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Good Swag?


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Hi everyone,

I've seen a few, okay, several threads recently about the kinds of caches or swag that people dislike.

(McToys, losing lotto tickets, lint, pennies, ad infinitum...)

 

On the flipside, what kinds of stuff do you like to find?

 

I really don't want to spend more than about $2-3 per item that I place in trade, but I don't want to really cheap out and leave stuff that people don't want.

My goal is to leave things that people will take and use/appreciate, rather than just taking to drop in another cache.

 

The local hardware store has a table near the checkout loaded with clearance stuff.

For under $3 you can find sets of mini-bungees, small tape measures, keychain items, tiny screwdriver sets, small flashlights, etc.

So far, I'm doing most of my swag-shopping there, instead of at the dollar store.

 

I'm a bit of a photographer too, and I'm thinking of placing a cache that is loaded with 5x7's I've shot.

To prevent damage to the prints, I'd probably seal each one in a FoodSaver bag.

 

I suppose garage sales could be a good source too, as long as the items are still good.

 

Anyway, I'd like to hear what stuff you like to find and/or stuff you like to leave.

 

Thanks, -Kris

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A lot of folks don't trade and I can only imagine it because they're not finding anything useful or interesting.

 

Flashlights: A decent little pocket flashlight is useful for clipping to the pack. You use it to find your spare batteries, swag, or even your "duty" flashlight whilst night caching. A quality little LED flashlight a keychain is very helpful in finding stuff in your everyday life.

 

Bungees: I seem to never have enough to strap my stuff to my pack. I like the small and medium thickness ones. Length is not a issue, but of course you can temporarily shorten a longer one.

 

Carabiners: Same with these cheap but useful items. You'd think I'd have dozens hanging off my pack, but it seems they are so useful that they migrate elsewhere.

 

Mini First Aid Kits: These should be outdoor oriented. While He-men use duct tape and super glue, a few bandaids, Cureaid, mini tweezers for splinters and ticks should do the trick. There was a thread a while I saw about someone putting these together. It was interesting.

 

Batteries: A sealed pair of brand new lithium AA batteries to serve as "Emergency GPS Food" is a good idea. We both, Sissy and I, carry a pair of Lithium AA's in our packs just in case. While even though we carry a healthy number of spare NiMH, we have run out and resorted to the emergency pair. Sealed and labeled, batteries would make a nice trade items. Buy in bulk and you can get the price down to about $3 a pair.

 

Belt clips: These are the ones designed for cell phones, but we use them for GPSs, radios, etc. I'm constantly breaking my belt clips while in the field. Now they are getting harder and harder to finder for some reason. You gotta clip your GPS somehow, right? I could always use an extra one.

 

This list could go on and on, but should give you an idea of types of things some of us might snag.

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I like to select small items from caches, pins, polished stones, pretty glass marbles; my son likes to take plastic salamanders, Matchbox cars and superballs.

 

You bring up a great point.

Things like McToys and those trinkets in plastic bubbles you get out of the 25 cent machine at the grocery store can be some of the best swag for kids.

I'm sure a lot of parents take their children caching, so that stuff is necessary too.

 

Oh, and I like cool pretty stones and shiny stuff too!

 

Those sealed AA batteries are a great idea; now I have another task for my FoodSaver!

 

-K

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Batteries: A sealed pair of brand new lithium AA batteries to serve as "Emergency GPS Food" is a good idea. We both, Sissy and I, carry a pair of Lithium AA's in our packs just in case. While even though we carry a healthy number of spare NiMH, we have run out and resorted to the emergency pair. Sealed and labeled, batteries would make a nice trade items. Buy in bulk and you can get the price down to about $3 a pair.

There's an auto parts store just down the street from me that sells packs of 24 AA batteries for $4.88. Believe it or not, but they are almost as good as the name brand batteries that come in 8 packs for 5 dollars! They're strong enough to run my GPSr for hours or my digital camera. Dollar store batteries are a rip-off, but these have worked rather well for me, your milage may vary, void where prohibited.

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I am on a kick now with leaving spoon/fork key rings. I pick them up and cut off the tines/bowl and then bend a eye on the end and attach a split ring. I have made other trinkets but I never really trade, the kids get a kick out of nosing through the box and I let them trade.

 

Sometimes I leave corporate swag liberated from the oppressive workplace.

 

I would like to find personal items, I can get the other fluff without going to a cache.

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This spriing we were having lots of rain inour area, and I found very inexpensive disposable rain ponchos at the local Waly World , 3 for a buck. My wife is a pastry chef, and she obtained a bunch of small foot and hand shaped cookie cutters that I have also left in caches. A good friend of mine (a new geocacher) makes custom molded pewter turtle buttons. My next project is going to be some customized tokens, either wood or clay or somethng like that. I love to pick up creative tokens like this fom other cachers.

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We've rarely taken anything from a cache. We are new to this and haven't seen much worth taking. We did take a matchbox car once, because my son wanted it. We love signature items, but don't see them much either. We once saw a single glove in a cache. We thought about taking it in hopes of finding it's mate someday. *smiles*

Edited by Brayden's Brigade
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Dollar stores rule! I got some auto visor organizers, 24 CD zippered wallets, small picture frames, LED mini lights and lasers and all kinds of kiddy toys all for a buck each! These would range from $2-$8 or more at the corner convienence store. Everytime I go to a new town I stop if I see a dollar store. Ebay would also really be a bargin hunters dream for cache items. I haven't tried yet.

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Those LED mini-lights are a dream-come-true for me.... I'm always using them (fishing, hunting, caching, tormenting the dogs, etc).

 

Mini carabiners... oh heck, yes! Besides, how else am I to hook my LED light to my pack?

 

Rain ponchos.... always handy. They'll even keep you warm in the months when its NOT 80+

 

Banaids... have you ever pulled duct tape off a really hairy spot? Ouchless boo-boo strips for this he-man please.

 

Travel Bugs!!!

 

Whistles... they're great for the search party to find you and what better way to terrorize Mom and Dad on the way home in the car?

 

Gold US dollar coins... heck, they're only worth a buck but kinda cool (especially for the historical re-enactment crowd)

 

A fly that works in that area (for us fly fisherpersons out there).

 

For the out-of-staters or "tourists" (we're all tourists at one point)... some kind of small inexpensive (but tasteful) item stating where the cache was found. Those little spoons or pins saying "North Carolina" or some such thing.

 

I never thought of AA batteries... what a great idea! Now to go swag shopping... woohoo!

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I like finding handmade items and things with place names on them. For example, last week I found a pencil that was made in Scotland. In another cache that I found that day, there were some handmade dog collars and some shells that were labeled with the names of the beaches they were found on. I didn't take those items but I thought they were cool. I like it when people put a little thought into their trading items. I have also found a LOT of what I would consider junk, but you know, "one man's junk"...

 

I am still fairly new to the sport and have been leaving old coins as trade items. I broke open a roll of uncirculated wheat pennies and had a bunch of well-circulated buffalo nickels that I wasn't doing anything with. They fit in most cache containers. They cost .25-.50 apiece, if that, and I would think they'd be cool to find if you weren't a coin collector.

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Whenever I am near a Bass Pro Shop or a Coleman store I try and stop in and pick up an item or two to store away for when I need to stock up an ammo can. In the past I've always tried to put in a flashlight or some kind, a first aid kit, some sore of bug spray either to use if you forgot yours or to take and keep, and also I try to include a poncho.

 

As a FTF prize I once got a palm which I use a lot

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I guess I try to leave things that have LASTING value but aren't necessarily expensive.

 

Dollar store items I'd love to find and would definitely leave:

LED lights, laser pointers, pocket/travel games (backgammon/checkers with magnetic pieces)

Lapel pins with some geographic relevance like little Canada flags or city crests.

 

I would be extremely pleased to find a Sacajawea dollar (since I've never seen one). I leave Canadian Tire money because, well, it's sort of our national store so it gets used. :unsure:

 

I would leave a metal spork in a non-urban cache.

 

Something like a pocket checkers game might get kept for several years in the glove compartment of a car. Everytime someone pulls it out while waiting in a parking lot or going on a picnic, they're going to have a fond memory of a geocache.

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I have only been caching a few months now-- but we cache with the kids-- and they are really disappointed to find a cache full of broken items-- so we have come up with The Bag of Swag-- we shop at walmart and the dollar store-- getting things like balls, rocks, jacks, rings, pencils, keychains-- party supplies are the best-- then use sandwich bags-- putting 5-10 small children's items in to stock the cache containers for kids to come in the future!!

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I just found a MP3 disc in a cache for http://www.podcacher.com/ with tips on hiding caches, etc... this was pretty cool item and had some great ideas.

 

For making first aid kits, I have made those and they are easy and inexpensive. Go to a hobby store and buy some 2x3 inch bags, add a bandaid, paperclip, safety pin, alcohol wipe/hand wipe, rubber band or any other emergency item you can think of. They are well received and inexpensive to make - I got all my supplies at the dollar store except the small bags.

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My son has always collected key chains, so geocaching was a great thing for him. My daughter tended to trade little toys, but was often disapointed with what was in most caches. She decided to started collecting pins/buttons and put them on a vest.

Expense is always an issue when trading as it can add up fast! We often try to leave some nice toys (that we think other kids will like) as well as some more "adult" items. Our WallyWorld has a rack that gets some really good clearance items. Recently we cleaned it out of "mesquito bottons" - something that is very usefull when caching, comic books and those cool metal book marks (with the little charms hanging on them) for only .10 each (the button where normaly $1, comic books +$3, and bookmarks $2) - my reciept was almst 2 feet long and the total was under $10. I've often go to the camping section for outdoor related items. I'm trying to come up with a signature item that is "Wyoming" related.

I like the first aid kit idea. In scouts my son made one out of a pill bottle - it had a few bandaides, alcohol swabs, safety pins, needle/thread and they wrapped duct tape around the bottle. Can't tell you how many times we were glad this little bottle was in the glove compartment - might just have to make a whole bunch now that I think of it! :D

Edited by Team RoKKK'M
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I've always said that the single most popular trade item you can leave is a ready-to-go mini- or micro- cache. They are inexpensive to make and most experienced geocachers will trade well for them.

 

Film can with log.

Film can wrapped in cammo tape, with log.

Film can wrapped in cammo tape, wire underneath for hanging, with log.

Film can wrapped in cammo tape, magnet underneath, with log.

Beach safe (orientaltrading.com) with above treatments (or just the lanyard)

Small rubbermaid, cammo taped, as would fit in ammo can.

 

etc. make them, leave them, revisit cache logs and you'll see them quickly traded for.

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What about Gift cards with maybe 2-3$ for starbucks mcd's or wherever is close to cache, not a coffee drinker but i do like bottle water or soda, when caching- sons teacher gave me a 5$ StarBucks card for helping in class and it's still in my wallet. That would make a good trade item.

 

Or even a good FTF for a new cache.

 

Tahoein' Bunch

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I like to collect those cool little dog tagged items - I assume that is what you are calling "sig items" I have a whole drawer full of those dogtags. It is amazing what they are attached to - everything from keychains, to plush animals.

 

Do you mean Travel Bugs?

 

I thought those were supposed to stay in circulation?

 

If I misunderstood, sorry.

-K

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[smart@#$] I like to collect those cool little dog tagged items - I assume that is what you are calling "sig items" I have a whole drawer full of those dogtags. It is amazing what they are attached to - everything from keychains, to plush animals. [/smart@#$]

 

Do you mean Travel Bugs?

 

I thought those were supposed to stay in circulation?

 

If I misunderstood, sorry.

-K

whoops... I forgot to include my smart@#$ tag

 

 

-bk

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I've always said that the single most popular trade item you can leave is a ready-to-go mini- or micro- cache. They are inexpensive to make and most experienced geocachers will trade well for them.

 

I've tried this and they tend to stay in the cache for a long time. One person even signed the log in one and wondered in his online log why there were two logbooks in the cache :laughing: .

 

One of my favorite things to leave and find are individual packs of insect repellent wipes. You can get a box of about 10 for $4.

 

I also love to find tape measures. I can never find one when I need it, so when I see one in a cache I grab it. I probably have dozens laying around the house now and still can't find one when I need one.

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[smart@#$] I like to collect those cool little dog tagged items - I assume that is what you are calling "sig items" I have a whole drawer full of those dogtags. It is amazing what they are attached to - everything from keychains, to plush animals. [/smart@#$]

 

Do you mean Travel Bugs?

 

I thought those were supposed to stay in circulation?

 

If I misunderstood, sorry.

-K

whoops... I forgot to include my smart@#$ tag

 

 

-bk

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[smart@#$] I like to collect those cool little dog tagged items - I assume that is what you are calling "sig items" I have a whole drawer full of those dogtags. It is amazing what they are attached to - everything from keychains, to plush animals. [/smart@#$]

 

Do you mean Travel Bugs?

 

I thought those were supposed to stay in circulation?

 

If I misunderstood, sorry.

-K

whoops... I forgot to include my smart@#$ tag

 

 

-bk

Do you have some sort of Dog Tag grave yard in your draw?

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I shop the clearance aisle at Wal Mart and find the following cheaply:

 

tape measures, both carpentry type and sewing type

folding rulers for kids

screwdrivers (can you ever have too many?)

rain ponchos

mosquito face protectors

cheap compasses for kids

generally cute little objects

corporate swag

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I once found a lovely miniature carriage clock which someone had probably put in because it no longer worked - I took it and managed to fix it, though, and it now proudly sits upon my mantelpiece!

 

So, how about it? The geocaching repair service! The great thing about this is that this person would probably have thrown the clock away if they hadn't thought of putting it in a cache, but this way it hasn't been wasted.

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one of the more surprising popular swag was one my bf left. It was our first cache and we didn't know what to expect or anything. I took an glass owl keyring i got from japan, but bf got a bit desperate and took saches of plant food... the ones that come with bunches of flowers (the one i sent him on his birthday no less!) I thought no one would bother with it, but within two weeks they were all gone!! that was a surprise!! <insert boyfriend gloating at me here>

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I like to collect those cool little dog tagged items - I assume that is what you are calling "sig items" I have a whole drawer full of those dogtags. It is amazing what they are attached to - everything from keychains, to plush animals.

 

I really DO hope you are kidding?! :(

sherd

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I am still fairly new to the sport and have been leaving old coins as trade items. I broke open a roll of uncirculated wheat pennies and had a bunch of well-circulated buffalo nickels that I wasn't doing anything with. They fit in most cache containers. They cost .25-.50 apiece, if that, and I would think they'd be cool to find if you weren't a coin collector.

 

Neat.. I have some old coins that I don't think are really worth much.. how do I know and what would people like? (and don't say gold doubloons, ain't got none, sad to say)

 

On the subject of leaving stuff.. how about leaving something that's "free".. in other words, I don't consider it a trade item, just something to drop in the cache. (If I want to trade I've got lots of other stuff to use that's more appropriate for a trade.) Should I label such items as freebie take it if you want, don't worry about a trade or some such or ?? What I've got is a bunch of lotion samples of a lotion I really like, but way more than I need though they keep forever ... and a bunch of Always feminine wipes which might be handy in a backcountry cache, LOL, but can be used of course as any sort of wipe. If they didn't say 'feminine' on there, but they do.. but hey, that just means they're safe to use as tp! LOL From some of these posts, even you guys might need some of that! B)

 

Or just skip the idea and stick to straight swag. :lol:

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Personally, I try to leave items that I would like to find. I have left Olympic pins (very big trade items at the Olympics) and those toys you get in cereal boxes. The little kids love the ones that roll. I have even gone as far as simply moving items from one cache to another to see if anyone notices. Swaping coins for other coins, like state quarters is good if the cache is on a watch list. That may mean somone is trying to put together a complete collection.

How about those office squeeze things that are suppose to relax you? Those might be kind of cool to find.

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I personally like leaving good stuf that I find at garage sales... and so far have enough stuff to last me for the next year. :blink: However, as I go further into the game, I am more interested in helping caches out by leaving more items, so due to this stash may soon dwindle... And so, I've been on the lookout for cheap/easy/interesting swag to make. My sister makes earrings and leaves those in caches - she finds that folks that go to caches after her always love those. Personally, I have two ideas that I'm working on. One, I just need to go to the garden center to get the water crystals for http://tinyurl.com/cohbs But then, I sew and have more fabric than I know what to do with... and I live in Texas and right now, these would be fabulous. (Really, not nearly as hard to make as the directions make them out to be.) The other idea that I have had recently is magnets like http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=135299 I freecycled (www.freecycle.org) for corks and emailed some caching friends who are also winos B) for their corks. Just need to get the magnets now... The key for me is not taking too much time to make or costing too much or being too big to fit in most caches.

 

What we like to take are cool coins (I often leave those, too), TBs, and not much else. For us, it's the hunt and not the stuff that is important. However, is swag is sad, kinda bumms us out... thus the need to help replenish. If getting rid of some of my extra stuff makes the game more fun for the next person, I see that as a win-win situation! :P

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What about Gift cards with maybe 2-3$ for starbucks mcd's or wherever is close to cache, not a coffee drinker but i do like bottle water or soda, when caching- sons teacher gave me a 5$ StarBucks card for helping in class and it's still in my wallet. That would make a good trade item.

 

Or even a good FTF for a new cache.

 

Tahoein' Bunch

Is a $2-3 giftcard even enough for a water there? :unsure:

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I like usefull stuff. Here is what I put in my cache:

 

Flashlight - $1

Batteries - $1

Rain Poncho - $.50

First Aid Kit (Pretty nice one) - $3.99

Mini can of bug spray - $.89

Detailed topo map of area - Free

Local Postcards - $.25 each

 

I also included a $10 Silva compass as a first-finders prize.

 

Went over quite well.

 

Robert

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I like to collect those cool little dog tagged items - I assume that is what you are calling "sig items" I have a whole drawer full of those dogtags. It is amazing what they are attached to - everything from keychains, to plush animals.

 

uh, dude, you sure you aren't grabbing travel bugs?

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I like to collect those cool little dog tagged items - I assume that is what you are calling "sig items" I have a whole drawer full of those dogtags. It is amazing what they are attached to - everything from keychains, to plush animals.

 

uh, dude, you sure you aren't grabbing travel bugs?

 

hahah thats hilarious!! :(:D

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