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What kind of geoswag do you like to find?


Crid

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I'm fairly new to geocaching. When I first started, the first thing I did was buy some knick-knacks to use as swag. Keyrings and stuff.

 

Recently it has occurred to me that some people go geocaching with their kids (or at least, take the chosen swag home to their kids). I figured Hot Wheels are pretty cheap and might make good swag for boys. I'm not quite sure what would make good swag for girls (stuff from Claire's Accessories perhaps?)

 

I read a post in here recently pointing out that some people go geocaching with dogs, so dog toys might also be a good idea.

 

So my question, in a roundabout way, is what kind of swag do you like to find in a cache? Things for kids? Knick-knacks for adults (fridge magnets, keyrings, etc)? Useful things such as emergency rain ponchos, anti-mosquito wipes, etc?

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All your ideas are sound.

 

Dollar store is your friend! If you want little girl stuff, just look for sparkly things. Our 7 year old goes nuts for it :huh: Bracelets, lanyards, marbles with pretty patterns, figurines, pins - she loves these type things!

 

Glass marbles, cars, figurines and keychains are what we have for boys.

 

Keychains, moose warning stickers, skeeter/tick wipes, personal sized packs of wet wipes and kleenex packs and glass hearts, flowers and suns are out more grown-up items.

 

What we leave is determined by what is there or what we take.

 

A box of junk/trash uually gets one of each item so the next person isn't disappointed like we were. A box of adult stuff gets a couple of kids things, a box of kids stuff gets something grown up.

 

That's how we do it. Most of our things are things I would trade for if I found them myself, and they range from 25 for a buck to 3 for 1 to a buck apiece. We don't break the bank and have nice things that way!

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All good ideas and the kinds of stuff I leave. I particularly like the emergency ponchos (87 cents at Walmart) and insect repellent wipes. I also look for Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars on sale. When they are on sale in the supermarket near my house they are 50 cents each.

 

For girls, little jewelery and bead making kits, scrunchies, watercolors (good for boys too), small crafts kits and

books.

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Also be aware of what not to leave in a cache.

 

Food is on the top of the list. If you're in an area where bears and other large wild animals live, they'll smell the food and destroy the container to get to it. Everywhere else will attract ants. There's not a lot worse than opening a cache full of ants, dumping it out, and finding the hard candy that was left as a trade item. Also, other packaged foods that you might think would contain any smells and keep out ants can also spoil pretty quickly in the changing temperatures of a cache container.

 

Also don't leave knives, fireworks, thermonuclear weapons, Ninjas, or matches.

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I often hit the Back to School sales. I can pick up packs of cool pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, highlighters, etc. for great prices using the coupons from the Sunday paper. I also get colored pencil sets and marker sets from the dollar store for kids. The same store often carries pretty decent tape measurers, small screwdriver sets, needle-nosed pliars, etc. that are much better quality than you would expect for a dollar. I recently picked up a 3-pack of heart-shaped carabiners there - I thought they might be good "girl" items.

 

My wife occasionally caches with me - on trips or on days when we attend an event - and she loves to find those little tiny lizards. She only likes the really little ones and has 10 or 12 different ones sitting on top of her monitor at home. You never know what folks will like. :huh:

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I think the best rule of thumb is to leave something you would like to find. What’s great about geocaching is that all kinds people do it and that brings great diversity to the types of caches that are hidden and what you find in them. I wouldn’t worry so much about what you think people want to find and leave things you would like to find. If you like to leave stuff for kids and pets, by all means do that. For example, I’m a big fan of all three of my VWs and have a bag of small die cast VWs that I leave in caches. I see several other “signature” type items as I cache and I’m always exited to find something new. Don’t think so hard about it and trade stuff that makes you happy you went looking for the cache in the first place.

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I don't know, I've been to a cache with Ninjas in it, and I thought they were great!!!

 

Granted, they were pink & lavender plastic Ninjas, but still... :anibad:

 

Also be aware of what not to leave in a cache.

 

Food is on the top of the list. If you're in an area where bears and other large wild animals live, they'll smell the food and destroy the container to get to it. Everywhere else will attract ants. There's not a lot worse than opening a cache full of ants, dumping it out, and finding the hard candy that was left as a trade item. Also, other packaged foods that you might think would contain any smells and keep out ants can also spoil pretty quickly in the changing temperatures of a cache container.

 

Also don't leave knives, fireworks, thermonuclear weapons, Ninjas, or matches.

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Mike is happy when he finds a plastic lizard in the cache. I have no idea why. I like shinier things. Lapel pins and sig items make me happy. One of my favorite finds was a small magnet someone made. They worked with glass and made these gorgeous glass drop magnets. If you are crafty at all, make hand made items, even if you dont put them in every cache. They will be highly desirable.

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I go for some kind of sig item,,anything with a name on it, the wife goes for trinkets..she once found this sponge bob thing with sticky arms that she took and tormented me with the whole walk back up the trail...then she left it stuck to the dash of the Jeep where it bonded to the plastic somehow on a molecular level...you can still see where it was if the light is just right...

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We usually cache as a family so it's usually our kids (4,7,10) that are trading. They have enjoyed things like...little rubber animals, shiny rings, little airplane kit to make a glider, an ink stamp, small stuffed animals. I think the only thing I've taken was a bullet without it's shell, I'm not sure what you'd call that but I thought it was kinda cool. One time we traded a rubber crocodile for a rubber alligator.

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