Why Trackable?

[+ChileHead]

Why would people bother making their personal geocoins trackable? The vast majority will end up in a collection, or logged once or twice before going missing (aka going into a collection.)

 

Do personal geocoins really move from cache to cache?

 

Even the state coins I'm assuming don't move, so other than getting the little icon on the stats the cost for tracking doesn't seem worth while.

[+Ladycacher]

Mine travel "virtualy" when I go to events or if somebody contacts me. I don't see a problem with it.

[+Cornerstone4]

Actually, fOtOmOm has his personal coin trackable, and he dropped a few in caches this weekend!

 

You are right though, most people end up keeping them. Then, they take them to events where everyone logs them to get the icons on their profile page.

 

C4

[+pdxmarathonman]

so other than getting the little icon on the stats the cost for tracking doesn't seem worth while.

You hit it on the head!

 

Although, some coins do in fact get moved. Believe it or not, there are a few cachers out there who can release a coin they have grabbed from a cache

[+Barthonis]

Well I'll say what others are thinking but won't post. I know I'm probably ten times more likely to irder someone's coin if it IS trackable on geocaching.com. WHy? Precisely because you get an icon and also if I wanna trade or even sell any extras, they go for alot more money/trades if they are tracckable on gc.com. It's a combination of being an icon whore and also economics of trade/resale. For me, in both cases, it's all about the numbers. Simple.

 

Now, having said that, I have purchased a couple coins that weren't trackable at all (not even on some other website) simply because I thought the design was really neat. but they've been the exception to the rule. And if you don't think I'm being accurate....check out the threads where people are selling coins that are trackable vs untrackable on gc.com. The scale of the ordering is quite different. Which makes recouping your upfront costs alot easier when the pre-order of a coin sells out the 1000 or whatever coins you are going to mint in about 2 days (which the NEW York coin did, btw).

 

Jeff

[+4agers]

I was just discussing this with a fellow geocacher. I plan on creating a personal geocoin and hope to make it trackable. Do I think it will be moved from cache to cache? Nope.

 

However, I plan activating each coin to my account and if I leave it in a worth while cache or give it to a cacher for a reason... I can put it in the TB description. They can grab it and now I have an easy way to track who has my coins.

 

As much as I love geocoins I will not use them for trading... I would like to have mine found or earned. I just need to find someone that will split a lot of Tracking numbers. I don't need 500 of them.

[SCP-173]

Which makes recouping your upfront costs alot easier when the pre-order of a coin sells out the 1000 or whatever coins you are going to mint in about 2 days (which the NEW York coin did, btw).

It was 36 hours.

 

One thing that no one has mentioned is the fact that every single personal coin has the same icon. If you've logged one, you've logged them all. Seems kind of silly and redundant to me. That's the exact reason why I'm not really trying to get any more of them. I got a f0t0m0m (the first trackable personal coin), and am happy with that. Now I'd only try to get trackable personal coins if I like design.

[+pdxmarathonman]

I've always kinda thought that "buying a personal coin" is somewhat oxymoronic, since the whole community will be a source of these coins. I understand the reasons, and am not suggesting it is somehow wrong, just that it is not very personal.

[+Cache-bert]

The way I see it is that Geocaching is a game. Geocaching.com trackable coins, jeep travel bugs, etc. are game pieces that you can use to play the game. I think a lot of people choose to play the game by trying to get credit for all the different icons. In my opinion, that approach is more interesting and, frankly, a better use of one's time than trying to find thousands and thousands of look-alike caches. Consider how many people will drive hundreds of miles to a Planet APE cache as evidence of the interest some people have in obtaining a full set of icons.

 

A non-trackable coin is a great thing to find in a cache. However, if it isn't trackable, you just don't get any credit in the game.

[+pdxmarathonman]

The way I see it is that Geocaching is a game. Geocaching.com trackable coins,  jeep travel bugs, etc. are game pieces that you can use to play the game. I think a lot of people choose to play the game by trying to get credit for all the different icons. In my opinion, that approach is more interesting and, frankly, a better use of one's time than trying to find thousands and thousands of look-alike caches. Consider how many people will drive hundreds of miles to a Planet APE cache as evidence of the interest some people have in obtaining a full set of icons.

 

A non-trackable coin is a great thing to find in a cache. However, if it isn't trackable, you just don't get any credit in the game.

Let's not forget that the APE caches actually have a historical significance. Coin Club coins with tracking are just icon generators. Not that there is anything wrong with that

 

You really hit on something there though - as we get more seasoned we begin to look for more excuses to go find caches. The prospect of finding a metal disk in a cache is a pretty strong pull.

 

Recently, there seems to be a bit of cache apathy around here (and TB apathy is rampant). Even FTF's are limited to just a few folks (and they get quite a bit of time to do it!) But I am not worried about caching dying off around here because the event caches are huge. We had an event to celebrated a dog's birthday and had 30+ people at a pub on a Tuesday night!

 

So, anything that increases the fun in finding caches is a good thing. So let's get some coins into caches!!

Edited September 28, 2005 by pdxmarathonman

[+Fundamental]

Here in Finland the system still works.. coins are not getting stolen.. I don't even know anyone who collects geocoins.

Edited September 28, 2005 by Fundamental & Venlis

[+IceCreamMan]

I've discussed this topic with several collecters. They tend to see this with tunnel vision. They don't activate any coins anyway so they don't see the value. The value in tracking is that it makes the coins attractive to NON-collectors. Thus increasing the demand. Whether you place the coin in circulation or simpley circulate it at events, it makes it part of the fun for everyone, whether they are interested in collecting or not.

[+4agers]

I've always kinda thought that "buying a personal coin" is somewhat oxymoronic, since the whole community will be a source of these coins. I understand the reasons, and am not suggesting it is somehow wrong, just that it is not very personal.

I agree... I have taken to collecting state and organization coins. I have purchased several in the past few weeks. I can't wait to get my hands on some more personal geocoins, but for some reason I feel they have to be given to me in person or found in a cache.

 

So, to get back on topic... I want my coins trackable so I can keep track of them I have found tracking coins from an alternative web site simply isn't as efficient.

[+Bigdawg!]

Hey, Chilehead.

If you were thinking of doing trackable and didn't want to do 500, let me know and maybe we could split the order!