Geocaching car theme...

[+Moonstar27]

Im thinking about doing a hotwheels/matchbox car theme geocache. I have this huge collection of them and wanted to show others some of the cars in my collection and they can do the same thing. Obviously these cars are not in their orginal package, so my question is do they have to be in their package to be considered a tradeable item? All the other caches that I have seen with toy car themes have been in their origanal package. Any ideas for this would be helpful.

[+DaFunkyFrogs]

I don't think the original packaging is really necessary, I've seen lots of Hot Wheels/Matchbox vehicles in caches unpackaged (I think mostly to make them fit in the cache). If it were a very collectible model, I might put it in a zip bag with a small tag saying its model, etc.

[+Moonstar27]

Okay thanks for all the help.

[+nekom]

Not at all! Consider your target audience here. If you are trying to sell rare matchbox cars to a collector on eBay, they'd best be in their original packaging and in mint condition. But if some 10 year old kid caching with his family finds the cache, he isn't going to care if it's in the box or not. So correct me if I'm wrong here, but your cache won't be about maintaining any collectible value, but rather the fun of it all.

[+briansnat]

I use these as trade items frequently. I find I often need to remove the packaging so they fit in the cache.

[+Confucius' Cat]

Packaging is irrelevant to geocaching value except in maintaining weatherproofing.

 

I am puzzled by this statement in your post:

to show others some of the cars in my collection and they can do the same thing

 

You do realise that anything you place in a cache is going to be traded out, right? That means the cars in your collection that you "show" this way are no longer going to be cars in your collection.

 

Also, themed caches rarely work as intended and trading in general is not always "fair." This means that some of your cars will be taken without trade and some will be traded for golf balls, buckeyes, pine cones and acorns. And even those who trade car for car will probably on many occasions trade lesser valued or ordinary cars.

 

I don't mean to disparage geocachers or malign your idea (which is a FINE idea for a cache), but only wish to inject a healthy dose of reality into the picture rather than your having to learn the hard way by losing some of your valued collection with little or no return.