What a world we live in

[+Sparticus06]

I just recently went through all my TBs and coins. Quite a few have come up a missing. I email people that have them and never hear back. I ask other cachers that have been to a cache recently that has one of my items in it and ask if they saw, since it hasnt moved in some time. I get a reply back saying it was not there. This is starting to upset me. Feel like I am wasting my money on TBs and coins.

 

What is everyone else's thoughts on this.

[+StarBrand]

Take a peak over in the travel bug forums. Nothing creates more angst than a Travel Bug. About 50% of mine are currently MIA. However, I've had 1 that I tthought was lost for 3 years re-appear and start moving. Don't lose hope. Life sometimes gets in the way.

[RV'n Iowans]

I've been wanting to buy some TB's & Coins to move along, but keep hesitating when posts about the high percentage of MIA's appear time & again. So for now I just retrieve and then send along the ones I find, and keep 'em on my Watchlist to follow their progress

 

Maybe that's the wrong attitude, but I know I'm not alone in this thinking

 

Dick

Edited November 17, 2007 by RV'n Iowans

[Keystone]

Since the observations are specific to trackables, and not to other thievery like taking caches, I'm moving this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to The Travel Bug forum.

[+private bones]

The day I launched my first travel bug, in fact the moment I closed the ammo box and put it back in the hidey hole, I thought about the risk. It's a strange feeling to put thought, effort, and $$ into something and then "launch" into a world of people you have never met with the hope that trust that the bug, or coin will be "in good hands".

 

My next immediate thought was, there are enough other things to worry about in life, this isn't going to be one of them. So, my approach now is I enjoy the process of creating and launching, and then I just let it go.

 

My approach with Geocoins is rather than buy them, I just pass on the unactivated "gift" coins I receive. That way I don't have any attachment.

 

And, although you didn't mention this, it's also similar with launching a cache with great swag. One by one as I check my caches, I'm watching the quality of the "swag" deteriorate. That's frustrating too. Seems that trading equal, or not trading, is a no brainer. Trading up is nice for those that can do it. But just taking swag and not leaving anything, or taking a 3-5.00 item and leaving a cardboard coaster...ouch.

 

So, as we all learned in kindergarten, there will be those that play fair, and those that don't. Those that don't will eventually end up in the corner with the dunce hat on.

[+Scrubsjm]

I have been having the same angsty feeling. We own 3 geocoins but have only get one "free" to travel caches, with the common goal of hitting all 50 states. It happened to get picked up by a cacher that was going on a month long caching/ travel the country trip and our coin made it to probably half the states just with this cacher. However as soon as he dropped it and left it in a cache it was picked up by a cacher and not logged at all. I was able to track them down because they noted in the cache log they took the coin, even though they didn't log the coin. They promised the drop it quickly but in reality it was several weeks before that happened. Again another cacher picked it up and didn't log it, again I emailed them and was promised they would log and drop it soon. But that has been several weeks and they still haven't even logged that they picked up the coin much less dropped it. I'm so frustrated that here my coin traveled to so many states with one cacher and the two following him have not even bothered to log that they grabbed it. They aren't even newbie cachers either! I know I can't control others actions but it's still very frustrating.

[+Hi, I'm Tom]

I just recently went through all my TBs and coins. Quite a few have come up a missing. I email people that have them and never hear back. I ask other cachers that have been to a cache recently that has one of my items in it and ask if they saw, since it hasnt moved in some time. I get a reply back saying it was not there. This is starting to upset me. Feel like I am wasting my money on TBs and coins.

 

What is everyone else's thoughts on this.

 

I put out a TB about 7 months ago and the first cacher that picked it up still has it! Numerous polite email request to cacher go unanswered. And it looks like they have not done any geocaching since. I've given up on ever "seeing " that TB again. Very frustrating!

[+q22q17]

I have had cachers do wonderful things for my TB's. Sadly, I have had to put out MANY to get only a few to do cool things. So, once I had a few visit some really cool places, I kept putting out more and more and now I have them all over the world meeting neat people and posting funny photos!

 

Don't get into TB making if you worry about losing money, you will. It's all about the fun, not about the wallet when it comes to TB's.

 

And, I've only ever released 2 geocoins. Both, on first pick up, never were seen again. My rule, keep the coins, release the bugs.

 

But have fun doing it. Or else, I like what a previous poster does, move the ones you find, then keep those on your watchlist! It's like they are sort of, not really, but kind of, in a weird way, something like yours................

[+MissPiggy_and_Kermit]

Newbee here. we just started a few weeks ago. I've seen the TB in a few of the Caches we have found. I currently have one since we knew we were traveling out of our immediate area next weekend. normally, I don't pick any up, but this one was too good to pass on.

 

This is a cool hobby. It's really cool to see all of the ingeneous things put in these boxes. I now have a bag of "goodies" to trade out in boxes. My wife and I plan to drop 2 TB on the other side of the country in different places and see if they ever get here. I hope it works...

 

Anyway, this is a great place. I hope I don't end up like some people that forget they have a TB or loses it.

 

Edit... I just noticed we are Tadpoles... cute.

Edited November 20, 2007 by MissPiggy_and_Kermit

[+joranda]

Yeah, I've had TB's go missing too. The sad part is that two of them was almost where they where supposed to go to, but ended in ill fates. I still set them free though. You can't let that stop you from having fun.

[+Jhawk0769]

I share the frustration. I have a similar log going on that is titled "Travel bugs that go MIA" (http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=178033)

 

So, here is my thoughts (and this just came to me in the last few hours).

1) only the neatest GC go MIA. Solution - buy an ugly one that no one wants. If you want to buy a really neat one, then buy two, one to set free, one to keep as a memory, cuz that is all it may be.

 

2) View them like Loggerhead turtles. If you set enuf of them out there, one or two are bound to make it to there destination.

 

3) Come up with a neat Travel Bug idea. The neatest one I have seen is "Caravan" TBAF78. It's gone 15000 miles and is a clump of key chains that people keep adding to. Now who wouldn't want to participate with that?

 

A previous post nailed it, and brought it into light for me (thanks Private Bones). There are more important things to worry about. If someone wants to swipe, keep, or collect these unique travelers, then I need to come up with a more meaningful challenge (like share me with all your friends to discover), and if it stops, i'll e-mail the holder AND there friends !!

 

I lover this GAME

Cache On!

John

[+JustKeely]

I think it is worth the risk. I would rather think about all the cool things that happen to travel bugs. It is amazing that you could release an object and watch it travel all over, that we have this global online community that they move through.

Of my 46 trackables, about half are travel bugs. One has not moved since the first cacher picked it up ten months ago, but the rest of them have traveled far and wide. I think it is interesting that four of our TBs are within 60 miles of each other about 1200 miles away from us. I love the pictures people post. I love to take pictures of travel bugs and have a few TBs I picked up on a watch list. I can't wait to see if they ever make it down here.

The other half of my trackables are geocoins that I mostly just take to events for my friends to discover. I released about six geocoins in the wild and three of those are still in circulation. One was picked up by a new cacher about a week into the wild about two years ago and as far as I know he still has it. He had contact with me at first but hasn't been online in about a year and a half and does not respond to the emails I sent inviting him to local events so he can give me the coin, or even drop it anonymously. One disappeared from the first cache I dropped it in, never to be seen again. Another disappeared after moving for about four months, has been about a year since the last log.

These three experiences happened early on when I got into coins. At first I didn't want to put anymore coins out, but I do get so much enjoyment out of relseasing them, so I ordered twin sets of coins I liked and released a twin in the wild. That way I can have the best of both worlds.

Edited November 21, 2007 by hardings

[+The Blorenges]

... I just noticed we are Tadpoles... cute.

Yeah, well, Kermit would be... but MissPiggy?

 

As others have said, release several, don't put all your hopes and aspirations onto one little tag - He'll do his best, but it's a tough world out in Tupperware Land and it's good to build up a whole platoon of tags doing various missions, or just wandering aimlessly, trying to find their plastic niche in life.

 

MrsB