Best Trade Item You've Even Gotten In A Cache

[+Fountainb]

I'm curious to hear about some of the best trade items you've ever picked up from a cache.

 

So far, we've logged 13 finds. The best trade item so far has been a $1.00 bill. Many of our finds have been micros so obviously we couldn't trade anything.

[rbrugman]

I found a silva compass in one. I didn't take it because I never have anything worth that much to trade for. So to answer the question, the answer is a compass even though I didn't actually take it.

[+The Herd]

The kids' favorite swag has remained to this day, swag from the tow RPW caches we were lucky enough to get a chance to do in Lafayette, IN. He did a GREAT job stocking those! My youngest one even got a new Barbie Doll out of one that she still has.

My favorite was actually what we got from our 100th cache find. The owner takes all the swag out and fills it with homemade driftwood magnets with the cache name on them for the finders to take. It was a GREAT idea, and a great memento of our 100th find!

[+team moxiepup]

Some of our favorite trade items have been foreign coins. They're not worth a lot of money... just interesting in their own right. Band-aids were a happy find once, as I had scraped a knuckle pretty badly on the previous cache. We made a special effort to find a cache that we saw had a Sudoku book in it!

I think the very best items we've found have been a squeeky dog bone and a squeeky pea pod. Watching Moxie playing with them has brought us much joy!

[+Kacky]

I found a really nice pin made of sea glass with wire wrapped around it. Handmade stuff is always a treat.

 

PS hugs to Moxie!

Edited August 7, 2006 by Kacky

[+Moore9KSUcats]

Well, the most valuable item was a GAP gift card worth $100!!! Yes, we traded for it... we put as much stuff as we could in, but I figure it was a gift to a geocacher, and we made good use of it. (The geocacher never logged on the site as far as I can tell, but it was written in the logbook, and someone else found it between him and our team but didn't take it.)

 

Other than that, my son's favorite was a gerber multi-tool (before those were no-no's in caches) that he claimed and still uses. I'm really not sure of others at this point..... after a while, they do begin to blur together. I do like the special items, something that is hand-made or very special (and that is just determined on a whim).

[+team moxiepup]

I found a really nice pin made of sea glass with wire wrapped around it. Handmade stuff is always a treat.

 

PS hugs to Moxie!

 

Tailwags to Kacky!

[+Iowa Tom]

I didn't take this but this was placed in one of my most difficult caches to try to get more people to find it.

 

 

The back side.

[DirtyH20]

Mine so far has been a Law Enforcment Challenge Coin.

[+markp99]

Found a new headlamp in a cache. It was left for the FTF, but the first two finders chose to leave it behind as they already had one.

 

So, this was a THIRD to find prize

[+CJOttawa]

I found an aircraft lapel pin on one of my first caches, near an airport. Despite making a living flying, I never had an airplane pin so this was a special one for me. I left several Canadian flag lapel pins in return figuring international cachers might like to take such a thing home with them.

[+ADK 46-R]

9V cordless drill w/ bits and it worked!

 

i was happy!

[+HomerJFong]

A couple toys which became nice travel bugs:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=232056

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=227721

 

Outside of that, a Sudoku puzzle book.

[+mailman72432]

I don't even know what to call it(drink bottle holder thing). Probably cost $1, has a rubber thing that slips over bottle top(water, coke, pop, soda, whatever) and a carabiner to hook on a belt loop or ??? Most valuable one yet b/c I use it daily.

[+msrubble]

A keychain that was almost exactly what I was looking for. Not too big. Unusual enough that I could describe it if I lost it, and it wouldn't be common.

[+ADK 46-R]

looks like i'm the winner here with my drill

[+markp99]

looks like i'm the winner here with my drill

I dunno, as far as value goes, I found a very nice lanyard in a cache that works perfectly with my eXplorist. The lanyard id long-ish and narrow with a brass bead to allow me to cinch it in place, it also has a small gauge loop at the end where I attach to my GPS. I am able to us this lanyard with the bike mount without removing it, as well as teathered to my belt (long enough to hand hold without un-attaching).

 

I've never seen this type of lanyard for sale (Website promo item from Spain). I love this thing!

[+Big Max]

I found 3 rocks in one last weekend. Nice, brown, dirty rocks too. Somebody must have spent 5 or 6 minutes trying to find those rocks. And they aren't just any ole rocks either...their caliche rocks. Man I can't believe my good fortune. I bet I haven't seen but 4 or 5 billion pounds of those in my WHOLE life. Another time I found a card for a free haircut, just had to get 9 haircuts to earn it. That one I carry with me daily. Only 6 more haircuts to go to my free one!!!! YEEAAHHH!

[+triturtle]

I found my best find this weekend. It is a Pirates of the Caribbean McDonalds toy telescope. Probably worth nothing to a normal person, but to a devout follower of FSM (www.venganza.org) it is priceless! Plus, only a few minutes after finding it I took a detour on my mountain bike and rode past "Pirates Park". Yarrrrrr

[+fireman121]

I have seen post of a gas card as a FTF item, but I think the drill still wins.

[+edscott]

Yes, let's vote on the drill and be done with it, but I really do like my "Corndog Festival of Dallas Texas" T shirt that I got from a cache in Florida a couple years ago. It smelled a bit musty after weeks in a swamp, but it cleaned up real well and believe it or not I happen to be wearing it right now!!!!! Thanks to who ever left it there. Whenever I want to get back to my redneck upbringing I can wear it out to dinner.

[+team moxiepup]

Moxie begs to differ on the drill. That peapod of hers gets quite the daily workout, and it still squeeks!

[+Cow Spots]

My best prize was a fully functional GPS reciever as a first finder prize in a killer puzzle cache :

 

MINIAC-1 Log

 

In addition, the cache owner included a T-shirt with the logo of the cache as a bonus First Find prize.

[Alaska007]

I found a cool fossil in a rock, a $1.00 bill and the foreign money is always cool! Batteries were nice in a recent one and I left mosquito repellent in it's place. The next person will definately be happy with that, I guarantee!

[+Arrow One]

I found one of those keychain rubber chickens that poops an egg when you squeeze it. Hours of fun!!!

Yup, I'm simple.

I think the drill wins.

[+Trizumi]

I knows this isn't a trade item, but the best thing I ever found in a cache was the first cache log I ever signed. To find the cache and "leave my mark on the cache" was a really great feeling. Looking back, it was an easy cache to find, but to me at that moment I couldn't believe I had found this booty with this brand new GPSr thing.

 

That is what hooked me to on this whole, dare I say, life style.

[+BlueDeuce]

ayep.

[+Atomic Elf]

I must say, I've probably left better swag than I've found. There have been a couple times I took items without leaving something, but they were extremely cheap items and I just didnt have anything with me at the time to leave. But the best items to find by far are signature items or foreign coins. Although low in real value, they can have significant sentimental value and can be extremely interesting. second to Sig Items would be travel bugs. I have run across them several times and only shyed at picking up a few when I knew I didnt have a bug / item to drop in it's place as well as not knowing how long it was before I'd come across another cache big enough to drop them off.

[+Fountainb]

Update from FountainB: after further caching, our "best" prize is probably still the "cash." We find a lot of useless items unfortunately. We have started leaving a signature item. I paint small wooden things like hearts or mini signs, so I've taken to leaving them, often with something like "Geocachers are 'Coordinated' written onto them and FountainB SC on them.

 

My husband's best two are a highlighter and a USA eraser. Not because they are special in themselves, but because they are from two caches that he found the "purist" way--using only the GPS--no clues, logs or printouts. Also, these were in a national forest, and he loves the outdoors. So, I see what you mean about sentimental value.

 

Thanks for all the responses. They've been interesting. Keep them coming--and let's all try to trade even or up, starting a trend for nicer SWAG.

[+RobJons]

I like cool polished rocks, geodes and fossils. I also found an antique postcard which had the name of the cache it originated in and details about the card. It was a snapshot of the same area nearly 80 years before- very interesting! OH and Subway coupons are GOOD! Rubber snakes are not funny!!!!!

[+The 4 F's]

My favorite trade items have been 2 smurf figurines brought over from Germany and a September 11th commemorative coin issued to the armed forces.

[+Slainte]

Revisited a cache site because it was a good place to view the ISS as it cruised over. Checked the cache, just for fun, and found an unregistered geocoin. It concerns me how cool I think it was to find that coin. Ah, well, not the first time I've been concerned about myself. Anyway, thanks again to Hogwild.

[+monkeybusiness23]

The best swag we've ever gotten must have been the 512 mb SD card - perfect for our camera and our GPS! In fact, I think it went right into the GPS.

 

My 2-year old daughter would say that her favorite was a slightly used baseball, which she tosses around with her father. She spotted it in her first find!

[+Thrak]

I was talking with a local cacher the other night who found a scratcher in a cache. He traded out for it and later found that it was a $100.00 winner. Not bad!

 

Probably the item for me would be a blue carabiner. Not worth much but it came from my first cache and I still use it today to hang my GPSr carry bag off of my caching bag. Simple, but extremely useful and it also has that "first cache" sentimental value.

[+MissJenn]

I found $20! Spent it on groceries on the way home from the cache.

Thanks to the not-online-logger who left it there.

[bogleman]

Found a "bonus cache" full of these (herkimer diamonds)

 

best DNF to date

[b1rdbrain]

I'm curious to hear about some of the best trade items you've ever picked up from a cache.

 

So far, we've logged 13 finds. The best trade item so far has been a $1.00 bill. Many of our finds have been micros so obviously we couldn't trade anything.

so far i got 1 FTF $1.00 but i like the Travel Bugs and Jeeps. i have had 1 yellow jeep 1 green jeep and i'm holding a white jeep but i'm looking for a big cache to move it along. i told EMC i would pass it along.

[+mermaldad]

Other than that, my son's favorite was a gerber multi-tool (before those were no-no's in caches) that he claimed and still uses.

 

I assume the problem with the multi-tool is that it includes a knife? My son has this problem for another reason. He would like to have a multi-tool with him all the time, because he's a "fixer". He likes to fix stuff. However, he can't find one that doesn't have a knife, so he can't take it to school.

[+ByrnedFish]

i like finding sig items, and have also found such items such as bunjee coords, playing cards, foreign coins, and books/magizines. nothing worth a ton, but sometimes its worth collecting. o, hide a keys and bison tubes are cool to find too!