Idiots Guide to Geocaching...

[+Knight2000]

So i figured id check the book out at the library. Soemthing i dont understand.

 

Page 21 under "Learn the Language" it says:

Golf ball (used). The most dreaded and despised trade item in a cache.

 

Is a used golf ball really the "most dreaded and despised trade item in a cache"?

 

or is the "most dreaded and despised trade item in a cache" considered a "Used Golf Ball"?

 

Please excuse my stupidity!

[+Renegade Knight]

A lot of people dislike them. I happen to like shooting them so they are great swag for me.

[+jasond]

I had to re-read that a few times. I think it's the first option. In fact, the second option wouldn't have occurred to me if you hadn't pointed it out and confused the daylights out of me for a few seconds. Louisiana public education...

[+QSparrow]

Uh-oh. I dropped 2 of them a while back... I'm a certified idiot!

[Trinity's Crew]

Yeah. A lot of people use old golf balls as an example of bad swag when they are discussing cache content degradation, but my son loves finding them. The good news is it's pretty easy to trade up if you take one!

[+rdaines]

I'd vote for a mostly used-up cigarette lighter as the most lame.

[+Hotlanta]

I’ve pretty much quit buying golf balls since I’ve started Geocaching. Tho I still tend to lose a few while playing Golf. So maybe I’m just recycling bad swag!

[Dinoprophet]

There's an implication with a used golf ball that it was found on the way to cache and left in exchange for something better. And since they're pretty common, I think they embody a sense of disappointment at the swag in a cache. Kind of like Charlie Brown's Halloween rock.

 

To answer your question, I'm pretty sure it's the first. I've never heard "Used Golf Ball" used for anything but a literal used golf ball. A more common catch-all term is "McToy", though IMHO, a used Happy Meal toy will have more appreciative finders (ie kids) than a used golf ball.

Edited March 23, 2007 by Dinoprophet

[crtrue]

At least you can use a golf ball, something which is more than I can say for a McToy...

[+sbell111]

I see little difference between re-visiting my cache or another that I found before. The goal is to keep a trackable going and moving - not to use them as "bait" for addtional visits.

It's not bait if the owner rushes out smae day coin is dropped. And WHERE IS THE SPORT? Where is the sport in finding your own cache!

I like to put caches in used golf balls, not the other way around.

[crtrue]

I see little difference between re-visiting my cache or another that I found before. The goal is to keep a trackable going and moving - not to use them as "bait" for addtional visits.

It's not bait if the owner rushes out smae day coin is dropped. And WHERE IS THE SPORT? Where is the sport in finding your own cache!

I like to put caches in used golf balls, not the other way around.

 

You mean sort of how I like to put parking lots in caches?

[Mr.Yuck]

So i figured id check the book out at the library. Soemthing i dont understand.

 

Page 21 under "Learn the Language" it says:

Golf ball (used). The most dreaded and despised trade item in a cache.

 

Is a used golf ball really the "most dreaded and despised trade item in a cache"?

 

or is the "most dreaded and despised trade item in a cache" considered a "Used Golf Ball"?

 

Please excuse my stupidity!

 

The book is outdated. That's from a time when most caches were large enough to actually hold a golf ball.

 

Sorry, couldn't resist. I don't know about "most dreaded and despised", but in my area, we'll often put them in as a joke, especially if you stumble on some on the ground on the way to the cache.

[+Jhwk]

I actually dislike the smelly, soggy, ball of unrecognizable snot at the bottom of the breached cache container worse. But that's just me.

[+tozainamboku]

I always thought the broken McToy was the most dreaded and despised trade item. I checked this list and see that dirty golf balls are number 2 after broken toys and just ahead of single playing cards and AOL disks.

Edited March 23, 2007 by tozainamboku

[+flask]

There's an implication with a used golf ball that it was found on the way to cache and left in exchange for something better. And since they're pretty common, I think they embody a sense of disappointment at the swag in a cache. Kind of like Charlie Brown's Halloween rock.

 

 

i have a friend who offers trick-or-treaters a choice of candy, carrot, or rock. most years rock wins.

 

whilee a cache that contains little besides golf balls is weak in terms of swag, many people like golf balls, so one or two in the mix isn't a bad thing.

[+Prime Suspect]

Far worse than the golf ball, is the bottle of soap bubble solution. It will leak. It will always leak.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Far worse than the golf ball, is the bottle of soap bubble solution. It will leak. It will always leak.

Evem worse are the very deranged people who leave one leaky used AA cell (as in battery), totally unwrapped and exposed, sitting on the bottom of the cache container and leaking all sorts of unfriendly liquids. Kinda makes one start to think of homicide! BTW, we sometimes leave sealed 4-packs of alkaline AA cells, double-packed in quart-size freezer ziplock bags, in our caches as swag. That is not what I am talking about here, however; I am talking about finding a single unpdackaged/unwrapped leaky AA cell in the cache container.

[+The Jester]

For a while, I was leaving a golf tee in every cache I found that had a golf ball, but I kept running out of tee's...

[+angevine]

Yeah, I'll admit that the first few times I found a golf ball in a cache I thought it was strange – I'm not a golfer and I couldn't imagine that there are that many golfers out there geocaching. But very quickly I realized what you're reading in the responses here: that a number of people do really like them.

 

I'm fine with that, but I have to say that I still think it's a little odd.

 

The only swag I really consider lame is something dirty and/or broken. To me, that shows a lack of respect for the cache, the cache-placer, and other cache-finders.

 

*Very* early on I stopped even looking at/for swag. I do pass along travel bugs and so on, but the way I play the game, it's about the search, the find, and the log.

 

Jeannette

[+halffast]

I guess I need to find other trade items.But its hard when the Golf course is so close and the balls are free.

[+Jedi Cacher]

I also purchased that book a couple of weeks ago when I first started. I was also a little suprised to see that it was the most despised trading item. Even though I am not a golfer, it still seems like a functional item that a person could use. So far in my 2 weeks of geocaching I have discovered worse items than that. I recently hiked a total of 4 miles of some of the most rugged up and down terrain only to find a cache full of badly used pogs. I'm thinking to myself, if your going to place a cache on top of a mountain peak, there better be some pretty cool stuff on top. Despite the sad cache the view was unbeleivable and I got one heck of a workout. That's what it is all about.