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Worst swag?

Rick Bross

By Rick Bross
in General geocaching topics

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GeoCacheKat

+GeoCacheKat

Posted
Posted

Yesterday I opened a micro to find a sharp shard of glass hidden in with the log strip. I threw it away, of course.

 

A sharp shard of glass? That is aweful. It was a micro! The likelihood of some random muggle finding and putting the glass in is slim... but it is hard for me to think that another geocacher would do something that could potentially harm another geocacher. Whether it's a muggle or a cacher... it is sad.

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OZ2CPU

+OZ2CPU

Posted
Posted

when you find trash inside a cache, why dont you just take it out, and throw it into a trachcan..

they exist if you look long enought, I am most lucky to find trashcans at gasstations,

rather empty than full of trash..

 

You can get good swag for free, check a recycle station,

where people dump usefull stuff they just dont want them self,

I often find whole bags of kids toys, most is actually in good shape,

I quickly gather the best and smallest items that fit in caches.

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zack_black

+zack_black

Posted
Posted

Wood chips (the type you spread over your flower garden or around trees) that were brought to the cache site (because there were no wood chips anywhere near GZ) a large rock that took up most of the cache space and a pair of wet children's socks....

 

....all in one cache.

 

I find batteries all the time - I don't understand why someone would leave batteries (or half of the other junk I find) :blink:

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Kenkeknem Sleuth

+Kenkeknem Sleuth

Posted
Posted

Spring time in Alberta can be very wet. We found a coffee can in the wet wilderness with a broken lid. In the cache there was a package of bath salts that had been soaked as the cache was 1/4 full of water all the items were rusty and disgusting. Most of the time I try and clean a cache up and put better swag in the container, but when the container is broken like that we just cleaned up what we could and put all the plastic things back then took everything that was corroded and rusty with us to toss in the trash. Finding bath salts has caused us to now make sure there are WetOnes in our Geopack as it made cleaning our hands a breeze.

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bflentje

+bflentje

Posted
Posted

In addition to the stupid business cards and religious tracts I've found 3 caches with really poorly chosen swag in them.

 

Live .30-30 shell

 

Live .22 shell

 

Live .32 shell

 

WHAT is up with idiots who put live ammo into caches?

 

Stupid and idiot? I thought name calling was a forum violation. Please refer to them as misguided, similar to how I call complainers of religious tracts and business cards misguided.

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Sky King 36

+Sky King 36

Posted
Posted (edited)

Stupid and idiot? I thought name calling was a forum violation. Please refer to them as misguided, similar to how I call complainers of religious tracts and business cards misguided.

 

It seems to me that once you have resorted to putting live ammunition in a cache, "idiot" is in play. laughing.gif And have you seen 30-30 prices lately!

Edited by Sky King 36
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I!

I!

Posted
Posted (edited)
Stupid and idiot? I thought name calling was a forum violation. Please refer to them as misguided, similar to how I call complainers of religious tracts and business cards misguided.

Weapons, religion and the ToU -- this thread's a real winner. Pass the popcorn!

 

Worst swag I've encountered? Just worthless stuff, like used football game tickets; nothing ****ING STUPIDLY DANGEROUS, thankfully.

 

EDIT: seems live ammo's not necessarily ****ing stupidly dangerous after all, at least according to the first and only randomly-selected Google hit that I could be bothered to read. You learn something new every day ...

Edited by I!
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niraD

+niraD

Posted
Posted
EDIT: seems live ammo's not necessarily ****ing stupidly dangerous after all, at least according to the first and only randomly-selected Google hit that I could be bothered to read. You learn something new every day ...
Yeah, it's generally designed to be stable and inert until chambered and fired.
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DragonsWest

+DragonsWest

Posted
Posted

Knives. I take knives - not suitable things for kids to find.

 

Gum. Yuck. Usually it will draw moisture out of the air and become slimy. Attracts ants (as if they don't already appreciate a nice little shelter.

 

Business cards. Please -- STOP leaving them!

 

Stickers. They fare about as badly as gum. Plus they get torn up and battered with each visit.

 

Golf balls. Please -- STOP leaving them!

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Manville Possum

+Manville Possum

Posted
Posted
EDIT: seems live ammo's not necessarily ****ing stupidly dangerous after all, at least according to the first and only randomly-selected Google hit that I could be bothered to read. You learn something new every day ...
Yeah, it's generally designed to be stable and inert until chambered and fired.

I see no danger in ammo. My son and I enjoy reloading it. All of my hunting rounds are hand loads, factory ammo just don't meet my standards. But I understand the no ammo in geocaches rule, and Laws differ in many States concerning ammo. :ph34r:

The worst swag I ever found in one of my geocaches was a big wad of chewing tobacco. Nasty! :mad:

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Pontoffel Pock

Pontoffel Pock

Posted
Posted (edited)
I don't understand why someone would leave batteries (or half of the other junk I find) :blink:

 

Really? I often have left NEW sealed 4 packs of AAs. I thought it was GOOD swag, I know I would grab 'em if I found them.

Honestly, let me know- I will spend my money on other stuff if others feel this is a bad trade item.

Edited by Pontoffel Pock
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hzoi

+hzoi

Posted
Posted

I don't pay much attention to swag. I don't have kids, and I tend to view trade items as the pile of stuff I have to sift through to find the logbook and/or trackables. As long as swag is kept dry and to a reasonable volume, I ignore it. The worst swag to me is anything that keeps the container from closing properly, or collects water and becomes a soggy, moldy (or rotting or rusty) mess. I've found more than one cache out there that looks like the home game for that hoarders reality show, where people just kept jamming junk in there, to the point where the container broke because it couldn't contain it all.

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fbingha

+fbingha

Posted
Posted
I don't understand why someone would leave batteries (or half of the other junk I find) :blink:

 

Really? I often have left NEW sealed 4 packs of AAs. I thought it was GOOD swag, I know I would grab 'em if I found them.

Honestly, let me know- I will spend my money on other stuff if others feel this is a bad trade item.

I think the issue is with opened, used batteries. New batteries sound great, if you are sure the container is water tight.

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K13

+K13

Posted
Posted

Found one a while back with a pair of children's size Cartoon underwear (Superman or spongebob, I think) The bad thing was several other cachers had mentioned them having been in the cache for a while!

 

Sunflower seeds, candy, 'adult' items, various trash items.

 

I remove this type of junk. Sometimes leaving nothing is trading up.

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Andronicus

Andronicus

Posted
Posted

#1 A very corroded 410 shotgun shell. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get rid of those?

...

A farmers field and a .22 work great.

 

Worst swag:

 

Dog biscut

Condom (in the first cache I ever found, and my young kids were with me)

Acorn (under whatever kind of tree makes acorns (I am from Alberta, we don't have acorns here, so forgive my ignorance))

Small bouncy ball (my kids always want to trade for those, but we have a baby, so they are banned from our house, then I have to argue with the kids about it, then they are sad).

then all that rotting stuff you often find.

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dameetro

+dameetro

Posted
Posted (edited)

I found some Chicken Poop flavored lip balm in an ammo can last year. I didn't try it. But I'm glad they used free range chickens. I'd hate to think some poor chicken spent his life all squished up in a cage pooping out that lip balm just to make my lips all smooth and soft.

 

100_0598.JPG

Edited by dameetro
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ving

ving

Posted
Posted

for all the above reasons i pay no attention to swag and just sign the log and go.

 

plastic coins (where can you spend that?)

bottle caps (and i do what with them?)

stickers (usually soggy)

etc...

 

I guess i can move them on but i have no reason for wanting to keep them. I once put enough money for a good cup of coffee as an encouragement to find a cache.

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angel77ra

+angel77ra

Posted
Posted

Just recently I found a swollen beer can in a cache , yuck! Also found a container of synthetic marijauna which smelled nasty so I disposed of the contents, removed the label of two pandas making " panda love" and used the container for a new cache. I assume a lot of the nasty swag is left by stoner kids or drunk hunters that stumble on the caches.

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The_Incredibles_

+The_Incredibles_

Posted
Posted (edited)

Was there thyme in the bottle or was it used to hold something else?

 

:anibad:

 

Reminds me of a cache I found the other day. It had a screw-top container and was hidden under a log. It was raining and dark and the reception was horrible so I was really pleased when I found it. When I went to grab, I saw what looked like a lighter inside. I was all ready to remove the lighter (how moronic!) when I noticed some other strange items in the cache. Not only was there no logbook (also shameful!), but there was a little plastic bag with what looked like 2 rocks in it and some sort of pipe. The things people think are swag. :unsure::mad: A few minutes later, I found an ammo can on the other side of the log. This one had better swag and a logbook, thank goodness. Obviously there was some sort of proximity problem. :ph34r:

Edited by The_Incredibles_
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uxorious

+uxorious

Posted
Posted

Small bouncy ball (my kids always want to trade for those, but we have a baby, so they are banned from our house, then I have to argue with the kids about it, then they are sad).

 

 

Not sure I understand this as "bad swag". A new clean bouncy ball should be good swag. There are plenty of houses where kids could have it and might like it. :huh:

 

Also, acorns come from oak trees. :)

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RedShoesGirl

RedShoesGirl

Posted
Posted

Small bouncy ball (my kids always want to trade for those, but we have a baby, so they are banned from our house, then I have to argue with the kids about it, then they are sad).

 

 

Not sure I understand this as "bad swag". A new clean bouncy ball should be good swag. There are plenty of houses where kids could have it and might like it. :huh:

i have to agree with you. a clean bouncy ball is fun. i generally put all swag i leave in zip baggies so even things like bouncy balls stay clean.

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Andronicus

Andronicus

Posted
Posted

Small bouncy ball (my kids always want to trade for those, but we have a baby, so they are banned from our house, then I have to argue with the kids about it, then they are sad).

 

 

Not sure I understand this as "bad swag". A new clean bouncy ball should be good swag. There are plenty of houses where kids could have it and might like it. :huh:

i have to agree with you. a clean bouncy ball is fun. i generally put all swag i leave in zip baggies so even things like bouncy balls stay clean.

While a clean bouncy ball may be fun, it is a serious safety hazard for small children (who havn't learned not to put things in their mouth yet). In another year, I will not have kids in that age catagory anymore, and then I will start thinking they are great swag. But for now, they are really anoying.

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uxorious

+uxorious

Posted
Posted

Small bouncy ball (my kids always want to trade for those, but we have a baby, so they are banned from our house, then I have to argue with the kids about it, then they are sad).

 

 

Not sure I understand this as "bad swag". A new clean bouncy ball should be good swag. There are plenty of houses where kids could have it and might like it. :huh:

i have to agree with you. a clean bouncy ball is fun. i generally put all swag i leave in zip baggies so even things like bouncy balls stay clean.

While a clean bouncy ball may be fun, it is a serious safety hazard for small children (who havn't learned not to put things in their mouth yet). In another year, I will not have kids in that age catagory anymore, and then I will start thinking they are great swag. But for now, they are really anoying.

 

They may be annoying to you, but to list something as bad swag because you don't want it borders on being a little self centered.

 

I know it is hard to get our ideas across in the forums. Very easy to be misunderstood. However, you even admit you may find them great swag later, but you say they are bad swag now.

 

Perhaps the problem is I took this thread to mean bad swag, as in stuff that shouldn't be in a cache. You take it as bad swag is stuff you don't want in a cache. Not really the same thing at all. B):)

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Andronicus

Andronicus

Posted
Posted

Small bouncy ball (my kids always want to trade for those, but we have a baby, so they are banned from our house, then I have to argue with the kids about it, then they are sad).

 

 

Not sure I understand this as "bad swag". A new clean bouncy ball should be good swag. There are plenty of houses where kids could have it and might like it. :huh:

i have to agree with you. a clean bouncy ball is fun. i generally put all swag i leave in zip baggies so even things like bouncy balls stay clean.

While a clean bouncy ball may be fun, it is a serious safety hazard for small children (who havn't learned not to put things in their mouth yet). In another year, I will not have kids in that age catagory anymore, and then I will start thinking they are great swag. But for now, they are really anoying.

 

They may be annoying to you, but to list something as bad swag because you don't want it borders on being a little self centered.

 

I know it is hard to get our ideas across in the forums. Very easy to be misunderstood. However, you even admit you may find them great swag later, but you say they are bad swag now.

 

Perhaps the problem is I took this thread to mean bad swag, as in stuff that shouldn't be in a cache. You take it as bad swag is stuff you don't want in a cache. Not really the same thing at all. B):)

Well I think the thread is kind of about both. In addition to the many comments about things that should not be in caches, I pulled up some quotes about preferences

.

...

Balloons. (must be a party cache)

...

…

plastic coins (where can you spend that?)

bottle caps (and i do what with them?)

…

...

Golf balls. Please -- STOP leaving them!

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Totem Clan

+Totem Clan

Posted
Posted

Small bouncy ball (my kids always want to trade for those, but we have a baby, so they are banned from our house, then I have to argue with the kids about it, then they are sad).

 

 

Not sure I understand this as "bad swag". A new clean bouncy ball should be good swag. There are plenty of houses where kids could have it and might like it. :huh:

i have to agree with you. a clean bouncy ball is fun. i generally put all swag i leave in zip baggies so even things like bouncy balls stay clean.

While a clean bouncy ball may be fun, it is a serious safety hazard for small children (who havn't learned not to put things in their mouth yet). In another year, I will not have kids in that age catagory anymore, and then I will start thinking they are great swag. But for now, they are really anoying.

 

They may be annoying to you, but to list something as bad swag because you don't want it borders on being a little self centered.

 

I know it is hard to get our ideas across in the forums. Very easy to be misunderstood. However, you even admit you may find them great swag later, but you say they are bad swag now.

 

Perhaps the problem is I took this thread to mean bad swag, as in stuff that shouldn't be in a cache. You take it as bad swag is stuff you don't want in a cache. Not really the same thing at all. B):)

Well I think the thread is kind of about both. In addition to the many comments about things that should not be in caches, I pulled up some quotes about preferences

.

...

Balloons. (must be a party cache)

...

…

plastic coins (where can you spend that?)

bottle caps (and i do what with them?)

…

...

Golf balls. Please -- STOP leaving them!

Well by that very broad definition all swag is bad swag because I don't trade swag ever, so it's all in my way cluttering my caches. :rolleyes:

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RedShoesGirl

RedShoesGirl

Posted
Posted
...snipped

 

While a clean bouncy ball may be fun, it is a serious safety hazard for small children (who havn't learned not to put things in their mouth yet). In another year, I will not have kids in that age catagory anymore, and then I will start thinking they are great swag. But for now, they are really anoying.

 

it seems those small children wouldn't be opening and checking out the swag in a cache by themselves. it's the parent's responsibility to make sure their child doesn't put a baggie with a bouncy ball in their mouth.

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