Newbie has a question about swag

[+donzigirl]

Hi All,

I am a newbie to geocaching. My question is about swag left in geocaches. I thought you were supposed to leave a trinket that was in good condition. I have found an empty Sucrets box, mini cassette tapes, broken toys and pins and a paper map. Is this typical? After reading the "getting started" I thought you were supposed to leave a small trinket with some value. Broken pencils and the other things are not of any value to me or those I cache with especially kids. They want to find something not broken. Thanks for the advice.

 

Donzigirl

[namiboy]

well, you are supposed to 'trade even or trade up', but just like anything in life there are people that don't 'do the right thing'. besides, you usually won't find anything too valuable in a geocache. i know you are new, but i would say don't get too excited about what you are going to find in a geocache, get excited about the actually finding the geocache. i practically never even look at the swag, it's all about the hunt for me. have fun either way.

[bagwell farmers]

Hi Donzigirl,

 

Unfortunatly this is getting typical, but if enough of us carry interesting items to stock caches it will make it better for the little cachers. I think interesting is better than value, I would rather find an old coin from around the world than a new £2 coin. I look around boot sales and it is surprising what you can get for 20p. If all cache owners maintained there caches it would also make it better. But if you find a Cache in need of tidying , clearing out, and restocking, just do it. we spend £20 on petrol for a day so what is the cost of an interesting drop for the little ones. Think if you are 5 years old , you have just walked a mile because dad said so, and there is nothing but rubbish in the box. Caching is not just for the adults.

[+gof1]

Make it about the journey. Enjoy the adventure and discovery of going places and seeing things that you would not have without geocaching.

[+donzigirl]

Make it about the journey. Enjoy the adventure and discovery of going places and seeing things that you would not have without geocaching.

Thank you very much. I do enjoy the nature and the scenery. I will carry extra trinkets from now on. As said previously posted above, the little ones do enjoy the swag. I make sure I always carry interesting little items that would appeal to them. Thanks again!

[+The Blorenges]

In theory, if every cacher followed the "trade up or trade even" mantra, the contents of geocaches would retain their original standard. But... it doesnt seem to work too well.

 

 

I think most adult cachers soon give up on the swopping swag part of caching. We rarely find anything that we want to take, but we always leave at least one decent small item in the cache, usually with younger cachers in mind. We just consider it to be "pay back" for an enjoyable hobby.

 

MrsB

[+donzigirl]

In theory, if every cacher followed the "trade up or trade even" mantra, the contents of geocaches would retain their original standard. But... it doesnt seem to work too well.

 

 

I think most adult cachers soon give up on the swopping swag part of caching. We rarely find anything that we want to take, but we always leave at least one decent small item in the cache, usually with younger cachers in mind. We just consider it to be "pay back" for an enjoyable hobby.

 

MrsB

 

Thank you for your responses. I guess I shouldn't have used the word value. I just think about the kids. I get excited over just finding the cache, however the child we take really enjoys finding his "treasure" and it motivates him on the tougher trails. Thanks again.

Kristen

[+CanUK_TeamFitz]

In theory, if every cacher followed the "trade up or trade even" mantra, the contents of geocaches would retain their original standard. But... it doesnt seem to work too well.

 

 

I think most adult cachers soon give up on the swopping swag part of caching. We rarely find anything that we want to take, but we always leave at least one decent small item in the cache, usually with younger cachers in mind. We just consider it to be "pay back" for an enjoyable hobby.

 

MrsB

 

Doesn't always have to be swag just for kids though?

 

I mean there's plenty of small £2 tools or other useful things for adults too. I'm married but have no kids so it's nice when someone leaves some kind of small useful item (and I do have McToys in my swag bag too). I've noticed elsewhere forum members have their own swag as well as each of their kids having swag too - so everyone swaps.

 

It's not just a family sport so think of us 20-30 somethings.

[+briansnat]

A lot of caches are filled with nothing but trash. Even ones that start out well stocked soon degenerate.

 

For us adults, after a few finds it becomes about the hunt, but the kiddies still like the "treasure" aspects of the sport.

 

If you want to increase the chances of nice swag for the kids, look for caches by owners with a rep for well stocked caches, look for newer caches and look for caches that require a longer walk.

[+The Blorenges]

 

I think most adult cachers soon give up on the swopping swag part of caching. We rarely find anything that we want to take, but we always leave at least one decent small item in the cache, usually with younger cachers in mind...

 

MrsB

 

Doesn't always have to be swag just for kids though?

 

I mean there's plenty of small £2 tools or other useful things for adults too. I'm married but have no kids so it's nice when someone leaves some kind of small useful item (and I do have McToys in my swag bag too). I've noticed elsewhere forum members have their own swag as well as each of their kids having swag too - so everyone swaps.

 

It's not just a family sport so think of us 20-30 somethings.

 

We do try and think of the bigger kids too We've left battery cases (the ones that hold 4 x AAsize), mini LED torch keyrings, pairs of laces, small ammonites, pairs of tweezers (for tricky nano log extractions).

 

Recently we got to a cache after following a footpath along the edge of several ploughed fields. In the cache we found a two musket ball and a couple of very grubby brass decorations, probably from old harnesses. I think some sharp-eyed cacher had found them on the way to the cache. They were interesting... we left them in the cache for the next visitors.

 

MrsB

[+Firefly911]

It seems like most of the bigger caches we find are full of junk...not anything a kid or adult would want. I don't care what's in there for the most part as we don't always trade but it seems at least folks wouldn't leave junk. (today we found a cache with some used tickets, a clothes pin, a broken keychain etc.) Personally I wished more folks would leave more fun stuff in there for the kids and personal sig items to trade with adults.

Edited July 11, 2009 by Firefly911

[+flask]

i nearly never leave a thing in a cache with the intent of being delightful to children.

 

i have no children and none of my relatives and precious few of my friends have children. while in some larger global principle i care about children in general, i'm just not very child-centric.

 

THAT said, i remember that as a child i loved to poke around in boxes of stuff, and i was just as happy if the stuff was buttons, or electrical parts, or that exotic mix of good scisssors, sunglasses, and odd bits in one of my parents' top drawers.

 

i still love to poke around in the caches i find, and i like to find oddball items. used items are just fine and mctoys are just fine, but i prefer that whatever i find be unbroken and clean. i don't even care to take anything most of the time, but i like to paw through and see what's there.

 

 

big handfuls of cheap trash you bought clean at the dollar store that you wouldn't want to keep are probably not your best bet. even clean and new, it's still cheap trash.

[+donzigirl]

i nearly never leave a thing in a cache with the intent of being delightful to children.

 

i have no children and none of my relatives and precious few of my friends have children. while in some larger global principle i care about children in general, i'm just not very child-centric.

 

THAT said, i remember that as a child i loved to poke around in boxes of stuff, and i was just as happy if the stuff was buttons, or electrical parts, or that exotic mix of good scisssors, sunglasses, and odd bits in one of my parents' top drawers.

 

i still love to poke around in the caches i find, and i like to find oddball items. used items are just fine and mctoys are just fine, but i prefer that whatever i find be unbroken and clean. i don't even care to take anything most of the time, but i like to paw through and see what's there.

 

 

big handfuls of cheap trash you bought clean at the dollar store that you wouldn't want to keep are probably not your best bet. even clean and new, it's still cheap trash.

 

 

Thanks again. I have no children, either and am embarrassed to say I get excited over TB and geocoins. However, my bff takes her little boy so I really like to have him find something. I like the idea of stuff for adults. Thanks for the great ideas. I guess I just wanted to know why people would leave a bunch of broken junk.

[+simpler1773]

We try to always leave extra swag because a lot of the ones we've found are pretty sad in the swag dept.

 

If I find garbage in a cache, I "trade" for it and replace it with something new. Anything moldy, or broken gets removed and replaced and then I just hope it inspires the next person to not leave a broken spork and used wet nap from their picinic.

 

It happens, and I am really new to this so maybe I'll get burnt out on "fixing up" caches, but I cache with my 4 yr old daughter and I hope it teaches her the bigger lesson which is to leave the world better than you found it.

 

That being said, she sometimes wants the swag in my purse vs. what's in the cache

 

I fully understand where you come from in your question. Hang in there, every once in a while we find a great "treasure" and it makes it all the more special

[+rvjn]

Hi All,

I am a newbie to geocaching. My question is about swag left in geocaches. I thought you were supposed to leave a trinket that was in good condition. I have found an empty Sucrets box, mini cassette tapes, broken toys and pins and a paper map. Is this typical? After reading the "getting started" I thought you were supposed to leave a small trinket with some value. Broken pencils and the other things are not of any value to me or those I cache with especially kids. They want to find something not broken. Thanks for the advice.

 

Donzigirl

 

As a full-time RVer I cache in many different areas. I have found that the 'value' of the swag in general seems to change with the area. Some areas I find nothing of value or interest to either adult or child. In other areas the majority of the caches will have great swag. It seems to me that 'newbies' tend to follow the leadership of what they find as they learn. For instance, we were in one area where almost every cache had many 'stickers'. Even the micros had little animal, or whatever, stickers rolled up inside the logs. I had not seen this before. Yet in another area (far from the previous) about half of the cachers used address labels (what a waste of log space, was my reaction, but apparently it was enjoyed by these local cachers. I cached for over a year before ever finding any food (candy) in a cache (a definate 'NO, NO') - then I got into a new area and suddenly there was candy in 2/5 caches! Never saw it before or since but this area seemed to be ok with it (altho the hard candy melted into a terrible mess when the cache got water in it!)

 

As I often find myself getting caches unplanned I then don't have swag with me so I try to always carry quarters so that I have something small to fit in most caches. Kids love to find money in the caches. Even pennies, nickles and dimes work well, are easy to carry and fit into most caches. We, too, cache for the thrill of the hunt, and find. Finding an occasional interesting bit of swag is no more then frosting on the cake.

[+Sparky&Squeak]

We are new, too, and have found caches with a lot of junk in them, but, fortunately, there is always one little interesting thing. We especially love little pins and keychains to attach to our "GeoBag." Since we have 6 & 7 yo boys, we tend to carry things that they would like to find (interesting coins, army men, matchbox cars, interesting dice, cool playing cards, etc.).

 

I think it is a great idea to clean out caches, so we are going to follow the examples mentioned here and do that from now on in the spirit of making the world better than we found it.

[+kunarion]

I have found an empty Sucrets box, mini cassette tapes, broken toys and pins and a paper map. Is this typical?

Donzigirl,

I think that many long-time caches (particularly the ones that are easy to get to) are familiar to muggles in the area. Some have well-worn trails right to the cache, unlikely to happen with a handful of Geocachers meandering in the woods. If local teenagers use it as their own toy box, it'll accumulate garbage. I really don't think that Geocachers are always to blame for trash cache.

Edited July 14, 2009 by kunarion