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Good Swag?


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I leave batteries, small tools(within reason), bug spray, topo maps of the area, geocoins, travel bugs, you name it.

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.

Hey, do you have my racing bug??? ;-)

 

yeha- first on a new page!!!

Edited by Team Firebird
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I'd like to find useful (or at least new) stuff like mini first-aid kits, flashlights, geocaching pins, stickers, etc., or anything unusual and just plain cool. Basically anything that hasn't been beat to heck and looks ready for the trash would be an upgrade from what I've been finding; soggy band-aids, golf balls, a spider rings, rubber lizards.

 

I work for LEGO, and often leave BIONICLE, EXOFORCE, and the like, I've also left jewelry, candles, foreign coins, batteries, etc. But with the junk I've been finding, I often TNLN. As much as I enjoy the hunt, it would be nice to have a keepsake from each cache I find.

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I absolutely adore signature items. Painted stones, Sculpey beads and discs, wooden nickels, pins and buttons... if it's something made by another cacher or team, I'm really excited to find it. :ph34r: Hubby and I are having (non-trackable) geocoins made as our own signature items, but I actually feel like I'm being a little uncreative, since I've seen some other items that have much more of a personal flair. Until the coins are done, I'm using little RWA-imprinted "stones" made from Sculpey.

 

Unfortunately, I've only found four signature items in the 30 caches I've logged so far (well, five, but there were two in one cache, so I had to choose... so... hard... to..... choose.....!). I really wish more people would do some kind of personalized item, since I'd love to make a whole collection. :o

 

Bottom line: I'd rather find a river stone with a logo inked on it than something I could buy for myself. And hey, they're cheaper than buying swag, so I'm not sure why more people don't make sig items!

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I will always take something from a cache - even if it's just a pencil or something, as I'm a hoarder, and like to have something tangible to remember a cache by. (Don't worry, I'm not taking the log pencils!) I dearly love to find signature items, but never do. I found a token from PGHLooking once, and a magnet from TeamK-9. (Also, at the mention of LEGO, above - I will always swipe a lego item from a cache. Our wedding was LEGO themed, and we love 'em!)

 

That being said, sometimes I also trade to bring swag factor up a bit. I love searching for neat stuffs to put in caches, because then I like to watch future logs to see if anyone picks it out! :))

For instance - Joann craft stores have a section by the register full of seasonal craft kits and wooden bits, all for $1! Often in their clearance section will be patches and such, or mini cross stitch kits for under a dollar. I like to put girly stuff in for some reason.

I've also found very cool pet supplies at the dollar store - I stocked up on fabric/collapsible water bowls (but saved one for myself - we use it all the time on the trail for our beast.) and doggie tennis balls.

I collect squished pennies. So sometimes I like to leave squished pennies - any time I'm at a well known Pittsburgh location, I'll stock up on a few (PNC Park and the Carnegie Museum are favorites) and leave one or two in a cache (They're 51 cents!)

 

I need to start leaving better signature items, I think. Recently, I've been leaving a kiddie-style valentine stamped with our hand carved logo stamp, and then covered with contact paper. I thought it was cool, but haven't gotten any comments, so maybe we'll make some shrinky-dink tokens.

I'd love to have some squished pennies made, but can't afford that right now, and for the amount of pennies I'd have to order in the initial batch, I'd have about 10 years worth of finds! (Ahh, I need to make more time for caching.... as I type away here on the computer. Matter of fact. I'm going out now. See you!)

Edited by BubbleDragon
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In another thread, someone mentioned trashing out a CO2 cartridge. I've thought about this and I think that they would make dandy tradables. They are fairly inexpensive if you buy them in bulk and they are very unlikely to 'go bad'. I doubt that there is any danger of these cartridges discharging in a cache due to temperature extremes.

 

I keep a CO2 inflator in in a wedge bag on my mountain bike. It is tons more convenient than a regular pump. I would likely trade for a CO2 cartridge if I found one in a cache.

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I like to find things that are hand made by the person who left them. There was a cacher who was also a woodworker who was making some very nice keychains that he left in caches. I make chainmail,so I like leaving little chainmail balls when I find a cache. There are a few people who have followed me around so they could get a whole set for juggling.

 

61bb07e2-779a-4edf-8bf1-8487763b1104.jpg

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I like foreign coins as swag. They're handy to carry and interesting to just about everybody. A lot of the caches don't have much room in them but a few coins will go in with no problem. They are much more interesting to find than a couple of US pennies, nickles, and dimes which seem to be common in caches around here.

 

You can get foreign coins on ebay for pretty cheap. Even something as little as a quarter pound of world coins would have about 25 or 30 coins in it.

 

:)

 

Most pathetic thing I have found in caches.. how about spent shotgun shells.

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I've always thought that sig items were left for the cache owner.

 

I've read some comments that caches with only kids stuff is disappointing. I only get disappointed, when I find used doggy tennis balls in a cache.

 

If I leave a sig item for an owner, I have contacted them and put the item in a bag marked : "For The Cache Owner!"

 

I sometimes drop an Irish penny in caches; I bought a bag full of them on ebay.

Edited by ATMouse
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Most pathetic thing I have found in caches.. how about spent shotgun shells.

 

I will say that one time I was out caching and walked through a field where they obviously had been doing skeet shooting. Way out in the field there were one or 2 skeets -- neon orange and black -- that were still undamaged. I picked up one to take home and I left the other one in the cache, just cause I thought it was a neat item myself. Sure enough, the next finder said that his kid took the skeet.

 

But I'd have to agree that a spent shotgun shell is kinda trashy... I found a live one one day under an interstate overpass in Pennsylvania. After I took the shot pellets out to show my son, I found out that gunpowder gets more unstable after being wet then dry again... :):D:) So now days, I don't pickup ammo that I may find lying around. (I was not hurt... father in law told me that about gunpowder...)

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  • any small item in the camping/sports section
  • any knicknack or toy from the dollar store that is small enough and looks like it's worth more than a dollar.
  • Geocaching.com trademark items.
  • Neat little things that most people have never heard of.
  • Foreign coins.
  • Collectable stamps.

I tried putting $10-$20 items in my cache, but they were the last things to go. I don't think people generally feel comfortable with more expensive items, especially if they might appeal to personal tastes and preferences.

Edited by nonaeroterraqueous
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I like to find things that are hand made by the person who left them. There was a cacher who was also a woodworker who was making some very nice keychains that he left in caches. I make chainmail,so I like leaving little chainmail balls when I find a cache. There are a few people who have followed me around so they could get a whole set for juggling.

 

61bb07e2-779a-4edf-8bf1-8487763b1104.jpg

Actually, I've been told that apparently a few people have followed me around for my Tetra Orbs too. Yours are way cooler though :laughing:

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For me, the find is better than the swag. When I have the kids with me, it is the opposite. We like beads and cars. I gave the parking meter a $20 for a $3 entry, it returned 17 dollar coins. Now I place them. Oriental Trading has a lot of unique swag.

 

I can't get into the signature stuff. I don't want someone else's card or bookmark. Those are usually the things I find in the bottom rotting away.

 

dad2jnk.

Edited by dad2jnk
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I recently found a hardwre store with a dollar rack that had lots of neat potential swag. I ended up buying a number of 2" magnifing glasses (two of them for a buck). Each time I leave one in a cache, it seems to be the first thing taken by the next finder. Some of the neat stuff I've enjoyed finding in caches: a fun with sattelites geocaching pin, a plastic screen brush for my computer, and a whistle.

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I have no preference. I love looking through everything to see what I like. I have seen handmade rope bracelets, action figures, dollar bills, Winnebago collector cards (who knew?), carabiners, key chains, small frisbees, golfballs, coins (Susan B Anthony's are popular - I get mine at the stamp machine in the post office, it gives them as change), beads, bottle openers - usually the different colored metal ones which come in different shapes and sizes, postcards, wallets you name it...Target has been a good place to get carabiners, first aid kits, and the like at their new dollar section, and Michaels has dollar sections as well, I was able to get those six pack tubes of small playdough for a dollar each.

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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.

 

:huh: I nominate this for funniest post ever.

 

I have been leaving neodymium magnets for awhile, never met anyone who didn't think they were cool so I bought a couple hundred and am working through those. I have also left zipper pull compasses, but the ones I have kept for myself generally don't work well very long so I scrapped them. I have also left aluminum pill bottles on lanyards suitable for uber micro caches, but I don't like uber micro caches so scrapped those too.

 

A few years ago I bought 10 or so travel bug dog tags and have since decided I have no interest in travel bugs so I placed one in a cache today and may put out a couple more, the rest I will save for my own caches.

 

In general I don't like finding dollar store stuff that has moving parts as it is nearly all garbage that breaks quickly. The cheap mini flash lights and laser pointers are examples of things I have bought new and had break on the first use. If they lasted awhile I would love them.

 

Something I am considering for late winter/early spring is leaving packets of easy to grow flower seeds that are not invasive type flowers. Often these can be found for 10 cents-25 cents each at certain times. I struggle with this though because many natural areas have problems with 'escaped' flowers from people's yards taking over. So, I would have to make sure the seeds were nothing that was capable of taking over if some critter got into the cache and scattered them.

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I'm experiementing with one of my caches. I made it a semi-difficult puzzle cache (thought it would be a very difficult one, but it's been hit a bunch o' times already). I tried to put what I thought was a pretty high level of swag in it... okay, no $100 bills or anything, but high than normal.

 

I put in a new Madden game... it's an older edition, but still sealed. I put in a 256K thumb drive. And some other stuff, valued between $5-$10... Even the McToys that I put in for kiddies I tried to keep a little bit higher level than normal. I don't suspect the level of swag will remain high, but I hope that at least some people put in something a little better than normal. Time will tell.

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