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How often do you REALLY look at your icons versus your actual coins?


Kealia

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I'm curious. With discussions kicking up every few months about tracking and icons and how important it is to some I'd like to hear about how often folks (old and new, big collectors and little) actually look at the icons on their profiles.

 

I keep my coins in display cases on the wall so I can see them when I'm in that room, but I never log into my profile just to look at the icons associated with them. Of course, I don't really care about icons so that makes sense :anibad: .

 

For everybody else, especially those that are adamant that coins have unique icons - how often do y'all look at them. Is it just for a few days when you get a new one? Every week? Once in a while?

 

Curious minds want to know.

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I look over the new icons in my profile now and then. Custom icons are cool but, I don' buy a coin for the icon. I buy it for the coin. Of course, that's not to say I wouldn't like for all my coins to have custom icons. My collection's activated and taken to events for others to discover, and what's the point of discovering someone's collection if you don' get a cool icon for it ? Other than seeing the coins in person.

 

I've been kinda sorta working on a website to show pictures of all my coins for a while, and want to include the icons on the pages for each coin. Tis going to take me a while to finish that project, though. lol

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Droo that is really cool!!!

 

I couldn't care less about icons. To me it is only helpful if I want to find a specific coin in my list that I don't remember the name of. I rarely activate my coins so I wouldn't see the icons anyway. As Howlingmoon said I get the coin for the coin itself not for the icon. I rarely discover coins either. The discovery option seems to me only a way to get the icon. If I see the coin itself that's all I need.

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I'm a recovering icon ho but I check out my coins more often than I look at the icons. Thanks to Marky I have this to keep me happy in that department.....

icons.jpg

 

No Kathy's Coin icon? okay, I was bored tonight. I also counted 4 my pinz icons...I know, it's sad.

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Ok this may sound lame, but I actually look after I activate coins or move/discover them. I also use them to make the buddy tag to attach to a coin I send out so people will see the icon they keep for moving/discovering my coin.

 

I wouldn't say I'm an icon ho but I'm less likely to buy a coin with a generic icon than one with a unique icon.

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I never look at the icons.

What I do with the coins is take 10 random ones out every month or so and place them on my desk. Then, I look at them for that month and remember how I got them, etc. Then, I swap them out for 10 new ones.

 

It's sort of like a mini-surprise! It's quite exciting to see what I come up with each time! :anibad:

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I look at my actual coins much more than the icons. The only time I look at the icons are when I'm logging the mileage for my traveling coins. I don't activate my coins anymore, unless they're going traveling.

 

I need to get me some of those wall displays. Coins don't display very well in cardboard boxes. =)

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I'm a recovering icon ho but I check out my coins more often than I look at the icons. Thanks to Marky I have this to keep me happy in that department.....

icons.jpg

 

No Kathy's Coin icon? okay, I was bored tonight. I also counted 4 my pinz icons...I know, it's sad.

 

Ok... I just spent the last five minutes looking through this. And I CAN'T find Waldo! lol

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Guess i never answered the question...I don't get too excited about icons. I also don't get too excited trackable vs non trackable...both my personal coins were trackable with icons because I was hoping for lots of trades (I see some names I'm not familiar with posting...my coins are trade only. In fact I was fortunate enought to trade with someone I've never seen on the forums, and they were amazed to see someone trading coins...kind of sad.)

 

I've traded coins with icons and trackable for non trackables...if I like the coin, I consider it a good deal! I have wooden sig items for leaving in caches, and for giving to kids at events.

 

too much information?

 

ILYK
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too much information?

 

Nope, it's good.

 

I came across this from a post from just last night:

I am hoping to save enough money to make a run of coins. They aren’t going to be cheap because I want them done right meaning they will have a unique icon and I am having the tracking info and number stamped on the edge of the coin.

 

This is why I asked the question. It seems that some folks think that a custom icon is NEEDED and highly valuable to traders/collectors but I guess I'm not seeing that response in here yet. Curious to see if more replies come in from folks that really do look at the icons a lot.

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I actually use my icons :D They help me find coins in my list of trackables, I know I can search for em, but sometimes its just easy to go to a certain icon to find a particular traveler I may be looking for. They are listed by date of release (when they were made) so I know approx how old a coin is and I can scroll down my icons till I find it (provided I know what the icon looks like)

 

I also use my icons in my caches as resident coins perhaps in a themed cache, such as Ranger216's RR icon in a RR cache and I also have a "Benchmarks the spot" series which incorporate an activated BM on top of the cache and I dig the icons that lives with em :D I have wanted to place resident coins in all my caches for the icons and have others picked out for placement. Been on this for awhile, but yet I have not completed this goal.

 

I thought of trading old icons (that have gone missing) for icons I can use, LOL Theres a few icons I can use generically with similar items to travel as proxys and I have a few other ideas to do with em to, :unsure:

 

So my icons are actually usefull to me and I have never collected them (think I only have around 5 discoveries and 1's a Moun10bike #001)

 

My coins get looked at far more though...I look at em all the time :D

 

PS~ Droo, there is room for one 007 icon in the lower right, he he :D

Edited by 007BigD
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I usually notice them most when I'm looking into which cache to go after. If I see an icon I don't recognize or haven't found yet then I go and look more closely at the coin. I guess it's like most product logos. We know they're on the products, but we don't usually spend much time looking at them. It does however have an effect on your view of it.

 

I think of it kind of like when you go to the drugstore and you see for every 2 or 3 medicines with their unique logos you also see one store-brand box, too. When you stand back and look there are hundreds of the storebrand boxes that all look similar, but you can pick from a distance the brand you're looking for even if the logo is small because they're each distinct.

 

Are they necessary, no. Are they handy, absolutely! If I'm looking back in my logs/profiles/caches, etc. I can quickly find that coin I've been keeping an eye on by spotting the icon and clicking straight to the associated coin. Whereas if I'm looking for a coin that has a generic icon, it's going to take a bit of searching unless I remember exactly where I found it, who owned it or it's exact name. Either way, icons are convenient for me. :unsure:

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Ok, so where are all the people that love the icons? I know they are out there because in almost every sale thread there's either a request or a complaint about custom icons.

 

I want to hear from those people, too.

 

To answer your original question, I look at the coins fairly often. The icons, almost never. Keep in mind, nearly half of my collection are non-trackable.

 

To Hula Bum...where you been, girl??

 

As to the the part I quoted...I doubt if you'll see many of those people answer. If they do, even the most determined icon ho's will all IMO claim that they look at the coins, and that the icons mean nothing.

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Ok, so where are all the people that love the icons? I know they are out there because in almost every sale thread there's either a request or a complaint about custom icons.

 

I want to hear from those people, too.

 

To answer your original question, I look at the coins fairly often. The icons, almost never. Keep in mind, nearly half of my collection are non-trackable.

 

To Hula Bum...where you been, girl??

 

As to the the part I quoted...I doubt if you'll see many of those people answer. If they do, even the most determined icon ho's will all IMO claim that they look at the coins, and that the icons mean nothing.

Well shoot what does constitute and icon ho? One who chases caches just to add to the number of icons bagged and discovered? Or one who collects coins and loves to see their icons on their profile as testament to their collection? I'd imagine there is a bit of a difference between the icon collector who adds to their left column as opposed to the right. I like to keep mine balanced and will activate only so many coins to keep them even. But I have to agree with Chris and Dave that icons serve to find the link to the coin pages and there is just something so bland about an activated coin with a generic icon... like a broken thumbnail image.

 

Even though I activate a fraction of my coins I feel jipped paying $10 or more for a coin without an icon but I never turn my nose up to a trade for a non trackable older coin.... I still like those and get a kick trading for them. It's a bit of a dichotomy.

Edited by Droo
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Even though I activate a fraction of my coins I feel jipped paying $10 or more for a coin without an icon but I never turn my nose up to a trade for a non trackable older coin.... I still like those and get a kick trading for them. It's a bit of a dichotomy.

Agree about the cost of coins...

 

Also agree about trading for non-trackable, older and/or personals

 

I don't activate anything anymore. I used to because I liked, and still like those itty bitty pictures and how some of them can capture the essence of the coin in a 32x32 image.

 

I look at my coins lots more than the icons because I have two display cases on the wall full of coins, not icons.

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Other side heard from ....

 

I check my icon list every time there is a change in it, i.e., I have come across another coin. I discover or move every coin I come across (although I wont accept 'lists', I need to see the coin). My collection is small, and not all of them are activated. I get my icon fix from what travels in caches or hand to hand.

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I think when we look back to when we started caching, we all were impressed with coin icons, whether coins we moved or coins we bought to put out. I remember telling my young nephew, "they're sort of like colorful scout badges." I only ever discovered three,(those were in my own caches while doing maintenance), prefering to see only the 40 or so I actually moved, and a memory of that caching trip, coin or cache. Of course, in the beginning, every coin I bought, I activated to see that nifty icon, whether it was a keeper or a traveler. :blink: But, soon after, I got into trading and collecting, and never activated a coin from then on. About the only time I look at my icon list is when I move someone's coin.

 

How often do I look at my geocoin collection? Oh, about every five minutes ;) They sit displayed on an end-table beside my comfy armchair.

Edited by acadiahiker
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Never. But when I first started caching, whoa. Every time I activated or moved a new coin, I had to click over to my profile and see the new icon. What a giddy noob I was! And how much time was wasted at events writing down tracking numbers, sigh. I'd even race out to caches to see coins that I hadn't seen before, get the icon and hold that shiny piece of metal. Feel the heft of it in my hand, stare at the pretty design for hours (writing about it, I kind of miss that). No bother now, but then again, I do (by now) have a pretty cluttered profile. I'm also really bad now at logging my finds, so I only bother to activate coins when I'm planning on setting em free.

 

I'll agree with Droo's sentiment that if I'm paying $10 for a coin, I hope it has an icon. Not because I NEED the icon, but to justify the pricing. A cheaper coin with no icon would be acceptable though. I like non-trackables just fine too :blink: Although, for a coin I'm setting free (not keeping unactivated in my collection) I do prefer to have an icon, if only because I'm imaging all the giddy noobs happy at the prospect of adding a new icon, running out to find the cache to discover and fondle the coin ;)

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