pathtags?

[+archi77]

In somebody's recent post (sorry, forget where I saw it...) somebody mentioned getting a personalized pathtag made, and it included a link. I just spent half an hour reading up on it, so I know the idea of them. My question is, how popular are they? Are they out there, or are geocoins more popular, etc? Just curious. The price tag was MUCH more attractive than the near-thousand dollars to get coins made. Just curious if there were a lot of people using them, or if it was more of a novelty/rarity.

 

Thanks!

archi77

[+ZSandmann]

PathTags are great IMO. They are relatively new, I believe there are only around 300 right now. I am about to have one made myself for the reasons you state. I'd like to have a nice sig item and coins are expensive, plus I don't really care if they travel. So with pathtags they end up about a buck a pop after you buy the second batch.

 

Yes right now geocoins are more popular, no doubt, but I sense a change in the winds. There are just too many being made and I think its going to hit critical mass soon. Regardless it may depend on where you are located but the tags are getting more popular as they refine the web site used to track them.

[+sbell111]

Pathtags are like geocoins before geocoins were trackable. They are simply a personalized trade item. I think that they are great, but they are a different animal than a trackable geocoin.

[+Renegade Knight]

As best as I can tell a Pathtag is to a geocoin as a token is to a silvar dollar. Not the same but still something.

 

I may very well do a path tag long before I do a geocoin for the reason of $. In the long run I think this activity is going towards Tokens/Pathtags for the $ aspect. Especially if you have to fund your signature item out of pocket.

[+briansnat]

Being that I've never heard of a pathtag, I'd venture to guess that they aren't popular.

[+Totem Clan]

I've heard of them, but only once. It was here in among the threads somewhere.

 

Here's a link for curious.

 

Edit: and another.

Edited March 8, 2007 by Totem Clan

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

I am seeing more and more of them and will order one soon.

 

Several folks had nice ones at GeocoinFest.

 

I really like geocoins, but it's a rich man's game if you are like me and don't sell them. I rarely even trade them - I put them in caches and give them away to folks I meet and if they have something they want to give me in return, great, but no obligation.

 

That gets expensive quick!

 

So, it looks like PathTags or some sig item in that price range are in my future.

 

With any luck at all PathTags will soon start being numbered and trackable... then I expect their popularity to explode!

[+Team Rat Pack (led by Miss Bi)]

We have four pathtags so far. It is not that they are not popular, it is just that they are new. There are new designs going up every day. We might do a geocoin at some point, but I am afraid of getting stuck with them because there are so many out there and to break even one would have to sell more than half of the coins for about $9 and have few left to trade or leave in a chache. Now in order to get interest the coin has to be trackable and have a unique icon as well. Getting very pricy. The best price I could find was $1300 for 250. Then I am afraid it might become the geocaching equivalent of a Beany Baby. Pathtags are gaining more interest every day. We planned them as sig items but have traded most of our original orders. We have even been offered tractable coins as trade for them several times.

[+Totem Clan]

Like I said earlier, this is only the second time I've heard of them. Having taken good look this time, I just might buy some. They sounds like a great way to get some high quality, desirable sig items for a good price.

[+rdaines]

I'll stick with a laminated sig cards that I make myself, they're cheap and accomplish the same thing, "Hey, I was here". Not sure why I would want to collect or trade someone else's sig item.

[+sbell111]

I'll stick with a laminated sig cards that I make myself, they're cheap and accomplish the same thing, "Hey, I was here". Not sure why I would want to collect or trade someone else's sig item.

You know, I felt exactly the same way until I saw Marky & Joani's signature pressed penny in a pressed penny cache. I was really happy that I remembered to bring a much more mundane pressed penny so I could trade it out.

[+Totem Clan]

I'll stick with a laminated sig cards that I make myself, they're cheap and accomplish the same thing, "Hey, I was here". Not sure why I would want to collect or trade someone else's sig item.

I like collecting sig items for the caches I visit. It's just one of those weird things some folks do.

I've found everything from buttons to wooden nickels to the standard laminated cards. I think it's neat when I run across a sig item from someone I know from the forum or their caches hides. I don't trade for them or anything.

Some of the sig items are real neat. I have a Crow egg, a Bessie (the a cow skull from a IN cacher) and things from cachers from all over the US. I like looking up the cachers profile when I find their sig item.

[+TeamLareau]

People collect different things for all different reasons. There are many people that make geocoins for their signature items.

 

I considered doing a geocoin in August of last year. I did the design, worked through a couple of iterations of the icon and quoted the whole thing out to the tune of US$1399.00 for 250. WOW! and I was ready to do it, too.

 

Then I found out about a new thing called PATHTAGS. They are about the size of a quarter, the cost was US$99 for the die and first 25 tags, and then $99 for the next 100. I thought it was a great deal for what was going to be a personal item anyway.

 

I have 8 designs now and have traded for over 150 of the existing designs as well. I don't think I would have been able to afford that if I were doing geocoins.

 

BTW - Pathtags ARE trackable to an extent, not on GC but through Pathtags.com. You can see who has logged your tag and where they logged them at (coordinates). It's still early but I can see this really taking off. We Love em!

 

click to see the large version

Edited March 12, 2007 by TeamLareau

[+Hula Bum]

$1400 for 250? Wow, you were about to get ripped off! BOT....

 

Pathtags are wonderful sig items that are cheap enough to leave in caches. They are not trackable here, but that's ok if you're leaving it as swag. I hope that more and more people will get them and bring more great swag back into caches.

 

Coins have become ridiculously popular, but they are much more of a collector thing that a cache thing now. I would say only 5% ever see the inside of a cache, the rest are in binders and boxes. It's all about the icons now, not the caching and travelling aspects of what coins once were.

 

Pathtags and the like (there will be others to come) I hope and think will gain popularity very quickly once word gets out.

 

Edit to add-they are much higher quality than I thought the would be. Feel just like a coin. There is another "token" out there that is skinny and flimsy feeling, these are NOT pathtags.

Edited March 12, 2007 by Hula Bum

[+Googling Hrpty Hrrs]

I'll stick with a laminated sig cards that I make myself, they're cheap and accomplish the same thing, "Hey, I was here". Not sure why I would want to collect or trade someone else's sig item.

 

Sig items are my favorite. I appreciate the time people put into them.

[+evelbug]

I;ll give my vote for path tags. They're relatively inexpensive, easy to trade, easy to display (I have mine pinned up in a cork board). As of this past December, there were only around 100 designs. Now there's over 300. I can only see them becoming more popular once more of them make their way into caches. They're a fun thing to collect if you aren't obsessed with icons on a web page.

[+Konnarock Kid & Marge]

We looked into a coin. I am not crying poor but I can think of a lot of other things to blow $1200 to $1500 on. Marge and I kind of look at path tags as a poor mans geocoin. Please, you coin heads don't be offended. We also wanted to make some signature pins but there was a snag. One of the main artists who will do pin and tag designs is sick. Thank goodness we found another artist to design the tag and I just bought a press and materials to make our own pins. It much cheaper and looks easy and fun to do. I will (maybe) volunteer to make some pins for our local geocaching organization

As soon as we get the artist's drawing, off we go to order our path tag. Who knows but it looks like coins are becoming too much for collectors to try to get all or most of them. From my old marketing days, there is a real danger of over saturation (coins) then a sharp drop off in the coin collecting/making business. The psychology of collecting is to try to "get 'em all". With coins this is becoming more and more impossible and prohibitively expensive for most.

If it was stock; coins going down, tags up!

Edited March 12, 2007 by Konnarock Kid & Marge

[+Team Rat Pack (led by Miss Bi)]

I'll stick with a laminated sig cards that I make myself, they're cheap and accomplish the same thing, "Hey, I was here". Not sure why I would want to collect or trade someone else's sig item.

 

We love to collect other cachers sig item. What point is there to leaving a sig item if someone else would not what to collect it? Well, except for business cards or calling cards. They are not fun and unique enough to want to collect IMHO.

[+Tank Hounds]

We also have quite a few pathtag designs (6 I think right now). I love that I can display ALL of them cheaply and easily. They are magnetic if you buy those little circle magnets at Walmart or wherever...I bought a magnetic write on and write off board and have them all on there.

 

We love to trade them, so if there are any out there that we haven't traded for contact us!

[+hairball45]

I've collected I think four Pathtags from different folks, and I'm in the process of having mine done. Back at Christmas they ran a promotion where your die and first 25 were 50 bucks. I bit. Heck of a deal. Now to get my artwork in order. As an artist I leave just a bit to be desired.

hairball

[+DeRock & The Psychic Cacher]

You can hear all about Pathtags from the creators "Mike & Ben" over at PodCacher. Sonny and Sandy talked to them at the GeocoinFest 2007 event.

 

It's a 54 minute podcast and the interview is just about in the middle. Here is a direct link to download the MP3.

 

Enjoy,

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

[+sbell111]

I've collected I think four Pathtags from different folks, and I'm in the process of having mine done. Back at Christmas they ran a promotion where your die and first 25 were 50 bucks. I bit. Heck of a deal. Now to get my artwork in order. As an artist I leave just a bit to be desired.

hairball

That is the one thing that has kept me from having some made up. I have no talent in that area.

[+Tank Hounds]

I've collected I think four Pathtags from different folks, and I'm in the process of having mine done. Back at Christmas they ran a promotion where your die and first 25 were 50 bucks. I bit. Heck of a deal. Now to get my artwork in order. As an artist I leave just a bit to be desired.

hairball

That is the one thing that has kept me from having some made up. I have no talent in that area.

 

If you read through some of the profiles there are a few people that help design them. Jamie from madhattersneverland, honeychile I think does some, applewomyn has also, ..those are just 3 from the top of my head. I am sure that if you contact a coin company that they would help too!

[+dmbfan73]

We like using signature stickers (address labels that we print with our logo and name) to put in the caches logs. They're nice because you can leave them in just about every cache, except for those pesky nanos. Back in California, most of the cachers had their own sticker and it was really neat seeing the logs with 'icons' that you recognized. You can't move them or collect them- unless you hide a cache and replace the log once it's full.

[+4leafclover]

Here's mine:

 

[+Jennifer&Dean]

We were gonna create a coin but the expense was too high, then 4LeafClover told me about Pathtags... so we took our coin design and made a tag. Since we wanted it as a signature item instead of a trackable coin, it works perfect! Plus, it fits in more caches.

-J

 

Our Tag's page

Edited March 15, 2007 by Jennifer&Dean

[+welch]

Heard of them a few times, but have yet to see one personally. I wonder how long it will be till some show up in local caches?

[+wandererrob]

We like using signature stickers (address labels that we print with our logo and name) to put in the caches logs.

 

I do the same thing. I was playing around with laminating calling cards but it met with limited success. I'll probably go back to working on them when I've moved in a few weeks and get settled.

[+gladeslvr & crew]

I think path tags are a great idea! I think once a few start to pop up in your town, you'll begin to see more and more of them.

 

I got into caching because it's cheap entertainment (well, after the $500 gps and 50,000,000 gallons of gas!). Spending grocery money on coins is not an option for me! Wooden nickels, path tags, cheaper sig items...they're all cool and fun to collect.

[+Gryffindor1]

I had a Pathtag passed to me, and besides the size being

much smaller than a regular geocoin, they *are* really nice.

As a trade item, I think that they are great. They will definitely

be showing up more and more in caches...

[+StarBrand]

I've never actually seen one "out in the wild". They do look interesting and I may get some. However, items that do tracking on any seperate website are a pain to use and tend not to travel as well.

[+RkyMountainRose]

I've followed the links posted on this thread, and I have to say that I like the idea of pathtags. OK, so I've only been caching for less than a week, and I have less than ten finds to my name, but that's not entirely relevant. I've been trying to think of something that would be a sig item, and so far, the best I have been able to come up with is fabric roses (see my username).

 

I'll have to give it some thought, but as stated, I definately like the idea...

[+sylamore]

Hope they take off and become popular. Having mine designed now...should be in hand in a few weeks.

Sylamore

[+emurock]

I've never actually seen one "out in the wild". They do look interesting and I may get some.

Same here.

[Treasure Pirate]

We went with Shrinky Dinks. They now have a plastic sheet that you can run through your ink jet printer to print on a nice design, then a few minutes in the oven turns them to hard plastic. These will shrik down to the size of a quarter, and are nice to leave in caches. Sorry I don't have a pic of them.

[+AlohaMatt]

Shrinky Dinks...SWEET!!! Edited March 26, 2007 by AlohaMatt

[+AlohaMatt]

oops...double post...

Edited March 26, 2007 by AlohaMatt

[+Celtic_cacher]

I had to add my two cents in on this topic. Today is actually the first time I have heard about pathtags, and I am already working on a design for a personal one. I was thinking of getting some geocoins made, but took a look at the price and WOW...a bit out of my price range at this time. The $ is the key at the moment for me. A colorized, personalized sig item for about $100 just makes sense to me.

 

-CJ

[+Driver Carries Cache]

I have 8 designs now and have traded for over 150 of the existing designs as well. I don't think I would have been able to afford that if I were doing geocoins.

 

Wow Team Lareau those are great!

 

If that's not a motivator to go out and have some of my own made, I don't know what is!

 

Driver Carries Cache

(madmike)

[+Kealia]

FWIW - 90% of the geocoins that come out today are funded by the community, not the person making the coin.

 

How?

They come up with a design (even if it's their personal coin), post it and ask who wants to buy some.

Once they collect enough orders they order the coin, having marked up the cost enough to afford tracking, an icon, and coins left over for themselves.

 

That being said, I think PathTags are much more personal than Geocoins these days unless the maker of the coin is the one paying for them.

[+BigStick]

The tags look cool. I may have missed this in a previous post but do the tags have the image on both sides or is the other side blank? Or does it have something else on it?

Edited March 26, 2007 by BigStick

[+Kealia]

Backside is blank.

[+mizdeeds]

The back side of the Pathtag has "trackable at pathtags.com" on it and a number. Every tag design is assigned a unique number. All tags minted with that particular design have the same tracking number. When you get someone's tag, you go to pathtags.com and log it, entering the coords where you picked it up. The owner can look up all of the logged tags and see where their tags have traveled. I should have mine soon, and am working on a second design. Fun and affordable swag to leave in caches I have found as my sig item.

[+Kealia]

Whoops, I mis-spoke. Thanks for the correction. Don't want to give out bad info.

[+kim5010]

We decided to go with Pathtags. Our tag is being produced right now. I did the simple design work myself and it only took one day to turn it into a blueprint and send it for production. We can't wait till they get here!

[+Tank Hounds]

Gosh, there seem to be a lot of people getting them done...if you want to trade, please please please contact me! I'd love to trade for them! Even if you don't open the trades up to everyone, I'd still trade.

 

Also, they just upped how many tags you get with the starter kit, you now get 50 tags instead of 25...so that's even better!!

[+Team Dubbin]

Being that I've never heard of a pathtag, I'd venture to guess that they aren't popular.

 

[+Kyndrid]

I sent my design in yesterday. I think Pathtags is a fantastic idea and I'm really excited about having an affordable yet nice trade/sig item.

 

Note: They are now offering 50 tags for $99.00

Edited March 29, 2007 by Kyndrid

[stvanme]

I just got my first Pathtag in a couple of days ago. Have been busy trading for other tags. The website makes it real easy to trade with others and keep track of each stage of the trade. So far I think they're fantastic. Great sig item at a reasonable price. I have another currently in production and an additional one being design for my daughter.

[+Tank Hounds]

Hey Stvanme, we'd love to trade for your other tags when they come in...and my brother is a PSU grad! And Kyndrid I'd love to trade with you too!