Geocache "Treasures"

[Treasuress]

I am looking for a good cheap place to find knicknacks and small toys etc. for geocaches. Anyone know any good sites?

[+Fianccetto]

I am looking for a good cheap place to find knicknacks and small toys etc. for geocaches. Anyone know any good sites?

 

I recently stocked up on party bag toys at a local hypermarket. (One has a nice pirate range out at the moment.) So things like small packs of cards, little puzzles, cushies, bouncy balls, little water pistols. Nothing containing liquids, no sweets, nothing that goes in the mouth (like whistles or blower toys).

 

I did get things like trolley tokens and other 'swag' you find on the usual geocaching sites (google them) for £1 each but I find that people trade down for these items, usually for worn out/ broken toys of the kind I have just bought (in fact I am sure I have seen things that I originally put in a cache new which have been worn out and then dumped in a cache later). We have spent a lot on treasures only to see seekers after us raid the cache and take everything for a few leaves and sticks or other things I would take out of a cache, take home and throw away.

 

Sorry for the rant, I know this isn't answering your question directly.

Edited March 19, 2010 by Fianccetto

[+uxorious]

Try the dollar stores.

[Treasuress]

I checked online and found (link removed by moderator) They have a wide variety of small toys very cheap!

Edited March 20, 2010 by mtn-man

[+Fianccetto]

Yeah, I thought you might say something like that...

 

I think you'll find you're not allowed to advertise on here!

[Treasuress]

Whoops. Rookie mistake.

[oakenwood]

I got a cardboard box and walked around the house throwing in small objects that were taking up space. You'd be surprise how much junk you can find. I must've thrown in two dozen guitar picks, plus SD cards, flash drives, foreign coins, those wrist straps that you get with digital cameras, pens & pencils, Livestrong braclets, keychains, etc. etc...

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

Whoops. Rookie mistake.

Oh that's OK. If you decide not to edit it, they will for you. If you mention the name without the link, as long as you're not the owner, you might be OK.

[+kunarion]

I've previously done careful checking on the exact site you mentioned. The large lots of small toys have lots of bad reviews (for messy paint or other issues), severely disappointing, since I had some ideas for them. It makes me wonder if those products are all "irregular". You may find some of the ones that passed inspection, at a local discount store, and you can see the quality (or lack of it) in person.

 

I've already gone through all my cool useless junk, as oakenwood suggests. Except foreign coins. I still have handfuls of those to get rid of, so I don't yet need to buy anything.

Edited March 20, 2010 by kunarion

[+jopasm]

Consider finding something small and inexpensive but useful you can buy in quantity and use as a signature item. If you search for "signature item" on the forum you'll find several threads with information on what other people are using.

 

I bought a package of 100 2x4" plastic zip-lock bags off ebay and a pack of 100 print-your-own business cards. I print up a little card with a description of the item (whatever I"m using) and my caching name. I've got around $8 in 100 bags and cards.

 

I've seen things like guitar picks, "geo-jewels" (small semi-precious gemstones, you can buy them in bulk cheaply), etc in caches. I currently have a few "round TUITS" (just a slice of dowel with "TUIT" printed on it, a play on the phrase "I'll do it when I get AROUND TO IT") I'll probably use, and somewhere I have a stash of guitar picks from a blues joint about an hour away. The TUITS were $0.30 each and the guitar picks were free. Putting it in a small bag with a card seems to help it stay clean and it looks better than a handful of shiny rocks or battered guitar picks rattling around loose in the bottom of the cache.

Edited March 20, 2010 by jopasm

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

I checked online and found ____ They have a wide variety of small toys very cheap!

I've previously done careful checking on the exact site you mentioned. The large lots of small toys have lots of bad reviews (for messy paint or other issues), severely disappointing, since I had some ideas for them. It makes me wonder if those products are all "irregular". You may find some of the ones that passed inspection, at a local discount store, and you can see the quality (or lack of it) in person.

 

I've already gone through all my cool useless junk, as oakenwood suggests. Except foreign coins. I still have handfuls of those to get rid of, so I don't yet need to buy anything.

I don't think they're "Irregular" in the sense that they were rejected, they're just cheap...for good reasom.

[+kunarion]

I was also hoarding "zipper tabs" for years. Don't remember why. It was probably very important. Anyway, I've been working on making them into something fun in caches. There aren't many duplicates (they even fit in matchtube micros). So that's one place to get stuff -- from your own old collections.

Edited March 20, 2010 by kunarion

[+Whiteboy47]

My wife has used that site several times for our grandkids partys and she seems to be happy with them.but of course shes not buying the real cheap stuff either.all the kids seem to like their goodie bags too

[+Opalblade]

Consider finding something small and inexpensive but useful you can buy in quantity and use as a signature item. If you search for "signature item" on the forum you'll find several threads with information on what other people are using.

 

I bought a package of 100 2x4" plastic zip-lock bags off ebay and a pack of 100 print-your-own business cards. I print up a little card with a description of the item (whatever I"m using) and my caching name. I've got around $8 in 100 bags and cards.

 

I've seen things like guitar picks, "geo-jewels" (small semi-precious gemstones, you can buy them in bulk cheaply), etc in caches. I currently have a few "round TUITS" (just a slice of dowel with "TUIT" printed on it, a play on the phrase "I'll do it when I get AROUND TO IT") I'll probably use, and somewhere I have a stash of guitar picks from a blues joint about an hour away. The TUITS were $0.30 each and the guitar picks were free. Putting it in a small bag with a card seems to help it stay clean and it looks better than a handful of shiny rocks or battered guitar picks rattling around loose in the bottom of the cache.

 

How bizarre; I just found a sig item that said Tuit on one side and 2it on the other but it seems like it's from a Texan. Did go see if you had been in the area last week

[+jopasm]

Consider finding something small and inexpensive but useful you can buy in quantity and use as a signature item. If you search for "signature item" on the forum you'll find several threads with information on what other people are using.

 

I bought a package of 100 2x4" plastic zip-lock bags off ebay and a pack of 100 print-your-own business cards. I print up a little card with a description of the item (whatever I"m using) and my caching name. I've got around $8 in 100 bags and cards.

 

I've seen things like guitar picks, "geo-jewels" (small semi-precious gemstones, you can buy them in bulk cheaply), etc in caches. I currently have a few "round TUITS" (just a slice of dowel with "TUIT" printed on it, a play on the phrase "I'll do it when I get AROUND TO IT") I'll probably use, and somewhere I have a stash of guitar picks from a blues joint about an hour away. The TUITS were $0.30 each and the guitar picks were free. Putting it in a small bag with a card seems to help it stay clean and it looks better than a handful of shiny rocks or battered guitar picks rattling around loose in the bottom of the cache.

 

How bizarre; I just found a sig item that said Tuit on one side and 2it on the other but it seems like it's from a Texan. Did go see if you had been in the area last week

 

I just picked these up at one of my favorite restaraunts. I've been tempted to try to make some though, it'd be easy to get a couple of stamps made (one for each side).

[+Fianccetto]

This has given me an idea...We could see if we could find battons of wood in hardware shops which are shaped like a chess piece in profile,and use those as our sig piece. if not, use small dowel and make chess sets.

[Opal&Ruby]

I recently went to staples and bought a few items

 

-pack of 12 mini mechanical pencils for $5.00,

-little zipper pouches for 25 cents.

 

Also if you crochet you can make little critters( My Mom made one for the cache we found by accident and we didn't have anything to trade)

 

Key chains can be easily created with beads or similar objects

 

sets of those tiny pencil crayons that come with restaurant meals - do your kids really need 20 mini green, red, or yellow pencil crayons?

 

If you cache with kids get their input on things they'de love to leave for other kids to find.

[+simpjkee]

Goodwill is Wherigo for small caching knick knacks (I would hardly call them 'treasures' though).

[+ipodguy]

Yard sales are good places, too as well as flea markets.

[AZcachemeister]

Goodwill is Wherigo for small caching knick knacks (I would hardly call them 'treasures' though).

 

One cacher's trash is another cacher's treasure.

Also a good place to get interesting containers as well...including the poor man's ammo-box...the cookie tin!

[+team5150]

One of the best things that I have found to leave in any regular sized cache is a small Johnson & Johnson first aid kit that I pick up at Wally World. They cost 94 cents (less than a buck with tax) and contain several bandaids, some first aid cream, and lots of handy other stuff that cachers find very useful when they, or their kiddos, get a boo-boo out on the trail. I have had many nice comments about leaving these as Swag.

[hoyshnin]

I find the best places to be garage sales or the "free" section on craigslist.

[+fendermallot]

I work for a grocery chain that was recently giving out coca-cola olympic pins when you bought $X worth of merchandise the day of the opening ceremonies. We didn't give them all away so I snatched a bag of ~25 neat little, individually wrapped pins.

[GPS-Hermit]

Use a variety of items to trade with = kid ladies elderly students and sportsmen - mix it up based on the difficulty - I put better items in far out caches to reward the effort of both the finder and hider.

[+howzitboy]

i bought long ago a zillion marbles on ebay that i was going to give to my daughters school for the kids to play with. but, someone complained so i ended up with them all lol. must have been like over 50lbs of marbles.