amagrud

There are several geocoins I dream of someday receiving, including Moun10bike versions 1 and 2, ScoutingWV, and some of the mystery coins, G.C.Bug, esq., Mickey Diver, and Pot of Gold. I have been very fortunate to be able to trade with Jon for his Moun10bike version 3, with Jeremy for a Lackey, with various members of the Starkville Mafia for their brick coins, and to have found a few G.C.F. coins in caches or other hiding spots. To those still looking for T.G.C.F., just keep believing, you never know when and where she will show up. Same goes for all the other mystery coins. I hope all of you are able to get the coins you dream about, and better yet, I hope to meet as many of you as possible on the trails or at an event in the next few years.

What really bothers me about this whole thing is that there are some really nice caches here that have what amounts to a negative log in their pages, and the impression, intended or not, that the caches in Mississippi are crap. Some of the caches in question involve hikes through pine hills or hardwood bottomlands with pretty views of lakes and abounding with wildlife. One has a large fenced in area next to it where deer are kept for study and can be easily viewed. Another, a hidden gem, is a very small park that teaches visitors about the importance of wetlands. Here the visitor can view fish in the pond, snakes, turtles, rabbits, even wood ducks nesting in the boxes provided. Others may not be so pretty, but have a lot of historical significance, such as the cemetery with the large proportion of veterans of various wars buried in it. Yes, some of the caches Pat visited were not so inspired, but he lumped them all together, and the best thing he said was "full of JUNK". I'm sorry Pat, but if the only thing you are concerned about is the quality of the swag, you should probably get out of the hobby and just go by the local Dollar Tree when you want a trinket or the local McDonalds if you want the McToy of the month. It will be lot's cheaper and you will rarely be disappointed. I recently completed the Louisiana Delorme Challenge, and I got to tell you, most of the caches I found were full of JUNK, and I guess you would also call the Scout patches I left in them junk also. The best thing, though, was I got to see a lot of very interesting places. I can't say all the caches were inspiring, but I certainly never left a negative log, preferring instead to say something positive about each visit. Even the cache that was full of junk (actually mud, slime and crap. We washed it out, dried it, put in a new log, and added several junk trinkets and Scout patches before re-hiding) a little south of Baton Rouge. Different folks look for different things in the caches they seek. I prefer interesting locations or fun puzzles, others may just want to rack up numbers, and some may judge a cache by the swag inside. There is a lot of things to like for just about anyone in our hobby, and it pains me to see such negative blanket statements thrown out in such a public forum.

What is HTF is easy! HTF or VHTF is whatever I want that you have.

I am looking for a Morpho Black Nickel Butterfly LE (pink) and a copper earth turtle. For trade I have 2005 Hawaii, Haughton's Hunters Arizona LE, Flying Spaghetti Monster, and more. Also, I have a 2006 Dutch Micro (silver) and a Saman Team coin that I received in a group purchase that are both looking for a good home. Recent tries at trading these ended up as trades for other coins and I still have these, so anyone want to make an offer? Abbey, aka amagrud

Check TB1G7FH. I made 5 of these in sterling silver, and have used them as very special thank you gifts. He tried to trade for a gold and a silver coin, but instead I gifted him a gold which I had extra and another HTF collectible in another area we both collect in. Apparently he decided that his need for a perfect collection is more important than anything else, so he had a counterfeit made (for all I know, maybe the gold coin, TB1G7F6, is counterfeit also), affixed tracking numbers from some other coin series to the coins, activated them, and is showing them off in his collection.

Coins to add: amagrud gold amagrud silver (counterfeit exists)

Well said, TMA! You left out D - Ain't it great that even a newb can have access to such nice coins!

You can add #88 to your list. I just received it from an eBay auction I was high bidder on back in early December of 2007. Apparently it got lost in the mail, but the seller put some heat on the USPS, they found the package, and got it to me safely. Nice coin!

Well, I have finally seen a couple of GSA coins. While visiting with Prntr1 last week I was able to see the one he has (sorry, don't remember the number) and today I finally received the one I was high bidder on way back in December. Seems the USPS wanted to make sure I know how tough these are to come by. GSA #88 will now be attending events with me for others to see, pull out of the binder, and play with. Thanks for making such a cool coin, GSA!

PayPal won't accept a claim more than 45 days after payment, so you could wait until the deadline then open the dispute. You then will have an additional 20 days to resolve the issue with the seller (i.e., an additional 20 days to wait for the shipment to arrive). You can let the seller/vendor know that you are doing this to protect yourself under PayPal's guidelines while still giving them additional time to get things finalized and make the shipment. Opening a dispute in PayPal does not have to be a fight or a negative experience.

That sounds like BS, I feel for you. Probably, but it was just a coin, not worth getting upset over!

I hope you get your coins, but that's not so long. I've been waiting since mid July for a trade to be completed. Actually, I'm really not holding my breath any more, the other guy was very happy to receive the coin I sent, and expressed sorrow that I did not receive anything, but pretty much left me with "what the heck do you expect me to do about it?" I told him if I was in that situation, I would either send something else acceptable, or return the coin. Apparently he did not like that, as I've never had any more contact with him.

Never even seen a GSA or pot of gold coin, but maybe sometime some will show up in Mississippi. Still, cannot complain, cause we've been lucky enough to have come across the Geocoin Fairy and the CCC gang, and even a SinterKlaas sighting! Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and looking forward to a great year of caching.

I received my Lackey coin in trade from Jeremy at GW5. As soon as I got knocked out of the poker tournament, I walked over to where he was talking with some other folks and introduced myself. After talking a few minutes I offered him one of my coins and he gave me the Lackey. Very nice, and the coin was pretty neat too! Almost as much fun was having Prntr1 begging me for a Prntr1 coin so he could make the same trade. Seems Prntr went out without his stash that night. Of course, I took care of him.

I received my suncatcher and 12 days of Christmas spinner coins today. All very nice. I received a Crake monarch ornament as a bonus. Crake makes a good coin, so anyone who orders some of these should be very satisfied with the results.

Congrats wyohunter! Folks around here say I was nuts driving 3 and 4 hours (one way) to get Geocoin Fairy Coins, so it's nice to know there is someone else as nutty as me. I know you will treasure the coin forever, and I hope it brings you a bunch of good karma.

All trackable coins in my collection are activated. This allows others to discover them at events and "harvest" icons. I've been told that this will make them hard to sell when I pass on or otherwise get out of the hobby, but I don't plan to sell them anyway. For a final bit of fun, I will probably just release them all into caches and see how long they travel. Coins I get to trade remain unactivated so that the person I trade with has the option to do what they want with it. I will happily trade for an activated coin, because adoption is easy and I'm probably going to activate it myself anyway. BTW, if you are burdened with any tainted, activated moun10bike coins, just send them my way, I'm sure I can find someone willing to give them a home!

Don't be embarrassed, make those trade offers! If people decline, that's ok, 'cause maybe the next guy will accept and you have made a new friend. You will also get an education as to what people want and consider valuable. I'm constantly amazed at what some people consider rare or hard to find, but maybe it is hard to find in their area. As to being afraid to drop coins in a cache, well, it's not so hard if you expect them to disappear. At first I dropped laminated coin copies in caches. Most finders appreciate being able to get the icon, a very vocal minority hate the things. I decided not to put out any more, but most of the 40+ I did put out are still travelling. I have also released over a dozen actual coins to travel, but most have disappeared. I still drop coins in caches, but now they are unactivated and intended as a gift for the next finder. I have received a couple of e-mails from finders thanking me that were very touching and make this practice very worthwhile. I have also been very fortunate to have been able to find and gift some of the mystery coins. A couple of Geocoin Fairy coins have passed through my hands, as well as a couple of the other mystery coins. Maybe the good karma will continue to build and I will be allowed to drop more of the mystery coins, I certainly hope so for that is a LOT of fun. If not, I will continue looking for fairly cheap sources of coins that I can drop to make someone else very happy.

Oh Boy! I just e-mailed you a trade offer for one of your coins. I don't know if you'll consider it obscene (my coin is on your wish list, sorta), and I'm offering a coin that is considered pretty good, and even pretty appropriate for this time of year. Maybe very appropriate if I had waited 2 days. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what you think of this offer. Happy Halloween to you!

Hmmmm..... I've been fairly lucky (Good Karma) with the TGCF coins, and looks like some of it rubbed off on another mystery coin. This one popped up just a couple of miles from the house, and I was about to run an errand nearby, so I made a slight detour to make the grab. I left an unactivated coin for the next finder of the cache. Cool coin, thanks a bunch CCC for the Halloween treat!

I'm not sure I know enough to be able to say what's obscene or not. When I offer a trade proposal, I try to offer that person something that is on their seeking list. If they don't reply, I might make one more attempt, offer something different, or move on to someone else. In any event, no coin is worth getting upset about, if a trade can't be worked out today, maybe it will happen later. I have never received an obscene trade proposal. If someone makes me an offer I don't want to accept, I politely decline and thank them for the offer. It's not that I don't value their coin, it just did not strike my fancy at that time. Sometimes I will change my mind and make the same or a similar trade later on down the line. In any event, I enjoy the chance to correspond with the other trader, and if we can make a trade, so much the better.

Well, I finally have a Geocoin Fairy tale worth telling. I had been watching the Geocoin Fairy's movements, and saw that she dropped three coins in New Orleans. I quickly alerted a couple of friends that had tried to get coins left in Mississippi but were a little too slow. One said that was too far to drive, the other said he would think about it. One of the the three coins was quickly snatched up by the cache owner, then a day or so later the second coin was picked up, but the third and final TGCF coin still sat there waiting to be found. I called my friend every day and told him to quit thinking about it and go after it, but he kept waiting. He finally said that it had surely been picked up by now (almost a week), and even though I reminded him about my conversations with Prntr1 last year (same type of situation), he wouldn't go after it. I had read some of this thread, and knew about a cacher in Alaska that desperately wanted a TGCF coin, so I decided to do something about it. Friday morning I got up early and drove down to New Orleans, just missing the morning traffic. This was a new cache find for me, but I quickly found it, and there was the coin, waiting patiently for me. I called the friend that thought it was long gone, and when he said "Where you at?", I replied "Metairie". The phone was dead quiet for a couple of minutes, then he groaned and said he knew I had the coin and should have listened to me. He quickly offered a trade (as the other friend did later), but I told him I had something much better in mind for the coin. I cached my way home and put the final part of my plan into motion. I fired off an e-mail to Alaska and a few days later got a cautious note with a mailing address. The coin was carefully packaged with a hand written note gifting the coin to the recipient, then placed in the mail. This past Friday, as I was getting ready to take my Scouts camping, I was notified that the coin had arrived safely in Alaska. Mission Completed! Six hours driving, seven new caches found, the chance to tell a friend "I told you so!", and now more good karma (no pun intended, Ms. Thomas) than I know what to do with! To those that say "It's too far" or "You know it's already gone", I say you gotta believe and you gotta have faith! The best part of all is that, at least for one person, I got to be The Geocoin Fairy!

Stargate Atlantis

I don't spend much time in the forums, but knew you like the stories so thought I'd post mine. When The Battle of Champion Hill (GC14ZVK) was published, I thought about going after the FTF honors, but instead called a friend and let him go after it. Now, several days (and several finders) later, I am on my way home from Vicksburg and decide to stop by and grab the cache. It was nestled in a small hole in a beautiful, large, twisted red cedar tree. Imagine my surprise when I removed the micro cache container and spotted the coin sitting underneath, like an egg in its nest! All I can say is Thank You so much GCF! I still had some unactivated coins in the Jeep left from my runs at GW5, so I left a Delorme Challenge coin for the next finder.

Received mine in Mississippi yesterday. WOW! Thanks for the bonus, Aaron and Tess! The coins look great! Pictures simply don't do them justice. And that GeocoinFest copper, simply beautiful, I should have ordered more. Great design, Yemon Yime! Maybe I will go back and try to order some of the gold coins.