What is your favorite SWAG to leave/find?

[+Knight2000]

This thread is most likely regurgitated. If it bothers you, my apologies.

 

What is your favorite SWAG/trade items to find in a cache?

What are you favorite SWAG/trade items to leave in a cache?

 

I was hoping this thread will give people insight as to what others like/dislike. I polled my kids and found out this info. I don't recall ever taking anything from a cache. But maybe that will change. I just love watching my kids find it and trade stuff. Thats the fun for me. (They are 9 and 4.)

 

So far the things that they like to find:

- Quarters

- Hotwheels

- glow sticks

- stickers/ tattoos

 

The things we like to leave in caches:

- Foreign/world coin packets

- Carabiner keychains

 

Those are the things that we like to trade the most. What do you or your kids like?

[+wordnerd]

This thread is most likely regurgitated. If it bothers you, my apologies.

 

What is your favorite SWAG/trade items to find in a cache?

What are you favorite SWAG/trade items to leave in a cache?

 

I was hoping this thread will give people insight as to what others like/dislike. I polled my kids and found out this info. I don't recall ever taking anything from a cache. But maybe that will change. I just love watching my kids find it and trade stuff. Thats the fun for me. (They are 9 and 4.)

 

Those are the things that we like to trade the most. What do you or your kids like?

 

I think this one comes up at least once a week. But it seems no matter how many good/bad swag topics go up, people still think gum wrappers and pencil points are a good trade.

 

However, I'll bite.

 

I like significant items like coins and pins. I really like travel coins and bugs. I would love to see souvineer type stuff, like little statue of liberties or British double decker bus keychains. Inexpensive stuff that I can't get easily myself. I might also like homemade things like wooden carved animals. I don't mind toys, but so far the toys I have found have been used or broken (except the other day when I found a couple of hotwheels still in the package!).

 

As for what I leave, I try to leave something someone would want. Not everyone likes the same thing so I leave a variety. I sometimes leave used toys, but only action figures that are in good shape and are hard to find. I've left high level YuGiOh cards too. I am waiting to drop off a few patches that were awards for the engineering and flight crew who worked on Lockheed's F-35. You can't get those in a store (but we'd ended up with extra).

 

I've picked up on the fact that FTF caches have all the good loot. After that, the trades go downhill and you have to depend on the fun of the hunt rather than the goodies at the end.

[+Knight2000]

Just as long as you know that TBs and coins arent trade/SWAG items.

[+Danske]

My 5 and 7 year olds like hotwheel cars and little rubber animals like dinosaurs or fish. They like to leave the same think, of course after they have played with them.

[+Renegade Knight]

I keep hoping for a Coin good for a free ride at the Mustang Ranch but it's just not anything I've found yet.

 

But I do like coins. Foreign, Tokens, Promo coins etc. I leave foreign coins.

[+WalruZ]

Whenever this comes up I usually point out that ready-to-hide caches are one of the most quickly traded-for items that can be left in a cache, either by the owner or by a visitor.

 

There are a number of variations that can be done, with-wire, with-lanyard, with-magnet, just cammo-taped, film-can, magnetic-tin, key-holder, beach safes, etc. Larger caches can accomodate small tupperwares.

 

Even with all the cammo, tape or paint, and logsheets and even small swag, they're cheap to make. If you monitor cache logs, you'll see they're quickly traded for. Why not?

[+TrailGators]

I keep hoping for a Coin good for a free ride at the Mustang Ranch but it's just not anything I've found yet.

 

But I do like coins. Foreign, Tokens, Promo coins etc. I leave foreign coins.

I like foreign coins too!

[+briansnat]

I had a coin collection going back to when I was a kid. Neat stuff like Indian head pennies, mercury dimes, buffalo nickels, Ike dollars, Kennedy, Franklin and Walking Liberty halves.

 

Most of the stuff wasn't worth a whole lot (at least when I last checked sometime around 1980), so I've been placing them in caches for a while. Not much of the collection left though. My Morgan and Peace dollars aren't going in any caches.

 

As far as my current faves, insect repellent wipes, emergency rain ponchos, mylar emergency blankets and waterproof matchboxes are among my favorite things to leave.

 

As far as what to find, I never turn down tape measures. I can never find them when I need 'em, so I will always take one when I find it in a cache (I collected about a half dozen through geocaching and could only find one today when I needed it).

[+Knight2000]

Whenever this comes up I usually point out that ready-to-hide caches are one of the most quickly traded-for items that can be left in a cache, either by the owner or by a visitor.

I had thought about that. This was my take on it.

 

For a cache to be SWAG usually it is a micro. While i have nothing against micros and like them when cleverly placed, i kind of think of cache placement as children.

 

Most anyone can make a baby, but not everyone should. Or however it goes. Most anyone can hide a cache, but everyone cant make it a decent hide. I didn't quite say this right, but you get where i am going with it.

 

For every crappy cache placed that is just one more area which voids out a 219,000 square feet of possible cache placement area. (If my math is correct.) How many times have your heard that someone found a perfect spot but there was another cache close by so the idea got abandoned?

 

I like it when people think about the hides and tailor them to the situation. I dislike when people are driving in a car and say look a sign/guardrail where we can stick a key holder. When people have to tailor the containers and ideas for each situation- then its hard to anticipate what type of container to leave for SWAG.

 

Maybe i think too much.

[+briansnat]

Whenever this comes up I usually point out that ready-to-hide caches are one of the most quickly traded-for items that can be left in a cache, either by the owner or by a visitor.

I had thought about that. This was my take on it.

 

For a cache to be SWAG usually it is a micro. While i have nothing against micros and like them when cleverly placed, i kind of think of cache placement as children.

 

 

Not quite true. For a while I was leaving fully stocked, small Lock n Locks. They can easily fit inside most regular sized caches.

 

I guess they can be confusing though. I had one finder of my cache sign both log books .

Edited June 5, 2007 by briansnat

[+StarBrand]

I'll agree with tape measures - I too have found 5 or 6 but I only know where 1 is.

 

I also like hot wheels

duck tape

foriegn coins

deck of cards

tools

camping stuff

[+Thrak]

My wife delights in finding really small plastic lizards. Don't ask me why but she has 11 on top of her monitor. One of them that we picked up this weekend waaaaaaaaay out of town turned out to be a "mostly" duplicate so it will go into another cache we find soon. Sigh.......... It's hard to keep track sometimes.

 

I like to leave carabiners. Sometimes I leave a pair of dice, a set of 4 or 5 pencil top erasers, or a set of 4 or 5 pencil grippers. I leave heavy-duty programmable 4-digit combination locks (think good Master Locks that you can set the combo on). I used to leave a Thrak button in many caches but now I tend to leave them only in a FTF cache or one that is out of my area. I'll be leaving them in a few alternate states in July - Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, maybe Wyoming, probably Nevada. I leave weird stuff such as sealed packs of sticky notes, highlighters, Sharpie pens, packs of glitter pencils, new pencil sharpeners. I leave CITO containers which are simply a film can with a grocery bag inside and a CITO label on the outside. For a FTF prize on micro caches I leave a gold dollar, a "new style" dollar coin, a smashed penney from somewhere like Yellowstone or Yosemite and also I buy Indian Head Pennies. Now some folks have told me I'm crazy for placing the Indian Head Pennies. After all, I pay 100 times the face value for them! However, that makes them cost me a dollar which is the same as the gold dollar, new style dollar, etc. One of the members of our local caching group likes to leave a $2 bill as a FTF. I go to the dollar store and get new tape measurers or small screwdriver sets (for glasses, etc.) and place those. I've left odd things like sets of guitar strings or new DVD movies in caches. It can really depend on what I see when putting a cache together or when I'm in the mood to check for swag in stores.

 

As for what I like to find.......... I don't trade that often. If I find actual spendable money I generally trade for that, although I usually end up losing value on the deal. One day last summer I snagged $4.50 from caches and left around $15 worth of swag in it's place. However, I had a GREAT time finding the caches and, for some perverse reason, I liked having the $ from the caches even though I had a majorly negative financial outcome for the day. There's just no understanding my weird mind.

 

I once found an Original Stash geocaching pin. I traded for that in a heartbeat. Why? I have no clue. I also traded for a geocaching.com sew-on or iron-on patch. Again, I have no idea why but I WANTED it! There is absolutely no accounting for what one cacher might spy and suddenly covet while another cacher might just look at the same item and yawn. That's one of the cool things about swag.

 

Normally I TNLN but once in a while something takes hold of me and I trade. Often I don't even look at what is in the cache and simply sign the log. Of course there have been those times where I found a new cache and totally coveted an item inside but had nothing worthhy of trading for that item. At those times I generally just sigh and sign the log. Once in a great while I'll trade a bunch of smaller stuff and take the larger item. In that case I try to make sure I traded up via the volume of smaller items. Normally though, in that case, I simply don't have a decent supply of other items to make myself feel good about the trade for the "uber" item so I just leave it in the cache.

 

As for what I like to find...... Stuff that isn't broken or sucky. A nice polished rock can be great. A broken plastic watch is a piece of junk. My kids are grown so I don't care for hot wheels but, had this hobby been around when my kids were small they would have loved those as swag so I generally don't pass judgement (too harshly anyway) on what folks leave. There are caches where I am simply boggled at the pure junk in them and others where I realize that, while the swag may not be something for me, others might very well enjoy finding the stuff in the cache. What really "turns me on" is finding a cache that is really well hidden with a great camo job. Hiking to a cache and coming across a flock of wild turkeys or a few deer or a family of quail running along the path is awesome. You can't deliberately place those items but you can sometimes place your cache where the odds of that type of encounter increase dramatically. When something like that happens I get REALLY happy. Perhaps I'm weird but that really does something great for me.

[+mamid]

favorite stuff to hide:

me: trinkets, cars for kids, bracelets and other stuff for girls, compasses, carbiners

kids: hate hiding anything.

 

favorite stuff to find:

me: haven't found a thing yet that was something I really wanted to find.

kids: balls. tons and tons of balls. marbles.

 

I got given a bunch of necklaces at a garage sale - given because they were literally a steal. I kept a few, but the ones I didn't like I've added to my stash pile. I found some stuff in grab bags I don't want and added them to my stash. Then there's the stuff I buy outright, some from dollar stores.

 

My one problem with my stash is that if its a toy that I'm stashing, the kids will and have stolen them.

 

I plan on making an FTF prize a real diamond in a future cache. No, it will not be an easy find.

 

I also give out hand made scarves or hand made geocaching.com logo window clings. Each one is unique and no two are the same. But both of those take time for me to make and, honestly, I don't really like giving the window clings out.

[+C&C+COMPANY]

When we first started the best thing to find was Multi tools and little mickey's of liquior, now I like trail tape.....because you can't put the other two things in caches anymore

[+Snoogans]

I look for sig items and TBs. I especially like anything handmade.

 

 

I'll trade for pretty much anything, but it all goes back into another cache sooner or later. I keep the sig items. I have a pretty nice collection after 4 years.

[+Mudfrog]

I look for sig items and TBs. I especially like anything handmade.

 

 

I'll trade for pretty much anything, but it all goes back into another cache sooner or later. I keep the sig items. I have a pretty nice collection after 4 years.

 

I was going to say, allthough they aren't really swag, my favorite thing to find are signature items. Especially love finding homemade things that other cachers put effort into making. Travelbugs we move sometimes when we can help but we rarely mess with coins since there are so many out these days. As far as trading of normal swag, thats even rarer for us...

[+monahmat]

I agree with Snoogans, handmade, especially hand carved. My favorite swap thus far was for a wooden salt shaker, made on a lathe with woodburning around the outside.

[+Walt Jabsco]

I collect Pez dispensers, so I would like to find them in a cache (haven't found any yet).

 

I have a lot of duplicate Pez dispensers so I leave those as swag. (No candy, of course).

 

One day, I'm going to make a totally Pez themed cache, a Pez hotel, to see if they're are others in this area that are interested. I want to find a really great location for it first.

Edited June 5, 2007 by Walt Jabsco

[+ke6n]

Whenever this comes up I usually point out that ready-to-hide caches are one of the most quickly traded-for items that can be left in a cache, either by the owner or by a visitor.

I find it terribly difficult to stuff a camo-ammo into a 35mm film case at the local Walmart, though.

[+simplyred]

I usually put things that I think come in handy, and people don't always think of carrying these with them. Safety blankets, first aid kits, flashlight and other usefull stuff. The one thing that seems to be a hit is the magnetic pick-up tool. It's like a pen, but is telescopic with a magnet on the end. I leave these in many caches, and usually the next cacher logs it as taken.

[+Chananda]

I love to leave things I've made. My 'other' hobby is Polymer Clay so I make a lot of Butterfly necklaces and leave them in most of the caches we find/hide. I also make pens but they are a lot more work for me so I have only left them as FTF prizes in the 4 caches we've hidden so far.

 

As far as fave things to find? Don't really have any yet, we've only done 31 caches so far so right now we just have a collection of useless trinkets

 

~Ananda

[+Team FIREBOY]

When we start a cache we load it to the brim with stuff bought from Target, Hobby Lobby, Walmart...ect. We got great reviews on Dora the Explorer and Spiderman utensil sets and giftcards to local eateries or stores. We usually place a mini-mag flashlight for the FTF. Stickers, bubbles, bracelet and necklace building kits, magic growing towels, balls, erasers, kid themed pencils, temporary tattoos, jacks, hotwheel cars, beanie babies are the usuals for stuffing our caches. We check our caches twice monthly to ensure good stuff. What we leave at caches are some of the same swag as what we place in ours, plus mini multi tools, emergency rain gear, whistles, glowsticks, CITO bags in film canisters, toy animal figurines, our Pathtag, , quarters, foreign money, 550 cord, bungee cords, glass repair kits, key chains.... ect. You are only limited by your imagination.. we try not to put the same stuff that everyone else does. Too boring that way. When the kids are caching with us, we trade stuff. When the adults are caching, we leave stuff and sign logbooks, rarely trade.

[+ecfackler]

We have 2 kids that we usually take with us, so we like to leave things that other kids would like... matchbox cars, plastic dinosaurs, superballs (yes, we have 2 boys), and friendship bracelets for any girls. I like to leave USA pins.

[+CurmudgeonlyGal]

This thread is most likely regurgitated. If it bothers you, my apologies.

 

What is your favorite SWAG/trade items to find in a cache?

What are you favorite SWAG/trade items to leave in a cache?

 

Those are the things that we like to trade the most. What do you or your kids like?

 

My most favorite thing to find in a cache is the log book ... right on top ... so I don't have to sift through all the (c r a p) to find it. It's too bad I dislike micros as much as I do... because honestly, they're my 'kind' of cache... a log book to sign and nothing else.

 

I know this strikes of a pi$$-poor attitude, but honestly, I am outside to find the box and that's it. I am QUITE happy just to sign the log, am almost completely uninterested in what is inside.

 

The bonus for you? You can be assured that if you find a cache after I do, I won't have taken anything you would have liked to have had!

 

Items to leave? I bet you can guess.

 

 

michelle

[+bittsen]

This thread is most likely regurgitated. If it bothers you, my apologies.

 

What is your favorite SWAG/trade items to find in a cache?

What are you favorite SWAG/trade items to leave in a cache?

 

I was hoping this thread will give people insight as to what others like/dislike. I polled my kids and found out this info. I don't recall ever taking anything from a cache. But maybe that will change. I just love watching my kids find it and trade stuff. Thats the fun for me. (They are 9 and 4.)

 

So far the things that they like to find:

- Quarters

- Hotwheels

- glow sticks

- stickers/ tattoos

 

The things we like to leave in caches:

- Foreign/world coin packets

- Carabiner keychains

 

Those are the things that we like to trade the most. What do you or your kids like?

 

Reviving this thread....

 

I don't normally take swag, just because. I do look at the swag in the caches and like to mentally record the things I see. Sometimes I am a little disappointed.

I was thinking of adding seashells I got from Maui to the caches that have swag in them. What is your opinion on the shells?

When I was a kid, I LOVED to find seashells.

 

What other kinds of swag are great to place?

[+flask]

 

I was thinking of adding seashells I got from Maui to the caches that have swag in them. What is your opinion on the shells?

When I was a kid, I LOVED to find seashells.

 

What other kinds of swag are great to place?

 

seashells are only good until they get busted. without proper packaging, it is not a matter of "if", but "when".

[+Arrow42]

I've been leaving arrowheads lately. I've made it my sig item and people have been snapping them up quite quickly I'm proud to say.

 

I've also left, dice, a few packs of playing cards, a key chain flashlight and some matchbook cars recently.

 

I have plenty of cammo tape and a few film canisters that were given to me, so maybe I'll create a few pre-made caches. Then again, maybe not. I can't find those little plastic bags anywhere.

[+bittsen]

I've been leaving arrowheads lately. I've made it my sig item and people have been snapping them up quite quickly I'm proud to say.

 

I've also left, dice, a few packs of playing cards, a key chain flashlight and some matchbook cars recently.

 

I have plenty of cammo tape and a few film canisters that were given to me, so maybe I'll create a few pre-made caches. Then again, maybe not. I can't find those little plastic bags anywhere.

 

Premade caches. What a great idea.

 

here are your bags.

 

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksi...-All-Categories

 

You're welcome.

[+Arrow42]

Premade caches. What a great idea.

 

here are your bags.

 

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksi...-All-Categories

 

You're welcome.

 

Thank you Bittsen. I'm not sure if the first part is sarcasm or not, but I'll take it as not.

 

I'm ordering a box from e-bay right now. At the very least I'll have something on-hand to replace torn bags with.

[+bittsen]

Premade caches. What a great idea.

 

here are your bags.

 

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksi...-All-Categories

 

You're welcome.

 

Thank you Bittsen. I'm not sure if the first part is sarcasm or not, but I'll take it as not.

 

I'm ordering a box from e-bay right now. At the very least I'll have something on-hand to replace torn bags with.

 

It wasn't sarcasm at all. I thought it was a great idea.

[Andronicus]

I have been leaving small buttons that I had made, PEZ despensors (cheap of the internet), and small tupperware items (salt/pepper sakers, keychains etc).

 

My kids like weired things. The other day my 3year old son had to have a little easter egg eraser, but usualy likes cars and McCrap toys. My one year old likes little plastic cats and dogs. My eight year old likes disney stuff.

[+Firefly911]

I love leaving and finding sig items. It's so cool to me to see what folks can come up with. We've only been geocaching for about 2 months now but so far the sig items we have that I love are....Pathtags, personalized poker chips, personalzed wooden coins, pins etc.

[+Steve&GeoCarolyn]

There is not much that we typically want in a cache, but I delight in leaving things, especially at caches that are beautiful to visit. My favorite thing to leave is jewelry. I have three nieces who are all mad for Claire's jewelry, so I haunt the sales there and buy jewelry to use as gifts for them and as things to put in caches. I imagine that a young girl cacher might enjoy baubles from Claire's better than little racing cars. (From what I've noticed from logs, people do pick up the lockets and jewelry I put in caches fairly quickly and that pleases me.)

 

My beloved loves finding dice in caches, so that is what we are most likely to pick up.

[+Pat in Louisiana]

If we are out of state we leave Louisiana key chains we get from Wally world.

Around town it is usually Hot Wheels, MatchBox or similar cars & trucks.

Although most of the new caches around here are micros. (some are mine)

[+The Ravens]

I like bouncy balls (I'm 42 yrs. old ) or anything I can make into a TB.

 

We leave wooden nickle sigs like my avatar.

[+The Ravens]

<snip>

 

Premade caches. What a great idea.

 

here are your bags.

 

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksi...-All-Categories

 

You're welcome.

I can get some sizes at a Hobby Lobby store here in town. Thanks for the link for various sizes that I can't get.

Edited June 16, 2009 by The Ravens

[aniyn]

I like finding things I can use. Bear bells, batteries, carabiners, rain ponchos, glow sticks; always winners. I like to leave mineral samples and fossils behind (or collect them if left by others). People seem to love the fluorite crystals I leave in my caches; they tend to disappear quickly.

 

I dislike finding happy meal toys. Especially well-used ones.

[+Zolgar]

Zolgar leaves all manner of things.

One of his favorite items to leave though is 2 packs of AA batteries. He will buy large packages of cheaper batteries, and then break them down, taping the batteries in to 2s. Something that can be quiteuseful.

He is also known to leave small first aid kits, sometimes decks of cards and the like.

 

What does Zolgar take?

Mostly he will take trash out of caches. He also usually ends up with little plastic spiders. Sometimes he'll take pins that strike his fancy. Especially since his tac. vest has started to accumulate pins.

[+bittsen]

I have found something that I think people will enjoy (I hope).

I have a source for wonderful quality Cubic Zirconia stones. I am sure that they won't last in the caches for long. The stones will be about 1ct each so they will be pretty large.

 

I will see how it goes and possibly make it my signature item.

[+Casting Crowns]

I've recently become obsessed with sig items and pathtags. Because of this, I also like to leave the same items. I have two types of sig items and one generic pathtag that I currently leave and will have my personal pathtag made soon.

 

I am also a scoutmaster so I tend to leave a lot of scout related items.....patches, pins, keyfobs etc.

Edited June 16, 2009 by Casting Crowns

[+mahini]

I made my first trade last night! I haven't worried about it up until now, but last night, there was a penguin keychain! I collect penguins!!! I left my husband sitting there with the cache & I ran back to the car to find *something* to trade! I left a band-aid keeper (complete with bandaids!). I also had a couple of really cool colored golf balls from a mini golf place but, I've been paying attention & it seems you guys don't like golf balls! (i'm a golfer, so if I come across anyway, I pinky swear to trade them out!)

[+bittsen]

I made my first trade last night! I haven't worried about it up until now, but last night, there was a penguin keychain! I collect penguins!!! I left my husband sitting there with the cache & I ran back to the car to find *something* to trade! I left a band-aid keeper (complete with bandaids!). I also had a couple of really cool colored golf balls from a mini golf place but, I've been paying attention & it seems you guys don't like golf balls! (i'm a golfer, so if I come across anyway, I pinky swear to trade them out!)

 

WOW, glad to know a lot don't like golf balls. I was thinking of having some made. Now I can feel good about trading them out.

I may never have to pay for a golf ball again.

 

~LOL~

[+Unkle Fester]

Whenever this comes up I usually point out that ready-to-hide caches are one of the most quickly traded-for items that can be left in a cache, either by the owner or by a visitor.

I had thought about that. This was my take on it.

 

For a cache to be SWAG usually it is a micro. While i have nothing against micros and like them when cleverly placed, i kind of think of cache placement as children.

 

Most anyone can make a baby, but not everyone should. Or however it goes. Most anyone can hide a cache, but everyone cant make it a decent hide. I didn't quite say this right, but you get where i am going with it.

 

For every crappy cache placed that is just one more area which voids out a 219,000 square feet of possible cache placement area. (If my math is correct.) How many times have your heard that someone found a perfect spot but there was another cache close by so the idea got abandoned?

 

I like it when people think about the hides and tailor them to the situation. I dislike when people are driving in a car and say look a sign/guardrail where we can stick a key holder. When people have to tailor the containers and ideas for each situation- then its hard to anticipate what type of container to leave for SWAG.

 

Maybe i think too much.

Yes, you think too much. Just roll down the car window and toss the darned micro out while simultaniously keying into your GPS a waypoint. hopefully you get close enough for someone to find it. Dificulty 4.5 on a micro baby!

 

My wife likes the little rubber ducks with different costumes, I like pins. The kids seem to like broken McDonalds toys. If the kids trade, we keep the packaged McD toys just for that (better than broken) and usually I'll keep a bunch of new hotwheels in my bag to trade.

[+Arrow42]

 

WOW, glad to know a lot don't like golf balls. I was thinking of having some made. Now I can feel good about trading them out.

I may never have to pay for a golf ball again.

 

~LOL~

 

I think... part of the problem was that the golf-balls were just found ones - basicly stolden from the driving ranges or unlucky golfers.

 

A ball with a custom sig or a geocaching symbol or some such...

 

That would be awesome.

[+Wooden Cyclist]

I don't take many trade items, but when I do it tends to be craft items. There is a caching couple in this area that makes small glass beads. It was a good day when I finally found one of their beads in a cache.

 

Are signature items considered trade/swag items? Carving has become my other new hobby so I take the small practice pieces and add my GC nickname in an appropriate spot. These I leave behind at caches that I found interesting or challenging. For the more mundane caches I leave a wooden token that is not a carving, but does have my nickname and location.

 

Because of these practices I leave many more items than I take.

[tmwnn]

Not to try to plug the site or anything, but so far some of my favorite items found have been a Signal antenna topper and a geocaching.com iron-on patch. My absolute favorite thing to find is signature items, and I collected two (without even planning to) from a local cacher who made the coolest magnets.

 

As far as leaving swag, my swag bag got stolen (along with the car it was sitting in), and I haven't been active enough recently to replace it. I used to leave carabiners or glow-in-the dark lizards. I actually felt bad about the lizards (even though they weren't quite as bad as McToys), but it looks like Thrak's wife might be te one person out there who would like them.

[+JU5TU5]

So far I've really enjoyed collecting the wooden signature coins. Generally other signature items I'll leave alone, but the wooden coins I'll snag. I've left a wooden coin as well, and will leave more when I get a stamp for them (creating them by hand with a pen and markers is very time consuming).

 

Some of the other things that I've found that I've liked include a pack of small candelabra-style CFL bulbs, a toy compass (still useful), a guitar pick, a seed for a gourd plant (seedofmemory.com), and anything I can quickly think of an idea for its use.

 

What I like to leave might be considered a no-no by some, but I make sure the cache can't be damaged before leaving it: a milkbone stuffed inside a plastic baggy. I take my dog caching with me and if I ever came across a milkbone I'd snap it up in a heartbeat for him. I mark the baggie as "K-9 Swag". Just to note, they're not smelly at all, they're covered in a ziploc. Chances of a wild animal raiding a cache to find the goody - nil.

 

I've also left "capsule critters" (you'll have to find one to find out what it is), carbiners, quarters, dollar coins, packages of AA batteries, other swag I picked up along the way, figurines, etc. If I see something that I like, I start getting more of it to leave as swag.

[+bittsen]

Not to try to plug the site or anything, but so far some of my favorite items found have been a Signal antenna topper and a geocaching.com iron-on patch. My absolute favorite thing to find is signature items, and I collected two (without even planning to) from a local cacher who made the coolest magnets.

 

As far as leaving swag, my swag bag got stolen (along with the car it was sitting in), and I haven't been active enough recently to replace it. I used to leave carabiners or glow-in-the dark lizards. I actually felt bad about the lizards (even though they weren't quite as bad as McToys), but it looks like Thrak's wife might be te one person out there who would like them.

 

Don't feel bad about the lizards. My first caching trip was on Maui and my companion took a lizard from a cache. That little lizard is still in the car. That was last August.

Plus, anyone caching with a 4-8 year old boy will be taking that lizard in a heartbeat.

[+tango501]

the dollar store close to me has 5 packs of carabiners for a buck

I also like the small colored LED flashlights, they even come with batteries

both are constructed farily well and cheap

[+JETSchmidt]

My own favorite find are small, plastic ninjas or army men. I also like pins or coins that are unique and rubber balls that have faces on them (smiley faces, etc).

 

I like to leave toy airplanes, key chains, evil micros, and picture frames. Metal toy airplanes are becoming my signature.

 

My kid likes any toy that he finds. Sometimes he leaves them after checking them out. I've made him choose what to leave when he takes a toy, so he has to leave something "equal or better." It's our only rule for swag.