Geocards?

[+Coyote's Girl]

So, I think it was in another thread where I read about these things called "Geocards" that people left in caches. Now, the first thing that jumps to mind is a sort of business card with your name, geocaching.com ID, and home cordinates. Maybe a bit of other info too. Then I thought; gee, if these are home-made, it'd be great cause I'm out on maternity leave and we're sorta broke. Then I thought well, if the cache got wet, the ink would run, unless I made them up on my friend's laser printer, and I'd hate to use up all his... whatever it is that makes a laser printer print. I know, I think too much. Anyway, am I even in the ballpark on these things?

[+Kohavis]

I think you're talking about signature items in general. "Geocards" is just one flavor of those.

 

Some veteran cachers make (or have made) personalized little tokens of their visits. Some say "Please don't trade - leave for cache owner". Others are intended to be exchanged like swag.

 

They're usually in the form of custom-made wooden nickels, ceramic coins, aluminum coins, ceramic hand-painted animal faces with the cacher's info on the back, almost anything is good as long as it's personal.

 

And I would leave out your home coordinates if I were you

 

I've seen business cards left in caches. I don't really like those, as they seem too much like spamming, especially if it's the person's own business. But what you're talking about sounds like a good idea. I personally use handmade rectangular wood tokens that I have woodburned, stained and varnished. They're a little more interesting than cards, which I suspect most people would ignore.

[+WebChimp]

So, I think it was in another thread where I read about these things called "Geocards" that people left in caches.

 

I've seen lots of those in caches, but I never knew what to do with them, so they were always left wherever I found them. I don't think anyone knows what to do with them, other than leave them. I think they are intended as a sort of "I was here" marker, in addition to the required log entry.

 

If you want to have an interesting signature item, you could try a variation of this idea. A cacher who used to live in our state bought plastic lizards, wrote her geonick on the bottom of the lizards with a fine line marker, and dropped them in geocaches. These were the sort of items you could buy in a dollar store in a bag of ten for a buck. It made a cool trade item, people would swap for them, and many of them got moved around from cache to cache.

 

Pick something other than a lizard, but five bucks worth, and you should have enough sig items to last you a few months. I'll bet plastic butterflies could be found somewhere at a reasonable cost. That would fit with your geonick.

[+ShowStop]

Then I thought well, if the cache got wet, the ink would run, unless I made them up on my friend's laser printer, and I'd hate to use up all his... whatever it is that makes a laser printer print. I know, I think too much. Anyway, am I even in the ballpark on these things?

More often I see these cards cluttering caches like altoids tins. The cache starts to overflow with the cards and the log and the swag, etc. I usually remove the cards and trash them. I've seen lots that were wet and the ink ran just like you noted. Cards like this are fine in the water tight regular size containers, but just don't belong in micros. I'm sure my altoids tin in Alaska gets filled with those lame cards every year.

[+johnling]

So, I think it was in another thread where I read about these things called "Geocards" that people left in caches. Now, the first thing that jumps to mind is a sort of business card with your name, geocaching.com ID, and home cordinates. Maybe a bit of other info too. Then I thought; gee, if these are home-made, it'd be great cause I'm out on maternity leave and we're sorta broke. Then I thought well, if the cache got wet, the ink would run, unless I made them up on my friend's laser printer, and I'd hate to use up all his... whatever it is that makes a laser printer print. I know, I think too much. Anyway, am I even in the ballpark on these things?

 

Check my profile. I have a pic of my card there. I laminate them with a hot laminator, as most in my area do. On the back I have the cords for my hides. My email and phone number is also on it. I removed them on the pic in my profile. They are great to have at meets and the monthly meetings our local group has.