Cache Swaps

[+Us 4 and Jess]

Following on from the other thread about taking nothing and leaving nothing.

 

If you do do swaps then what do you leave?

 

We have been leaving stickers and scoubies and coasters (Us 4 and Jess coasters we made and laminated) for the last few weeks, but I am getting fed up of the same things all the time. To be honest we don't very often take anything but we almost always leave 2 or 3 items if the cache we are visiting is capable of taking swaps.

 

I have two bags full of cache swaps I have picked up while shopping or out and about but most of it is rubbish, I don' t mean like dirty golf balls and broken Mc toys it is all new stuff but it's all a bit naff to be honest, you get fed up of going to Asda and buying 6 football keyrings or 6 power balls or 6 whistles ect

We used to always leave a packet of tissues when we first started caching which when we read back through the logs seemed to always get taken.

 

Has anyone had anything specially made for their team to leave in caches?

 

Or better still have you personally made items for your team to leave?

 

I think it would be nice to make/have made 100-200 of an item that is just ours and folks could look in the cache and say look theres whatever it is ... Us 4 and Jess have been here.

 

So what do you leave ? And if it was in a cache what would you take ? (no not a twenty pound note)

 

Mandy

Edited April 14, 2007 by Us 4 and Jess

[+ryme-intrinseca]

I had an idea to start leaving little Toy Story aliens, which I collect (see here for my best swop item ever!) and of which we have a picture on our calling card. So I bought about 80 little aliens from ebay, but they were so beautiful I couldn't bear to part with them. I know they were all exactly the same (see photo in link above), but they were so lovely.

 

We usually TNLN, but I have to admit I love seeing swops in people's logs, e.g. for one of my caches recently - ''took gun, left hedgehog.' Now where else would you see soething like that written?

[+drsolly]

I leave quite a few hard drives, usually 80 gb but today I left a 250. These have failed in service, been reformatted and tested OK (but I tell people not to use them for anything important).

 

We also leave DVDs and CDs that we get for free in magazines and newspapers. I don't want to watch Bambi, but maybe some kid will love it. In micros, we sometimes leave £1, for junior cachers only. We take almost nothing; for us, the joy of caching is the thrill of the chase and the walk, not the swaps.

[+minxyy]

Just picked up some pocket recycling bags! Approx twenty bags on a reel and biodegradable! Logged them as 'CITO' bags!! Well had to do something when I ran out of pocket tissues!(also all taken from the caches I dropped them in!)

 

I have written at length here about our 'first' impressions and thoughts about what we'd like to leave in future! http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php...p;#entry2816323

 

However Beks we'd love to find your little alien in a cache, even if it's the TB one...will look to see where he's at!

 

Have fun all and don't beat yourself up too much! Leave something you think is nice/useful and let others get on with their baaahummmbugging!

lol

minxyy 'princessannie' 'lectroboy' and 'bugboy'

[+scaw]

i used to leave a trolley token and various keyrings but i have just started leaving my new signature item 2 phone charms one is a doll the other beads, i liked them so there my new thing. I never take anything from a cache anymore.

[+skinnymalinky]

We only take something that really catches our fancy but we often leave things. There is a shop in edinburgh which has lots of little pocket money items and there I buy things like packs of mini felt pens, fancy pocket tissues, mini slinky's, mini rubber ducks, bouncing putty. For a while they had nice pens with attached karabiners with jokes.

[+PopUpPirate]

I leave nowt me, and take all the good stuff that I find... saves having to load the car up with trades, and you get a prize every time, yay!

[+ryme-intrinseca]

I leave nowt me, and take all the good stuff that I find... saves having to load the car up with trades, and you get a prize every time, yay!

 

Ignore me, I'm just sitting here waiting for someone to take PUP seriously and start saying how inconsiderate that is.

[+The Cache Hoppers]

I leave nowt me, and take all the good stuff that I find... saves having to load the car up with trades, and you get a prize every time, yay!

 

Ignore me, I'm just sitting here waiting for someone to take PUP seriously and start saying how inconsiderate that is.

Doh! You spoilt his fun now, LOL

Edited to add some more and one of these cos it's been soooo hot today

Edited April 15, 2007 by The Cache Hoppers

[The Red Kite]

I leave nowt me, and take all the good stuff that I find... saves having to load the car up with trades, and you get a prize every time, yay!

 

Ignore me, I'm just sitting here waiting for someone to take PUP seriously and start saying how inconsiderate that is.

WELL... he IS a PIRATE arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhh

[+HazelS]

tsk....

 

Now I've cached with PUP on numerous occasions, and I know he's funny about the trade up thing... he gets very worked up if there's summat in the cache he wants and can't trade up - he'll leave it!!

 

Personally I tend to TNLN, but that's just because I got fed up with carting loads of stuff around with me. If there's something in the cache that I thnk would be ultra useful, then I do carry a small number of swapsies, and will leave something.

[+Foinavon]

I have been a bit short of things to put in the caches recently but my little lad usually wants to take something so I have started to leave money. Not sure if thats a good idea really, what does everyone think? I did this in one of PUP's caches on Sunday, Thirlmere aqueduct.

 

 

 

tsk....

 

Now I've cached with PUP on numerous occasions, and I know he's funny about the trade up thing... he gets very worked up if there's summat in the cache he wants and can't trade up - he'll leave it!!

 

Personally I tend to TNLN, but that's just because I got fed up with carting loads of stuff around with me. If there's something in the cache that I thnk would be ultra useful, then I do carry a small number of swapsies, and will leave something.

[+Team Incredible]

We tend to buy up swaps from pound shops, woolies and the likes. We've left loads of padlocks, dinosaurs, child safe scissors, bouncy balls, bingo dabbers (?), whistles, small boxes of colouring pencils, fancy pencils and erasers and so on in boxes. We also swap out our unwanted free CDs / DVDs. We have been known to put everything we have with us in the box if it is a bit empty, so the next people along can have some fun. Was in town this morning and brought a couple of parking meter timers that I've added to our swap bag, as the saying goes, one mans meat another mans poison.

 

The boys take loads of stuff out of caches, if there is a foreign coin in the box there will be a full scale war while they sort out who can have it, both have collected various bits and pieces which keeps them happy on the walk back. They also have a long memory for who got to pick first from the cache last time

 

We only take a few swaps with us on each walk, also too lazy to carry a large bag round with us.

[+maw, paw + the piglets]

We carry a bag full of swaps around in our backpack along with the obligatory waterproofs ( just in case). We have some things specifically for the kiddies who would like a swap ( balloons, badges, plastic medals, toys,games)and some for adults (keyrings, mini torches, carabiners). We like to cover all the bases as a lot of the caches will be done during the holidays with the kids and it's nice for them to get something at the end of the trek....our Piglet MK2 enjoys a nice find. We also bought fundraising material from the Parkinsons Disease Society and always leave a wee assortment in the caches we visit as we wanted to raise awareness of the disease as it has affected our family several times.

 

We also try to leave something handy at holiday area caches ; a mini pack of cards, a game etc, as this will give a cacher something to do when the inevitable bad weather closes in and they can't go caching. We also leave anti-midge wipes sometimes for the better weather and have left battery testers on occasion too!

 

Piglet MK1 made little piglet logo shapes out of FIMO and we have left some of those in caches too. Any swaps which are not for young kiddies are put in wee baggies with a note saying 'Not suitable for young children' and the FIMO piggies have a warning attached incase any sprog should think they are bubblegum.

 

We tend to recycle a lot of perfect condition items which we have around the house (keyrings, wee trinkets etc) and work on the theory that we only place things we'd like to find.

[+Dorsetgal & GeoDog]

I often leave geocaching silicone wrist bands, fabric geocaching badges, geocaching pin badges, foreign coins and notes, notebooks and other small stationary items, keyrings and other promotional stuff from Dogs for the Disabled (where GeoDog comes from) and so on.

 

Sometimes in larger caches I leave blow up beach balls (globes) and have been known to leave the odd unregistered geocoin.

 

I have one cache of my own which is just for keyrings and lanyards so I often look for more unusual ones in the shops when I am away.

 

More often than not I leave something but don;t take anything; but havng said that, in my home area there are some who keep very well stocked caches and on those occasions I nearly always swap.

[quimbly]

A lot of the time I TNLN, as I don't like to carry too much with me. But I tend to buy trinkets from Tesco, little toys for about 50p; I carry these & if a cache is very bare, I'll leave a thing or two to enhance the cache. I will usually also have a nice keyring or something with me to swap for any more desirable items. The nicest things I've found to leave recently have been wooden animals with a compass inset in them - around a pound from the Staffordshire Wildlife shop at Wolseley Bridge, and also at Amerton Farm - both in Staffordshire.

 

The best thing I've taken from a cache was a hand-painted stone, in the canal narrow boat decoration style. I believe this is a signature item from a couple who live on a narrow boat - afraid I can't remember their "geo-tag".

[+The Bolas Heathens]

It's 'The Boat People'

 

The best thing I've taken from a cache was a hand-painted stone, in the canal narrow boat decoration style. I believe this is a signature item from a couple who live on a narrow boat - afraid I can't remember their "geo-tag".

[+The Blorenges]

£1.36 = Book of 4 x 1st class stamps = handy small swap item.

MrsB

[+The Cache Hoppers]

£1.36 = Book of 4 x 1st class stamps = handy small swap item.

MrsB

What??? The whole book! How much is second class these days?

[+Dorsetgal & GeoDog]

Oh, I forgot to say, I often leave dog toys (Caesar gets lots given to him) or tennis balls, as I know how much joy he gets when we swap one from another cache!

 

[+PopUpPirate]

Dog toys would get snapped up in an instant round here, and rehidden as a cache within 24 hours

[+HazelS]

Dog toys would get snapped up in an instant round here, and rehidden as a cache within 24 hours

 

Now I have picked myself off the floor - I can agree with this one, pup!!!!

[+LollyBob]

Dog toys would get snapped up in an instant round here, and rehidden as a cache within 24 hours

 

Now I have picked myself off the floor - I can agree with this one, pup!!!!

 

 

OUTCH