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Looking for a low budget signature item


Lotho

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As the title says, im looking for a relatively low cost signature item. Any ideas are appreciated. Ive already thought of badge makers but they are too expensive. I nearly bought a personalized coin off ebay but the seller did not ship to the UK. Thanks for all the help and hopefully im in the right section!

 

Edited to say that i want the item to be a personalized sig item.

Edited by Lotho
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I already have some of those that i made my self, but i was thinking more like a more material item like a pen with "Lotho TFTC" on it or something. I checked out pens but there is a minimum you have to buy like 250..too many for me seeing as im only 15 and therefore dont have much income..

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I have seen "wooden nickel" type of things that the placer used a lot of thier time wood burning into thier sig item. Very low cost, but a LOT of time to make them. Probably the most impressive to me, because you know someone worked very hard to show me a piece of wood, that's dedication.

Edited by bottlecap
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I think your initial idea about a pen is terrific. That's what I do, and it doesn't cost me a cent (or a p). I travel a lot and when I leave the hotel, I confiscate the complementary cheapo pen. Then I shorten it by snipping it with wirecutters to about 1.5 inches. The resulting minipen fits perfectly in many small caches such as match containers. Cheers!

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Anything handmade works fine. Use your imagination, and come up with something unique.

 

I forgot to say that we leave small stones that are painted with a penguin on one side, and our Chumpo name on the other. They have become quite popular around here.

Edited by Chumpo
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Press some flowers, then laminate them into business card sizes. If you include a favorite quote in fancy font on one side, that might be even nicer looking, highly desirable in your area and likely a low cost item. Lots of work though. This was something I considered doing at one time...but didnt have the time to spend on it.

 

If you are talented or crafty, anything along those lines would be a sought after sig item.

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Combine two of the above ideas, and find a bunch of the smoother river stones (about an inch across, maybe). Paint a small skull on one side, and your name (Lotho) on the other. Another idea is to create a small stamp (you can get the cutting tools in hobby stores) and create a stamp (like people use for letterboxing sometimes). Use the stamp to put the picture on the stone, and then spray it with a waterproofing spray to make it more durable. The stamps are really easy to make, and you can put a lot of detail on them. (We've made several for letterboxing, too.)

 

As far as sig items, ones that people put TIME into are what I would prefer to find. Business cards usually stay in the cache container and get soggy if moisture gets in.

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I like the origami suggestion B)

 

Another idea would be for you to cut some sort of image into a big pink eraser, then use it to stamp out 'poker chips' from oven bake (polymer) clay. That way you can make them up in small batchs as you go.

 

Wooden nickels are also often relatively cheap ( wooden-nickel.com), but you'll have to buy a few hundred at a time .

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so... here's the question. do you sign the log or just throw something into the can? I would think that if ya didnt sign the logbook, then I'd delete entry. I'm getting tired of opening small cache containers and they are full of junk, stickers that are not even put into log book, beads, business cards, cut up inkjet prints, a few 35mm cans are so full, that the log book hardly fits anymore. I love the pencil but, if someone takes it, and you havent signed the logbook, then what happens of the owner starts to compare the logbook to the logs?

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so... here's the question. do you sign the log or just throw something into the can? I would think that if ya didnt sign the logbook, then I'd delete entry. I'm getting tired of opening small cache containers and they are full of junk, stickers that are not even put into log book, beads, business cards, cut up inkjet prints, a few 35mm cans are so full, that the log book hardly fits anymore. I love the pencil but, if someone takes it, and you havent signed the logbook, then what happens of the owner starts to compare the logbook to the logs?

I think most people sign the logbook as normal, trade as normal (if they trade), plus drop in their card/coin/rock/whatever. Some people use preprinted stickers and put those in the logbook instead of writting out their log entry.

Maybe it just around here, but I don't see any caches getting full of 'signature items', junky thrinkets yes but not sig items. Of course if there were problems closing the cache I think most would take some of the excuse out and move it elsewhere :lol: .

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See my avatar. I leave a laminated business card with that picture and some info about the car and photochop job for my signature item. This is left in addition to swag, not instead of. I haven't been leaving it long so there aren't many out there and I haven't heard back if anyone likes it or not. I hope that it appeals to kids. I always sign the log.

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In my area, the sig stuff is snagged first. We've been doing our state's challenge series and looking specifically for sig items to make a shadowbox of our trip (since it's more than caching, but this is a great way to remember it all). It's been difficult finding sig items as they are usually taken before we get there, although we have found some nice decorative pieces.

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Hi,

I use shrinky dinks. It costs about $6.00 for a packet of 8 sheets. my sig swag starts out a little bigger then a silver dollar and shrinks down to less then an inch. I can put them in 90% of the caches. the fit in caches samll as a pill bottle. You can make them in any shape. I use a jeep outline on mine. Stink them in a oven heated to 325 degrees for about 3 minutes and you are done. I think I can fit 10 per sheet.

Good luck,

Larry

As the title says, im looking for a relatively low cost signature item. Any ideas are appreciated. Ive already thought of badge makers but they are too expensive. I nearly bought a personalized coin off ebay but the seller did not ship to the UK. Thanks for all the help and hopefully im in the right section!

 

Edited to say that i want the item to be a personalized sig item.

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I am fairly new to this but I took an old 54mm figure set that was collecting dust and have been painting them while waiting for my first GPSr (gets delivered today :rolleyes: ). The set & paint was around $45 and came with 100's of "100' years war (medieval soldiers, archers, knights, etc)" figures. Its a little more time consuming but a lot cooler then a stamped wooden coin IMHO. The first one will get left today when my wife and I get home from work!

 

I was also thinking of mixing in matchbooks from an old (30-40year old) matchbook collection I have. Most wont light except with extreme effort. (Are matches a no-no for caches?)

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......(Are matches a no-no for caches?)

yes

 

Thats what I figured... I have done enough hiking/backpacking in areas prone to forest fire's to be leery of leaving matches where the 13 year old pyro-muggle might find them. A couple of kids made a 'camp fire' in the woods near my home this summer and burned out a decent section of a Churches back 40'.

 

Too bad though - some of the matchbooks would be great trade items.

 

I'll stick to the 54mm's.

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What I leave always seems to get taken... which is a good thing... I leave cookies, cokes, french fries, and/or icecream! now before someone starts yelling about leaving food... and a cache owner has... (cuz i put in the log i left cookies and drink) they are gift cerf's for McDonalds. Kids love getting them. Check your local Mikey D's for "after school packs" they cost about 2 bucks and you get 15 or so. They also do one for Halloween... which, might I add, is just around the corner.

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We have made poker chips a couple of times. Print up circular lables with your name and such on them and then stick them to the center of chips (you can buy thoses at game stores and I think even Wal-Mart). I used have personalized pencils that were pretty cheap. Also, any little homemade thing usually goes over well.

Edited by carleenp
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Anything handmade works fine. Use your imagination, and come up with something unique.

 

I forgot to say that we leave small stones that are painted with a penguin on one side, and our Chumpo name on the other. They have become quite popular around here.

I have one! I've seen several in caches, but I kept my favorite one. ;) They're very cool (probably doesn't hurt that I'm an obsessive rock collector :blink: ).

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Press some flowers, then laminate them into business card sizes. If you include a favorite quote in fancy font on one side, that might be even nicer looking, highly desirable in your area and likely a low cost item. Lots of work though. This was something I considered doing at one time...but didnt have the time to spend on it.

 

If you are talented or crafty, anything along those lines would be a sought after sig item.

I've made one like that, but it was a bookmark and all handwritten, with small ornamental red maple leaves. But I've only made one! A LOT of work, and I'm not sure if anyone liked it, so I haven't felt encouraged to try anymore. :blink:

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Press some flowers, then laminate them into business card sizes. If you include a favorite quote in fancy font on one side, that might be even nicer looking, highly desirable in your area and likely a low cost item. Lots of work though. This was something I considered doing at one time...but didnt have the time to spend on it.

 

If you are talented or crafty, anything along those lines would be a sought after sig item.

I've made one like that, but it was a bookmark and all handwritten, with small ornamental red maple leaves. But I've only made one! A LOT of work, and I'm not sure if anyone liked it, so I haven't felt encouraged to try anymore. ;)

I would love to find that!

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Oooo oooo oooo, I like the mini pencils and the lil' buttons. I'm always looking for neat and CHEAP siggy items. Currently I have two types: small "bar tokens" that I bought off of ebay. We got some green ones in the shape of our state with our caching names and the year on them. We also bought a quantity of some purple metalic hearts also w/ our name and the year. BUT, our absolute favorite one is our engraved smashed penny. We bought a quantity of the standard geocaching pennies from SP.com and an engraver and on the backside of each penny I write our name, but sometimes I get creative and write funky other stuff. They always fit in the match containers and film containers making them alot of fun for us. We used to have wooden nickels, but what's the use carrying them around when so often because of the shape and size they wont fit into the container??

 

Hands down we love anything homemade-ish.

 

Oh, and we LOVE our Chumpo stone!!

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How about a laminated business card ?

 

Enjoyed all the suggestions. I would just mention in addition that there are websites that offer 250 business cards for $0 + $5 shipping. I won't name them here; searching for "free business cards" should do the trick. They'll also do magnets, which would eliminate the need to laminate the cards, and personalized pocket stamps.

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I've just started leaving bat themed items as swag. Not sure if it technically qualifies as 'signature' because I am not writing on the items/putting stickers on the items/marking them in any way. I figure if someone likes these items they will remember where and who they came from, and they probably will like them more if they have not been written on with a sharpie! We FINALLY found a geocahing.com username that our entire family agrees on and thinks is cool, and this themed swag complements our new permanent username (b@t). I buy bat stickers, bat magnets, bat bandannas, etc. Have had several people comment on this - people seem to like it. (And I would say that I too would LOVE to find stuff like this in a cache - there is so much garbage and trash and broken McToys and etc.)

 

This also complements our other family outdoor hobby, spelunking.

 

d.b

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Press some flowers, then laminate them into business card sizes. If you include a favorite quote in fancy font on one side, that might be even nicer looking, highly desirable in your area and likely a low cost item. Lots of work though. This was something I considered doing at one time...but didnt have the time to spend on it.

 

If you are talented or crafty, anything along those lines would be a sought after sig item.

I've made one like that, but it was a bookmark and all handwritten, with small ornamental red maple leaves. But I've only made one! A LOT of work, and I'm not sure if anyone liked it, so I haven't felt encouraged to try anymore. <_<

I would love to find that!

<_<

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I was in Walmart yesterday and looking in the party supplies and saw a box of those little umbrellas that you put into drinks. I said to Chip "hey that would make a good signature item". Maybe put a little sticker on the handle with your name?

I think that those would probably only work if you put them in something else. They're usually made out of little pieces of wood and paper, which could fall apart fairly quickly if left alone in a cache, getting squished or wet.

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As the title says, im looking for a relatively low cost signature item. Any ideas are appreciated. Ive already thought of badge makers but they are too expensive. I nearly bought a personalized coin off ebay but the seller did not ship to the UK. Thanks for all the help and hopefully im in the right section!

 

Edited to say that i want the item to be a personalized sig item.

 

We have alot of 99 cent stores and craft stores that sell ALOT of small things in a bag for about a dollar or two. My brother was Paratrooper in Vietnam and he puts in little parachuters. :huh:

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We bought a box of 300 "counting" dinosaurs, (used to help children learn math, counting and grouping). There are 4 styles and 4 colors, and are really cute. We drop 3 or 4 in every cache we come too. Not really a signature item, but a way to put something small and cute for the kids in a cache. I think when we run out, we'll do the same thing again.

 

Stacey

 

As the title says, im looking for a relatively low cost signature item. Any ideas are appreciated. Ive already thought of badge makers but they are too expensive. I nearly bought a personalized coin off ebay but the seller did not ship to the UK. Thanks for all the help and hopefully im in the right section!

 

Edited to say that i want the item to be a personalized sig item.

 

We have alot of 99 cent stores and craft stores that sell ALOT of small things in a bag for about a dollar or two. My brother was Paratrooper in Vietnam and he puts in little parachuters. :huh:

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I use wooden nickels. I've had people tell me they collect sig items and enjoy taking them. I also found one of mine that made it to a cache in another city before I did once. That was funny.

 

Yep, me too. About $3 at the hobby store for 22 1.5" nickels, and about $20 for two custom-designed stamps from an online store. I spray 'em with laquer pre-seal, stamp each side, and finish with spray laquer. Haven't done this, but they can be individually numbered with a Sharpie. I've done a few "limited editions" with different paint/ink color combinations. If you want more than 20 at a time, there are online stores that sell a bag of 100 blank nickels for $5 + $6 shipping.

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As the title says, im looking for a relatively low cost signature item. Any ideas are appreciated. Ive already thought of badge makers but they are too expensive. I nearly bought a personalized coin off ebay but the seller did not ship to the UK. Thanks for all the help and hopefully im in the right section!

 

Edited to say that i want the item to be a personalized sig item.

 

We have alot of 99 cent stores and craft stores that sell ALOT of small things in a bag for about a dollar or two. My brother was Paratrooper in Vietnam and he puts in little parachuters. :blink:

They're called Poopatroopers. :huh:

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