Cache Treasures

[+Team Muppet]

a cache.

 

I'm not only talking about creating a cache, but when you trade something for something.

 

I have a few items that I am wishing to trade into the caches (once we find our first one) and I wouldn't mind hearing what others might use.

 

Items for our Geocaching...

 

- Yoda Lego Keychain

- Angel 'Always With You' coin

- 'Surf Crate' Hot Wheels car

- MtG Trading Cards

- Future Travel Bugs (when purchased)

 

We are still looking around the house to see what else we could add.

[+Team Muppet]

Oh, btw...

 

 

Happy Holidays to All!

[+GEO.JOE]

Currently in the Swag pocket of my caching bag I have:

2 bottle opener key chains

2 support our troops wooden nickles

A Hot Wheels bus

Die Case buggy

Ping Pong Ball that looks like a soccer ball

Token for a free round of mini golf

Electronic Mosquito repeller

Hand sanitizer towel

Hand carved fish

Miniature sample Brick, from a brick maker in VA

Elvis coin, that was from the Estate of the presdent of the Elvis fan club in the 70's

Garmin/Yamaha Poker run chip

LED finger light from Dippin Dots

3 way REI caribiner

Small carbiner

psychedelic button

purple diamond-cut kids ring

old milk-glass marble

Golden Mouse Signature item for nice hides in the woods

Spirit Stone signature items I leave in most caches I visit

 

When I start a cache I try to plan it based on who I think will find the cache. If it is an easy park cache I will have more kid friendly items:

Mctoys, Hot Wheels, laser pointers, baseball cards from the 50's through the 90's, books, tapes, books on tape, necklaces, etc.

 

If it is back in the wood, there will be more items of interest to adults, old coins, foreign coins, Tokens, wooden nickles, Insect repellers, T-shirts, mini/LED flashlights, carabiners, key chains, Boyds bear pins, etc.

 

I have a few boxes of miscellaneous stuff around I pick up on clearance that I use.

 

I have 3 theme caches one is a golf theme so logo balls, trick balls, golf towels, T-shirt, golf videos..etc.

 

Another cache is a rock, stone and gem cache. I started it with stones and gems I have collected from around the country such as Obsidian, agate, quartz, Apache Tears, Amethyst, and I have one diamond to place in it.

 

A third theme cache was an animal and Native American cache. I started it with Totem Power Stones which are polished stones with animals carved in them, Indian style chokers, arrowheads, animal teeth, turquoise etc.

[+Fergus]

When I go caching I normally trade a handmade chainmail juggleing ball. If I was impressed by the cache I may also leave a chainmail pouch.

 

[ATMouse]

I have a handful of biners, some small glass squashed marbles, a compass, a bottle opener, a field guide to seashells, a dog tennis ball, s pkgt of tissues, a very small wooden mouse, a bunch of Irish coins, two squashed pennies, a couple of pins, some plastic lizards, a small plastic flute, a couple of travel-sized games...nothing fancy right now.

 

Fergus, I WANT one of your sig items soooo bad and I know I'll never get one. (sigh)

[+Zzyzx Road]

I seriously agree! Those chain things are cool.

Chain mail accessories were popular in my great grandmother's time (30's?) as I have a small coin purse that was hers...I played with it as a kid, ;loved the feel of it.

So far, I have only a bunch of Teenie Beanies and Woody from McD's to place. But then again, my two girls are caching with me and I have yet to really get going...

 

I plan on:

Disney Collectable pins

Disney penny forms (where you spend 50¢ to deface federal coins)

marbles of unique color

small local art items - we are a Swedish village, so I am hoping to get some little (they're REALLY expensive, so smaller is better!) Dala horse figurines

some hand-made jewelry and pins

carvings, some painted, some burned

dried-flower cards and stationary

 

I like to craft, but I also like small unusual things when we travel, so now I just have to buy three or so instead of one...

 

Some of the caches we have found so far have had stickers and character erasers, cute buttons and gumball-machine-type figurines. These have been fun for my girls to trade...

[+Team Muppet]

Wow, those are some great ideas!

 

I love the thought that is put into the swag, and I am really looking forward to getting out there and finding some of our own!

[+Geo Froggy]

Wow, those are some great ideas!

 

I love the thought that is put into the swag, and I am really looking forward to getting out there and finding some of our own!

Be warned that if the cache has been out for a while, you may only find junk in it. It is sad that most cachers don't read the forums and have no idea how to trade fairly.

 

Happy hunting!

 

Jackie

[+jamrasc]

I get a lot of our swag from Oriental Trading Company. You buy stuff in bulk from them. I tend to get things that kids would enjoy, since we've got 3! Some things we have in our bag now include necklaces, bracelets, mini flashlights, bouncy balls, whistles, the list can go on. Also, it is nice to leave new items and still in the package.

[+Poidawg]

I like to add batteries, in case someone is close to having a battery go. I dont put them in all caches, just some. Many of the caches around here are micros.

[+TeamVilla5]

Let me take inventory of our swag bag... we have:

 

An R2D2 BK toy

A 6" Star Wars aluminum tin (tube)

2-pk. Madagascar toothbrushes

Aqua Cool bandanna neck coolers

A Disney wobbler

Chick-fil-A cow antenna toppers

Plush cow changepurse

Ping Pong eyeballs

Lego people

Bouncy balls

Dice

Super Stretchy Caterpillars

IHOP 15% Discount Card

Pedometer

Golf Swing Counter

"Fashion" Post-It Notes

Unscented Lubriderm lotion

Funny Keychains (Example: "Well Adjusted, But Slipping")

Tangle Jr. Twisty Things

Shell leis

2006 Weekly Planners

Mini LCD Sports Games (Basketball, Skateboarding, Tennis, Etc.)

Cute Girly Memo Pads

Mini LED Pocket Light Keychains

Small baggies of metallic buttons (gold & silver heart-shaped, cool shapes, etc.)

Travel Kleenex

Hot Wheels Ferraris

Some extra mini composition notebooks to replace soggy logs

Extra pens to replace missing ones

 

That's inventory right now...

 

Happy Cachin'!

Lori V.

TeamVilla5

[+flannelman]

A lot of the caches that I visit are near lakes so I like to add fishing stuff. I also trade items like playing cards, hot wheels, bouncy balls, tape measures, batteries,Mctoys when the kids are with me, water guns, stickers.

 

I look around in the dollar shops and the clearance areas to get stuff.

[+fishercz20]

I throw in tokens, knick knaks and because I live in florida Ive found many sharks teeth off the beach shore line, so I put one each into a paper coin holder and throw that into the cache box as well.

[+Mearth]

Carbiners, whistles, tape measures, batteries, notepads, compasses, bandaids, sunscreen wipes, bug juice wipes, hair ties, ice-scrapers, flower seeds, CDs, DVDs, trading cards, sewing/repair kits, action figures, playing cards, i-ching coins, dart flights, mini sharpies, outlet adaptors, fishing lures, books, silver dollars, nail clippers, bandanas, sets of dice, beach safes/micro containers, leashes, pendants, padlocks, scredrivers, pliers, cat toys, dog toys, mini flashlights, etc...

 

Once you get out and find a bunch, you'll see what NOT to leave: Any cheap plastic toy that is going to make a brief stop in your kid's life before moving on to the land-fill, paper products or electronic gadgets not in a ziplock (unless you drop it in an ammo can), your buy-twelve-get-one-free card with 2 punches in it, invitations to your next Avon party, anything that could smell remotely yummy to a critter, used golf balls, anything that's been chewed by your dog/cat/teething baby, anything easily shattered if the cache is dropped (like christmas tree ornaments!).

 

A sure-fire treat is a "free pop" lid. I've seen those go before sets of TB tags. Go figure. Just have fun, and trade even.

[+ksphotoguy]

If the cache is full of junk toys I TNLN. I always try to trade as evenly as possible.

For fun I have poker chips, $1.00 casino tokens (when I can get them, not many casinos in western kansas),survival whistle/compass, and as of today I am using older coins from indian head pennies up to silver half dollars. I think these will be fun and maybe more people will start to do better than junk toys all the time. Just my opinion.....

[+Team Muppet]

Love all these great things... looking forward to finding more and more "trade" caches. Thanks for all your ideas!

[+Chappell Family]

We just started and are leaving paper money from all over the world. Most is in perfect uncirculated condition so I put them in a little envelope and put a sticker on it to let people know it is genuine.

 

We collect paper money from all over the world so we have lots of extras from exotic places in Africa, Asia, South/Central America Oceania and Europe.

 

If we like the cache, we will leave a couple, or nicer ones like Fiji $2 or a set of 3 pieces of money from Suriname which is really beautiful. If it's more of an adult cache without fun stuff for the kids, we'll live Military Payment Certificates or WWII Japanese Invasion Money or WWII Allied Military Currency. We will also try to stick with the theme as much as possible. For example, a cache in "Bear Canyon" will get money from Belarus with a picture of a grizzly bear, a cache nearby that mentions Karate will get money from Bhutan with dragons on it, etc.

 

If it is a "toy only" cache ... we leave a toy and money.

 

Does this sound good?

 

I love exotic money and coins ... but I'm sure if everyone else out there is as enamored with it as I am.

 

I also leave our web site addressa and I still need to add a geocaching icon to the home page so if people have a question about their "treasure" I can answer it.

 

Also, values of what we leave vary with the most expensive value being around $10 (but the recipient will likely never know what it's worth).

 

Thanks for the other ideas too. We only have 11 caches under our belts so are really still getting the feel for this.

 

Cael.

 

Collecting Paper Money for Fun

[+prairieview_IL]

My sig item used to be Mardi Gras doubloons (buy them cheap on eBay - you don't think I would actually give up one I CAUGHT AT MARDI GRAS do you????) they are cheap, don't rust or mildew in damp caches, fit in smaller caches, and people like them. Also Livestrong bracelets (the $1 or less rule, can buy in bulk from the Livestrong website, and also not hurt by damp). Now I mostly leave sig nickles and buttons but still throw in the doubloons and bracelets on caches I especially like. Also I keep pencil sharpeners on hand to leave. I also like regional items (when we were on vacation in Oregon we bought a lot of lighthouse buttons and I have been leaving them.) In new caches I set out, you know what people like better than anything, NASCAR items (OK this is the Midwest.) Hope this helps.

[+ChicagoCanineCrew]

If the cache is full of "junk" (not garbage) I will try to take the most junk-y thing and put something nicer in... I try to "trade up" rather than trading "even."

 

I've recently bought a lot of dog accessories like collars, leashes, tennis balls with pawprints on them, brushes, etc and I plan to use those as swag... I also have a few small beanie-baby sized stuffed toys and some interesting toys/other items I got from American Science and Surplus.

[+fox-and-the-hound]

If we trade, we always try to trade up. We always carry some kiddie toys in the swag-bag for the kid-friendly caches. We often carry other trade items from local caches to local caches and remark on where they came from. "Joe Schmoes Rubber Duck from Such-n-such Cache". For the less approachable and usually harder to reach caches we try to leave items that would help or enhance your next outing whether it be caching or hiking/camping, etc. A good general rule is, if you put it in the box and lement that you would really like to have that item...then "ya done good!" Carabiners, Mini Maglights, Stormproof or Pack-lite lighters (adult caches only - be discreet), emergency whistles and assorted gear. No matter what you leave, it's usually cheaper than a movie nowadays and much more entertaining.