Loosing Tb's

[+Strol]

This is getting to be a pain... I have started One Tb and placed another I picked up in Florida here in the North East and someone has raided two of my caches and taken the bugs and not much more... I'm at a point where I'm considering making all larger caches Members Only but I'm not sure this will stop this.. It kinda takes the fun out of it wondering if the Bug will make it to a new home.... Is this common to most Tb hides..????

[+BlueDeuce]

Common? Well, it happens. Most of my TBs are like kids at college, you only hear from them every three months.

 

Fortunately they aren't asking for money.

 

For the TB you dropped on 5/7, I'd send a polite email to the person who logged your cache on the 13th.

 

Just a "hey, did you happen..."

[+nielsenc]

The new travelbug give the person more information on what to do with it once they pull it out of a cache.

[Geopuckz]

ya same as BlueDuece I always send a polite message "Did you happen to see my TB" or "Can you please check to make sure If my TB is in your cache and I'd greatly appreciate that" something simple but ya like one of my TB's almost got lost for good but was luckily found.

[+JMBIndy]

I had the opposite yesterday. I picked up a TB from "Blind Spot" that had never been logged into the cache. It still said it was in "The Hands of...". Logged it accordingly and will move it on.

 

There's still a TB in the cache that hasn't been logged...

[Geopuckz]

thats normal though...people never log them. Especially if some geocachers don't have an account they can't log them.

[+Team JSAM]

This is getting to be a pain... I have started One Tb and placed another I picked up in Florida here in the North East and someone has raided two of my caches and taken the bugs and not much more... I'm at a point where I'm considering making all larger caches Members Only but I'm not sure this will stop this.. It kinda takes the fun out of it wondering if the Bug will make it to a new home.... Is this common to most Tb hides..????

 

from what I have read in the forums it wont help all that much.

[+JMBIndy]

thats normal though...people never log them. Especially if some geocachers don't have an account they can't log them.

 

WHAT? A Geocacher without an account? Tell me it isn't true!

[Geopuckz]

I knew a few people without accounts but told them to get one so there is. And I didn't get an account till a month after I started geocaching.

[+teamvennall]

It's difficult to log tbs at the right time if you're on holiday - I've often come back and logged three weeks worth at once.

[+markz68]

I have a TB in my posession that I picked up last week. It's stated goal is to travel to every state. I am going to Michigan over July 4th weekend and it has not been to Michigan yet, so I am holding it till then. I did however, put in my comments when I logged it that I would be releasing it in Michigan over July 4th weekend, so I think it is okay that I am holding it. The owner knows where it is and when it will go back out.

 

The other TB I found my first time out a couple of weeks ago, I released 2 days later just because I felt funny about holding onto it. However, it has not moved since then. I would have been better off holding it till Michigan too. It is only a few miles from where I got it now.

 

Now, as for geocoins, I have noticed something. There are two listed in caches with 20 miles from me (they are the closest ones). So, I check the logs for those caches and both logs show them as having been taken by different people and swapped for other items. However, the people that took them, never logged either one of them by tag number (just noted that they took them in the cache log). One of them was taken by someone that logged their only 3 finds the day they took the coins. The have not logged any more finds since the middle of April.

 

I don't know if the coin owners have notified them or not, but I was dissapointed when I saw they were gone. I have never seen a coin yet, and was wanting to go get them. And I have vowed to myself that if it is a trackable coin that has been activated, I will move it along. I would keep one that wasn't trackable, because then it is a prize.

[+Beffums]

The other TB I found my first time out a couple of weeks ago, I released 2 days later just because I felt funny about holding onto it. However, it has not moved since then. I would have been better off holding it till Michigan too. It is only a few miles from where I got it now.

 

It would be perfectly reasonable, if the TB hasn't moved before the next time you are going west (or towards an east-west interstate, even if it's not west of you), for you to go back and pick it back up. If you see a TB sitting, and you can help it, you can re-log it and move it along on its way. But, keep in mind that TB's often sit in caches for more than a week. One of mine is in a race, and he's been sitting in the same TB prison er hotel since May 2nd. Thing is, only one person has found that cache since the TB was dropped off. And, they didn't have TB's to trade (it has restrictions). Another has been in the same cache since April 20th. I'm not fretting about either yet - there's just not been too many cachers visiting those caches. The cache page says you dropped off the TB on the 16th - that's only been a week. Have hope - it will likely move soon.

[+markz68]

The other TB I found my first time out a couple of weeks ago, I released 2 days later just because I felt funny about holding onto it. However, it has not moved since then. I would have been better off holding it till Michigan too. It is only a few miles from where I got it now.

 

It would be perfectly reasonable, if the TB hasn't moved before the next time you are going west (or towards an east-west interstate, even if it's not west of you), for you to go back and pick it back up. If you see a TB sitting, and you can help it, you can re-log it and move it along on its way. But, keep in mind that TB's often sit in caches for more than a week. One of mine is in a race, and he's been sitting in the same TB prison er hotel since May 2nd. Thing is, only one person has found that cache since the TB was dropped off. And, they didn't have TB's to trade (it has restrictions). Another has been in the same cache since April 20th. I'm not fretting about either yet - there's just not been too many cachers visiting those caches. The cache page says you dropped off the TB on the 16th - that's only been a week. Have hope - it will likely move soon.

 

I hadn't thought about moving it to an East-West interstate. I just live a few miles south of I-70! I may do that if it sits there awhile!

 

Darn, if I were closer to Evansville, I'd swap it out and move it for you!

 

As for being impatient on them moving, I guess being new to the GC scene, I was expecting more immediate gratification on tracking something I had helped move! I should have learned from my Where's George experience that nothing happens fast (except for geocoin disappearances!)

[+Beffums]

The other TB I found my first time out a couple of weeks ago, I released 2 days later just because I felt funny about holding onto it. However, it has not moved since then. I would have been better off holding it till Michigan too. It is only a few miles from where I got it now.

 

It would be perfectly reasonable, if the TB hasn't moved before the next time you are going west (or towards an east-west interstate, even if it's not west of you), for you to go back and pick it back up. If you see a TB sitting, and you can help it, you can re-log it and move it along on its way. But, keep in mind that TB's often sit in caches for more than a week. One of mine is in a race, and he's been sitting in the same TB prison er hotel since May 2nd. Thing is, only one person has found that cache since the TB was dropped off. And, they didn't have TB's to trade (it has restrictions). Another has been in the same cache since April 20th. I'm not fretting about either yet - there's just not been too many cachers visiting those caches. The cache page says you dropped off the TB on the 16th - that's only been a week. Have hope - it will likely move soon.

 

I hadn't thought about moving it to an East-West interstate. I just live a few miles south of I-70! I may do that if it sits there awhile!

 

Darn, if I were closer to Evansville, I'd swap it out and move it for you!

 

As for being impatient on them moving, I guess being new to the GC scene, I was expecting more immediate gratification on tracking something I had helped move! I should have learned from my Where's George experience that nothing happens fast (except for geocoin disappearances!)

Hmm, actually the one stuck since mid-april is up closer to your part of Indiana... The one since early May's on Long-Island. Hubby says that going to free Xander from jail is not an acceptable use of the summer vacation funds. phooey.

 

But, in general, instant gratification only happens once you get enough caches and TB's on your watchlist. Then the odds are that at least one of them will move every day or two. (or someone will find one of the caches even if no TB's move). I've learned to live more for the oh, wow gratification. Like when JAPTKD's bug went to London then Malta, or when Xander's "sister" kitty TB when to Monterey - I live vicariously through the TB's travels.