GeoPost

[+JackHoe]

A few months ago a card came to me traveling by geocaches. The sender, a friend of mine, used a trackingcode of a dutch geocoin. This way the card could be followed and I was able to see when it arrived in a nearby cache. When the card had arrived, I made a letter and used the trackingcode on that. The letter was placed in a cache and it traveld to the next recipient. If you understand dutch, you can look at TB2P352.

 

This brought me on the idea to make a trackeble envelope. This envelope must be re-usable and have the trackingcode printed on it. Of course also the tekst: track this letter at geocaching.com. Also I'd like to have the envelope/letter have it's own unique icon. I already communicated with Groundspeak about this idea. They want to see the design, just like as it is with coins. When they approve it, the trackable GeoPost can come to live.

 

In the Dutch forum I already found some people who liked the idea. To get an impression to know how much I should make, I want to know if there are more people over here who are interested? So let me know if you would buy a trackable envelope with a unique icon. The price I don't know yet, but it should be around the same price as a coin. I hope I can work it out for that price.

 

If you have suggestions about design, material, manufacturers and sponsering (I'm just a poor cacher with a nice idea), please let me know to!

[+osmodion]

Have you seen the (nearly) indestructable plastic fiber mailers used by the USPS? That might work, if they sell small enough versions.

[Firefly03]

I'm not sure I would pay the same for an envelope as I would a coin. Of course, I'd have to see it first to say, but it would have to be a really nice design.

[+Minimike2]

How about a tyvek envelope with an attached cachkin? I suppose a rite-in-the-rain letter could be inside.

[+WRITE SHOP ROBERT]

I don't know if I'd pay as much as a coin, but as much as a TB would be fine. I'm sure you couls orded little tyvek envelopes, but you might have to get them in large quantities.

[+JackHoe]

I would like to make the envelope as cheap as possible. I'm not a merchant trying to make money, but a geocacher who would like to add something nice to the game. So if I can find a way to make them as cheap as travelbugs, I will. If it all works out, I'll need a shop who wants to sell them too.....

[+JackHoe]

second time it hapens to me that I get a double post. I don't know how this happens, I just posted one time.

Edited August 26, 2010 by JackHoe

[+Jackalgirl]

 

My geostamp. I'm going to drop it in a local cache ASAP and see whether it can get where it's intended to go. : )

 

I just used a TB number (and, naturally, am keeping the original tags). I applied them to a stamp I'd made out of some of the Groundspeak wallpaper (hope that's okay, GS folks!), which is really just an image printed on regular paper and then "cancelled" with one of my Totoro stamps. I might get fancy at some point and print it on better paper, but I think that regular paper is fine for the time being.

 

Perhaps, in the future, I'll buy some extra geocoin codes and use them to make stamps. Not sure I'm in the market for 50 of these (I'd want a custom icon, of course), but we'll see. I think if I did this (and this is my recommendation to you), I'd just make the image available for a small fee (code + art) and the buyer can print it out on his/her own (or I could print it out on high-quality sticker paper and mail it to the buyer). That way, the person who buys the stamp can attach it to any style of envelope he or she wishes.

 

As for this particular iteration: my idea is that when it reaches its destination, the recipient can then use the code to send a letter to someone else, either by printing out this stamp again (and I'll send the graphic for reprinting) or by creating a stamp of her own. Then, I can adopt over the code so that she can customize the page with its new mission.

[+JackHoe]

Thank you for your feedback. My first idea was also to buy 50 tracking codes with own icon. I asked Groundspeak about this. They told me they want to approve the item on wich the code will be used. It also must have the text: track this item at geocaching.com to get approved. That's why I came up with the idea of a trackable envelope.

 

One of the ideas was to make a transparent envelope on wich the code and required tekst are pre-printed. Then the user can design his/her own envelope to put in the transparent envelope, and put the code of the cache to where it should go on it. The envelope must be re usable so when it arrives the recipent can use it to send it back or somewhere else. You can always contact the owner of the envelope to change the mission on the items page. That way you don't have to use the adotion posibility. But that's also a way of using the envelope again.

 

I'm still working on the idea so more feedback is welcome.

Edited August 26, 2010 by JackHoe

[+GeocoinGuy]

I agree with the Tyvek envelope, but for the sake of the contents, I think the envelope should have a 'window' to view the next cache ID. If the envelope is to be reused, it should have the waxy paper you find on the backs of unused printer labels. That way those can print or handwrite on an address label and affix it right on the waxy paper already on the envelope. The text "Track this letter at Geocaching.com" should be printed along the bottom left of the front of the envelope. Just my input.

 

~J

[+ice13-333]

Depending on the price i´m interested too