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can I make my own trackable item?


rake2222

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Any suggestions on making my own trackable item. Can I add a tracking number? any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Sure. Buy a set of TB tags and take the number and put it on your item.

 

Several local people have ID badges for caching events. The ID badge is trackable.

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Any suggestions on making my own trackable item. Can I add a tracking number? any help is appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

As Tequila already posted, you can make just about anything trackable! Our van is trackable, Juicepigs fedora is trackable, we've met Daisy Mae who is a trackable pig and the infamous Signal. People wear trackable T-Shirts etc.

 

All you have to do is get a Travel Bug or a Geocoin, and use its number. Just be sure not to release the coin/bug or you will get double logs.

 

Hope that helped.

 

Fingers Crossed.

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There are other sites that can provide free travelers but keep in mind they wouldn't be able to be logged through caches in the same manner. Not everyone will log into another site to track the traveler so they tend to get moved without notice, then lost.

 

As far as I'm concerned just release something that instructs people to pop you an email whenever they find it. 'Bout the same as any other free bug.

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Hi

 

Thanks for the advice. My real question is how do I track items with out paying the $6.00 or more fee for a TB or geocoin? Seems to me that paying that amount every time you want to track an item is sort of pricey.

 

If it isn't worth $6 to you to watch your TB travel, it is not worth the 10 seconds of time to me to log it for you.

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Hi

 

Thanks for the advice. My real question is how do I track items with out paying the $6.00 or more fee for a TB or geocoin? Seems to me that paying that amount every time you want to track an item is sort of pricey.

Could be, you missed something ?? You only pay once for the Trackable tags, and then you can track whatever you attach it to, for the entire life of the bug. Surely that's worth the start-up fee of $6.00 ? It's not an 'every time' payment, it's an 'each item' payment. Does that make it clearer ?

Many of us have trackable items we've had the pleasure of watching move for several years.

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Wow . Kind of unfriendly but I guess to each his own. I'm just looking for different ways to get more items out there for people to track. The service really doesnt need to have such a high price tag, actually it doesn't need a price at all. Look at sites such as whereswilly.com ( a currency tracking site). Easy to use, free and very entertaining ( I get a hit at least twice a week with some very good feedback). So if it can be done there with millions of items (including the American version wheresgeorge.com) why cant it be done with Groundspeak?

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Hi

 

Thanks for the advice. My real question is how do I track items with out paying the $6.00 or more fee for a TB or geocoin? Seems to me that paying that amount every time you want to track an item is sort of pricey.

Could be, you missed something ?? You only pay once for the Trackable tags, and then you can track whatever you attach it to, for the entire life of the bug. Surely that's worth the start-up fee of $6.00 ? It's not an 'every time' payment, it's an 'each item' payment. Does that make it clearer ?

Many of us have trackable items we've had the pleasure of watching move for several years.

 

Hi sorry I didn't mean to say your post was unfriendly it was the previous one I was referring to. And yah I get the one time fee payment, and the item lasts for ever. But a dog tag does not cost 6.00 to manufacture, I'd accept 1 maybe 2 at the most. I don't know maybe administration fees?

 

I'm not going to think about this anymore. Thanks for everyone that read or posted. I'll be looking for your items and moving them with a smile. happy hunting!!

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So if it can be done there with millions of items (including the American version wheresgeorge.com) why cant it be done with Groundspeak?

 

I haven't done the where'swhatever so I don't know what kind of features they offer. Travel bugs offer a fair amount of things that allow it to be set-up and tracked on this site. Something like that probably costs a few bucks to maintain and manage. I guess you get what you pay for.

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It is a lot more than the cost of manufacturing 2 TB tags and associated chain. There is the server infrastructure required to allow you to track it. And the disk subsystem to maintain the travel logs. And the backup system to maintain data. And the sys admins required to support the data centre. And the electricity/cooling to run that data centre. etc. etc.

 

The first point we were trying to make is that you can use those other sites but you will find most geocachers will not likely make the effort to track them. Especially when there is no icon etc. in it for them.

 

After a Premium Membership fee, the TB fee is probably the second best value offered by Groundspeak. And all of that allows non PM's to cache for free.

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A couple of more things to consider:

 

1. If you buy the TB tags in bulk, you can save money. You can get them down to around $4-5 each if you buy 10 at some vendors. If you don't need that many, you could always split an order with a friend.

 

2. There are other trackable items out there (coins and other travelers) that are inexpensive as well...in the $3-4 range and they are mighty pretty. You could attach them to whatever you would like to move around.

 

3. The ultimate of course is to make your own trackable (the design must be approved by Groundspeak) but you have to buy a minimum of 50 codes to do this. Codes cost $1.50 each.

 

So, there are really lots of options and as with most anything, if you buy more, the cost per item is less. Just depends on how many you want! :anicute:

 

To see the vast array of trackable coins, tags, tokens, charms etc, just visit the list of approved vendors in the TB/Geocoins section of the website. http://www.geocaching.com/track/geocoin.aspx

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Basically if you do not use the Groundspeak tracking system nobody will log it. It is that simple really. Your choice. If you don't like their pricing don't buy one. Even simpler.

 

The other site is travelertags.com I first released some of them in 2004 or 2005. I seemed to get a lot more logs back then. I don't think I've gotten a single log on my 6 or 7 traveler tags in 2 years! As Geocaching has grown, even more people are clueless about figuring out how to log them. I believe people move them around quite a bit, just don't bother going to the website to log them. There were at least two other such websites, but they are long gone.

 

I've moved 4 or 5 "homemade" travelers in my Geocaching career that just had instructions attached with their goal. One I picked up in Niagara Falls NY and delivered to it's final destination, one of the owners caches in the Niagara Region of Ontario. It had come from BC.

 

But basically, none of this stuff ever works. :rolleyes:

Edited by TheWhiteUrkel
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On 4/28/2009 at 8:08 AM, ELTADA said:

2. There are other trackable items out there (coins and other travelers) that are inexpensive as well...in the $3-4 range and they are mighty pretty. You could attach them to whatever you would like to move around.

 

3. The ultimate of course is to make your own trackable (the design must be approved by Groundspeak) but you have to buy a minimum of 50 codes to do this. Codes cost $1.50 each.

I, personally, love trackable items, but Rake2222 is right.  They're very expensive, at $6 a pop.  I understand the whole cost of overhead and paying for that.

I've not seen any cheaper trackable items...can you give me an idea where to find them?  $3-4 sounds very good.

I love the idea of buying 50 codes.  It's be nice to attach them to things I've made, like painted stones.  How do I go about doing that?  I've thought about just creating a simple, free web page and printing qr codes on stickers that would direct the finder to it, and attaching them.  It'd be nicer to do it through the current system.

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