Useful swag

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Okay, we've got a "cheap swag" thread and a "signature swag" thread going so I thought I'd start a "good swag" thread going.

 

What's the most useful piece of swag you've found in a cache?

 

Awhile back I was talking to my next door neighbor. He had just bought an old schwinn bicycle and was cleaning it up. He said, "Now all I need is a good bell for it.". I was out caching the next day and what do I find? One of those little thumb activated bicycle bells, still in the original wrapper. One of our local cachers works at a company that makes cables and leaves ethernet cables in some of the caches he finds. I grabbed a 25' cable that I used at my in-laws. They had been using a 15' cable between their cable router and computer and it just wasn't long enough to put the router up on a shelf.

 

Awhile back I placed a pen light flashlight in a night time only cache.

[+Belfrypotters]

We've had that "now all I need is..." happen to us several times. Our GPSr was in danger of being lost in the woods because it's black, and I said we should take the next bright-coloured lanyard we find in a cache, and in the very next cache there was a bright orange lanyard. This weekend I said we should trade for the next tape measure we find in a cache, and there it was in the next cache, right on cue. Last year we hiked to a cache at the top of a windy hill, and I had a bad earache from the cold wind. I was wishing I'd worn a hat, and when we opened the cache, there was a warm knitted hat. Destiny!

[+egami]

What's the most useful piece of swag you've found in a cache?

 

Batteries, so far.

[+gorillagal]

I found a pair of tweezers in a cache that I still carry in my caching bag for retrieving micro logs.

[+StarBrand]

I know they shouldn't be there but....

 

A genuine swiss army knife - I've been keeping it my car since I found it 3 years ago - been very helpful.

[+NorthWes]

Mosquito Repellent wipes! Very seldom I get caught out caching without a headnet & 100% DEET,

but it happens... like here at the Iditarod Trail TB cache...

 

 

It was mid-April with snow still scattered about, and the skeeters were so thick here

that you could kill 'em just by closing the logbook! I got 3 that way...

Good thing the early season skeeters are slow and huge!

I've taken to leaving those wipes as 'sig items' in caches and they get a lot of positive comments

by cachers coming afterwards. I know they've been very helpful to me on occasion as well.

Another favorite piece of swag to leave (especially in kid-friendly caches) is the handwarmer pack...

a real prize for families caching in the wintertime up here!

[+Chuy!]

I found an activated cell phone. Okay, it wasn't swag; the previous cacher left it behind and I returned it.

 

Aside from winning $50 as second prize for completing a 5/5 cache, I'd say unactivated geocoins. I have 'earned' about 10 of them as FTF prize.

[+TeamBarstool]

A fine tooth comb. It was labeled as a "cholla removal tool"

It's has proved its worth after a couple of cholla encounters

[Mr.Yuck]

a brand new pair of reading glasses. Just from a dollar store, but very useful.

[+meralgia]

A brand-new, full-sized slinky for my son--he earned it!

 

We had just slogged through the muddy mire to find an island cache. It was recommended as a winter cache, but to the foolhearty, it was available at any time. Here's our log on http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...d3-dbdf85a7fb6c, GCYCKJ: "Thankfully I didn't lose my son in the muddy mire. He says that 'it was very, very, very, very ticklish in the muddy muck.' We giggled as we slogged over there and walked barefoot on the island. (I think it's the ONLY way to travel!) My son, however, says 'it was very hurtful for my feet.' We were able to find a little bit of path but ended up crawling under much of the undergrowth. I told N that we were briar rabbit and that we'd have to read it to him sometime when we got home. N found it first (thankfully one of us did!), and although I wanted to put my travel bug in it, I feared that nobody else would venture out to the island before it froze, so I held onto him for another cache."

Edited November 19, 2007 by meralgia

[+ShmilyNMe]

One of those little pocket eyeglass repair kits. I keep it in my cache bag for repairs on the go.

[+Moore9KSUcats]

Before knives were put on the "banned" list, our son found a very nice Gerber multi-tool in a cache.

 

He still uses it, and frequently takes it on scout campouts.

[+Cog&Gil]

Two brand new, high end walkie talkies for FTF--Thanks TDP.

Edited November 20, 2007 by Cog&Gil

[Its Miller Time]

I saw a really nice military-style compass in a cache today. It was hard to pass up as I carry a cheap clip-on compass, but it does what I need, so I left it behind for someone that truly needed it. Today I also found a travel pack of kleenex in a cache, and while my girlfriend said "who would leave that?", I smiled as I pocketed it. I like to keep napkins or tissue in the truck, and had just run out.

[+briansnat]

Tape measures. I can never have enough of them. Always misplacing them, so anytime I find one in a cache I trade for it. I've probably encoutered 5 or 6 over the years. Now where the heck are they?

[+wandering4cache]

We had to start strapping our pencil sharpeners to our log books in our caches because people were always taking them.

 

I found a place online recently where we can get customized pencil sharpeners. My husband thought it was a dumb idea. Apparently other cachers don't think a sharpener is a dumb idea. lol

Edited November 20, 2007 by wandering4cache

[+RussellM]

Picture this. Its july 4th and I'm paddling out to an island with a few friends. We get to the island and start to look for the geocache. What do i find in the geocache.... firecrackers. The most useful and fun swag ever found. While it might be frowned uppon my those who stick to the rules, it made my day.

[continental drifter]

Not a cheap but not an expensive Coleman compass.I always have it with me when I cache and it has helped me out on countless cache hunts.

[+team moxiepup]

A pair of knit gloves. They were the cheap stretchy kind that can be bought for about a dollar, but I was very glad to find them on a day when the weather had suddenly turned rather cold and I hadn't thought to bring gloves. I still use them!

Of course, any day that Moxie finds a dog toy in a cache is a good day for her! She gets lots of use out of them.

[+gravechaser]

We try to keep a partial roll of toilet paper in the vehicles. It is used for not only its intended use but also for blowing noses and covering ouchies. We had used the last of our roll and what was in the next cache?

 

A travel size roll of TP in a little resealable clamshell! At the local discount store we found them priced at less than $1.50. We also have traded out tape measures and replaced with pliers and small crescent wrenches.

[Shiraz-mataz]

The best swag item I've found was a 64 Meg thumb drive. I know it's not big by today's standards but I used it for over a year and then gave it to my son to use at school. He's still using it to this day! Ordinarily I'd worry about viruses before plugging a used thumb drive like this into my computer but I know who left it and was confident that he would scrub and check it before leaving it in his cache.

[+Scare Force One]

Definatly the 256 MB digital camera memory chip found inone of my erlier cache's.

 

~.~Scare Force One

[+WalruZ]

Jock strap. Really. NIB.

 

 

I've taken to carrying small and micro ready-to-caches as swag. They're really popular with subsequent visitors, and they're not all that expensive to make.

[+wimseyguy]

A pair of zircon encrusted tweezers.

 

I found them about three years ago, just in time for the nano explosion of '05.

[+nwflycaster]

I am in the process of building a strip sea kayak, and came across a cache that had a new book titled Paddle Routes for Washington State. Couldn't have been a better find for me.

[Ghengis Jon]

A dollar store 99 cent rain poncho. I don't use it GC'ing, but its saved the day at several football games.

[+PT_Tex]

I traded for a TV remote. Rock climbing clips are great. As a joke I got every one in my family a christmas present from trade items last year. I hide them in camo containers on the tree and made the kids find them.

[+Team FIREBOY]

In a cache in Scottsbluff, NE a phone (corded) that my son uses in his room and a brand new set of x-mas lights that my daughter uses in her room. Had to empty all our regular (brand new) swag into the ammo can to feel like we were trading fairly. We usually place a mini-mag flashlight in out new ammo can caches as FTF prizes and we have had many emails thanking us.

[+Yellow Star Adventurers]

I was out caching and while searching for the cache (which was over 40 feet away from the posted coords....so I was there a long, long time) I heard gun shots in the distance. I forgot it was hunting season. Suddenly, that ugly bright orange caching bag that I passed up sounded divine!

 

When I finally found the cache, I found that exact orange backpack in the cache.

 

No just kidding...that would have been too perfect/creepy...actually I found a single 2 ft strand of neon orange marking tape that I snagged and is tied to my backpack. I was never so happy to find a 2 cent piece of tape in my life. It's still there....til I finally find that bright orange backpack again. Great thing to leave in a cache along with TP and new bandaids....for those life emergencies.

[+msrubble]

A keychain was the most useful swag I've found. When I started geocaching, I was trying to find one.

 

Once I was also glad to find a packet of moist towelettes.

[Mag Magician]

Many people here report having picked up one of the dollar store mosquito headnets that I leave in caches all the time. We have so many forest caches that city people go searching for, it has just become second nature to leave the headnets in each one through the bug season.

[+Team SCR]

Mini First-Aid kit. It could be really helpful since I go caching with my wife and three boys.

[+Team Cotati]

Mini First-Aid kit. It could be really helpful since I go caching with my wife and three boys.

 

Spice Girls stickers.

[I'm Spruce]

I once found a roll of duct tape in a cache... which was ironic because the cache container had large crack running along it's side. (Yes, I fixed the container with the duct tape).

 

I've left eye-glass repair kits every now and then.

[+Lakebum]

Tire pressure gage. I have used it almost every month for a couple of years now.

[+Printess Caroline]

The most useful item that I have found is a little pen on a carabiner. I keep it attached to my geocaching fanny pack. I like it because it is handy and because it is small enough that I can slip it in my pants pocket to keep the ink warm when it is winter. I'm hoping that I can find another one before the ink runs out in this one!

[+Renegade Knight]

Useful. That would be a leatherman that a buddy found. Next to that any knife. Knives are one of the most useful things ever.

[+Renegade Knight]

...

Edited December 18, 2007 by Renegade Knight

[+JeepinOregon]

...a nice and simple, small with zipper, camo bag shaped like a backpack, which turned into the latest swag bag.

[+MountainRacer]

There's a cache beside the trail on the way to Ringing Rocks Park with a hammer in it, so you can still bang on the rocks if you've forgotten your own.

[steve638]

I found a little LED Flash Light for reading at night. It's a great item that will get plenty of use.

[+OwlCacher]

Though I haven't personally found it, a nearby cache reports original contents of CD-ROM of the unlocked corporate version of Windows XP

Also not too legal, but pretty nice.

[+michigansnorkelers]

A foam eyeglass case with clip attached.

 

This makes it very handy on sunny days when I venture into the deep woods. My glasses are safely secured to my shoulder strap.

[+Dick'n'Tracy]

OFF bug wipes in the summer! Love those!

and the hand warmer packs in the winter!

 

Once we discovered this idea we starting purchasing them to put in caches too.....

 

Tracy of Dick'n'Tracy

[+ReadyOrNot]

Mini First-Aid kit. It could be really helpful since I go caching with my wife and three boys.

 

Spice Girls stickers.

 

That's what I generally leave in caches. No need to thank me.

[+joranda]

An unact. geo-coin.

[+DeRock & The Psychic Cacher]

My favorite found swag list:

 

1. Unactivated geocoins

2. Small Charmin TP rolls

3. Small Leatherman

4. Thumb drive

5. And small bendy figures (I collect them)

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

[+Wazat]

A small Mag Light. Became very handy in my work and also for finding caches late in the afternoon in dark holes.

[+ironman114]

A small fixed blade knife and sheath.

 

I have been wanting one to attach to the shoulder straps of my geocaching- hiking pack. Which is what I was working on when I read this topic.

 

I traded it for my small 7 led flashlight. There was still enough light to get back out of the woods before dark.

[+Mocadeki]

The most useful thing I got from a cache was a magnifier. One like I used for when I was in high school and college. I thought they didn't make them anymore. I used that one for a few months until I lost it while caching and slipping on ice at a water crossing. it helped me see the gps. I've lost 4 more of them since 2003 either at the cache or on the way to or from it..