). So I have found 8 caches so far and I have seen both Swag and Signature items and would like some clarification. My understanding was to trade a swag for a swag. Do players trade a swag for a signature item? Are we allowed to trade for the signature items or are they meant for the owner of the cache? Do players who leave signature items also leave a swag item? So if you like both a signature item and a swag item, can you trade for two items or is the general rule just one per player? I keep seeing lots of business cards. Do players who leave cards count that as their swag or are they just leaving something extra? Thank you for your help!!!