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What do you put in a cache


Aeowyn & Koric

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Well there is no requirement that you trade. If you do want to trade, just bring the kinds of things that you would like to find.

 

Some things I like to leave are:

Individual packts of insect repellent wipes, Handi wipes, hand sanitizer, etc...

Emergency rain ponchos (87 cents at Walmart)

Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars (sometimes as low as 50 cents on sale).

Boxes of crayons or colored chalk

Small keychain calculators ($1 at Staples)

packs of Post It notes

fresh AA batteries

Collectible coins (Indian head pennies, buffalo nickels, mercury dimes, Eisenhower, SBA and Sacagawea dollars, and Kennedy and Franklin halves are all coins that I've left).

Foreign money.

Eyeglass screwdriver kits

 

You don't have to break the bank. Inexpensive and useful are my keywords, If its garbage throw it in the trash, not in a cache. I'm amazed by the absolute garbage some people leave in caches.

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I try to apply the motto - "Trade Even, Trade Up, or Don't Trade". Don't leave dirty used junk that you wouldnt want to find in a cache. There are a lot of small items you can get at dollar stores and such that are handy to have in a cache. I leave a lot of chemical lightsticks and some small first aid kits.

Kids like some to trade toys. We get small toys at the dollar store and stock our trading bag with these also.

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It's just as important to list some things not to put in a cache:

 

Any type of sharp blade (razors, pocket knifes including Swiss Army Knifes, machetes, etc...);

Food - even if in an unopened bag as animals can sniff out the smallest of scent molecules;

Business-type cards - especially in small containers as the cards clutter up the cache;

Religious/political dogma/propaganda (you know what I mean);

Condoms;

Candles;

Liquor;

Essentially, anything you wouldn't want a child to see or grab. And yes, these are all things I have come across in caches.

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You should leave $100 bills in each cache you find and then e-mail me with the coordinates and info. :laughing:

 

Seriously, the choices are endless. Matchbox cars and small figures (i.e. Star Wars, Marvel Heroes, etc.) are good ideas. Basically use some common sense, shop the clearance aisles and let your imagination go. Here is a link with some other great geocaching swag items. We bought some patches and pencils with the Geocaching logos on them. You can also find stuff like this by doing a search for "geocaching" on ebay or whatever. Like I said, use your imagination and have fun with it! Think of stuff you would like to find in a cache.

 

Geoswag Home

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If its garbage throw it in the trash, not in a cache. I'm amazed by the absolute garbage some people leave in caches.

 

Yeah, I just found a broken golf club in a cache the other day. I have also found drywall screws, scuffed up and used golf balls, and just plain JUNK! Too many cachers do this, although they don't admit it.

 

TRADE UP OR EVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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We mainly buy $2 shop type items as listed with the replies above. The main thing to remember is to Trade Up or Even. That is don't take items that have an obviously large value and leave a 20 cent toy.

 

We carry a bum bag with a few other thing in it as well such as,

 

*Spare Batteries

*A Torch

*Notepads

*Pens

*Ziplock Bags.

 

All the best and I hope you enjoy yourself!

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I don't always trade but, when I do, my rules are:

Leave stuff I'd like to find.

Try to leave something for kids.

Clean out broken stuff, lighters, food, etc.

Always carry extra ziploc bags and an extra logbook - but that's the extent of "fixing" that I'll do.

 

Sometimes, I leave something but don't take anything. It's a small price to pay for the hours of enjoyment I get from this. There was one I enjoyed so much, I emptied my entire swag bag into the cache and only took a small piece of quartz from nearby as a rememberance. The satisfaction came from the nice thankyou email I got from the cache owner and the fact that he told me it was one of the best/funneist logs he's ever read....

Some under $2 ideas:

 

Dollar Store:

I scored a bunch of Johnson&Johnson 1st aid kits at the Dollar Store. (Nice plastic case about 4"x4"x1" with bandaid assortment - I added some antiseptic wipes & more/different bandaids)

Rubber bouncy balls (bag of 12, leave 2 or 3 balls)

Mini-slinkys

Pencil sharpeners

"Universal" cell phone swivel belt clips (for GPSr)

Keychain LED flashlights

 

Walmart or similar:

Single use hand or foot warmers

Waterproof match containers or bison tubes (in hopes they'll spawn some multis)

Bandanas (in ziplock bags)

Carabiner water bottle holders (ok, more than $2)

Mylar emergency blankets

 

Scrounged:

Someone gave me about 20 "foldup" frisbees (nylon cloth with wire rims in nylon pouches)

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In the very first cache we found there was a broken cell phone! Somebody had snapped it in half and left half in the cache! Um... OK...

 

I like the gift certificate/coupon idea. I was wondering a few weeks ago... I know there's a no alcohol policy to protect the kids, but what about drink chips? At my local watering hole I can purchase tokens that say "Good For One Beer/Well Drink" with said establishment's name on the reverse. Kids can't use them (it's a bar, they can't enter) but would the tokens be considered advertizing? I don't own the place, I just drink there. It's like the geocaching equivalent of "lemme buy you a beer"!

 

Thoughts?

 

Driver Carries Cache

(madmike)

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In the very first cache we found there was a broken cell phone! Somebody had snapped it in half and left half in the cache! Um... OK...

 

I like the gift certificate/coupon idea. I was wondering a few weeks ago... I know there's a no alcohol policy to protect the kids, but what about drink chips? At my local watering hole I can purchase tokens that say "Good For One Beer/Well Drink" with said establishment's name on the reverse. Kids can't use them (it's a bar, they can't enter) but would the tokens be considered advertizing? I don't own the place, I just drink there. It's like the geocaching equivalent of "lemme buy you a beer"!

 

I love this idea.

 

I have made a CD that I have made of some of my favorite songs. I burned the songs, printed a little label that has my email addy and a "Happy Geocaching" reminder. I thought that this was more of something that I would like to get...

 

ALostTexan

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Those Glo sticks are cool, I especially like keychain carabiners, I hang them on the outside of my backpack and attach small and light weight stuff with them.

A couple of times I've found a homemade micro cache container that someone left with instructions for the next cacher to place it in the field. I'm not just talking about a film canister either. This was glued together and had components from a hardware store. It had a magnet inside to attach to something metal.

It was really cool because it already had a log scroll and little ziploc bag.

I ended up bringing it to an event cache and traded it for a couple of TB's.

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I generally don't trade items, I just sign the log. But I get packs of 8 AA batteries at the dollar store. They work just as well as other alkaline batteries. So I don't feel the need to get those from a cache.

 

Personally I do like to collect foreign money so I would find something to trade for that. I also like wooden coins (aka wooden nickels).

 

Poster above made a good comment about what NOT to put in a cache: controlled substances (medicines, alcohol, tobacco products), sharp or bladed objects, etc. Don't even put ibuprofen in a cache, you could get sued if someone's kid OD's on it. (Yes you can OD on ibuprofen, it's a blood thinner and could cause big problems if taken in large enough doses.)

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I generally leave my signature geopin as long as it isn't a micro.

 

What exactly is this? Is it something that has your name on it or something?

 

I have a few "junk drawers" in my house. They all collect coins. The one in my dresser has foreign coins, nick nacks from work, Things I have found at work (sunglasses), packs of unopened baseball cards from my collecting days and all other kinds of things. I went through that drawer one day and pulled out some things that I thought would be neat to find that I don't want to keep. I keep them in a pouch in my glove compartment and just bring this with me. Right now that pouch is down to foreign coins.

Rob

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We both work for Crayola, so we mostly stick to stuff we make.

Depending on the size of the cache, could have a 8 up to a 96 count crayon box inside. (Spring,Fall,Winter only. Molten crud in Summer.)

Adults usually get Crayola carabiners or magnetic heavy clips, 1st aid kits, mini tools, etc.

Train whistles, wiener whistles, ocarina flutes all work well too.

Anything that a kid can play with IMMEDIATELY is a good idea. Mom and Dad still cache, while junior's (maybe short attention span) is banging a punch ball...

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I get plenty of small items from oriental trading post like keychain games and whistles. I think they make great kids items and they are brand new. I also got their lucky rabits foot key chains and made some aluminum tags at work I laser engraved them with my user name and home town. I think I am going to get my kids to make some items like beaded lanyards and such. I will make some kind of tag to personalize those items with their user name also.

 

I would like to hear some feedback on the personalized items that people make. I really like those things that people make and personalize with a bit of who they are.

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