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Collectible Travel Bugs?


carlstein

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Anyone understand this concept? Please help me get it. What's the point of a travel bug that doesn't travel? Or do we decide once a bug has seen enough of the world to retire it and let some bozo in Outer Mongolia add it to his "collection"... seems some players do that already: I've not release a lot of bugs (4 to be precise) but 75% of them have ended up in someone's "collection"!

 

I don't geddit.

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Anyone understand this concept? Please help me get it. What's the point of a travel bug that doesn't travel? Or do we decide once a bug has seen enough of the world to retire it and let some bozo in Outer Mongolia add it to his "collection"... seems some players do that already: I've not release a lot of bugs (4 to be precise) but 75% of them have ended up in someone's "collection"!

 

I don't geddit.

 

Don't worry, neither does anyone else :laughing:

 

There was a huge debate about it when the feature was first added a few months ago. Initially trackable were given no status, meaning someone could "collect" a trackable, but since the uproar I think GC changed it so that by default trackables are "not collectible".

 

I think the main idea behind the concept was for people that have geocoin collections, I don't know of anyone that collects TB's, to have a separate place to store them instead of being listed in their normal inventory. They can then be moved in and out of the inventory, collectively, in order to be dipped at events and such like. As I don't have any collections, I don't know how well this is working :laughing:

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Me neither - a crazy notion if you ask me. I, as do many other coin collectors, have a personal coin cache where the collection is kept [logged into]. This way they are 100% safe and nobody but yourself can access.

 

its exactly what the new feature solves

 

you don't need a cache to keep your collectibles, you drop them in your collection and they are safe, nobody can grab it all they can do is post a note or discover it

that way is separate from the inventory items which you pick up to move

 

if you have one that you use to keep track of your mileage all you have to do now is click on "visited" when you log the cache and it does it all for you, no need to drop and retrieve as before

 

Trackables Inventory - those you pick up to move

Trackables Collection - personal coins/TB

 

what i don't get is how can such a simple and straight forward feature can be so hard to understand

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...what i don't get is how can such a simple and straight forward feature can be so hard to understand

 

I think the misunderstanding comes from the word "Collectible".

 

If something is "collectible" most people take that to mean that if you find that item then you can collect it... and, presumably, start your own collection with it.

 

In this context of geocaching trackables it means exactly the opposite! - It means that the item belongs to another person and it is already in their own collection.

 

Personally, I feel it would have been better to named the two options for trackables as "Traveling Trackable" and "Owner's Personal Collection".

 

MrsB

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if you have one that you use to keep track of your mileage all you have to do now is click on "visited" when you log the cache and it does it all for you, no need to drop and retrieve as before

 

what i don't get is how can such a simple and straight forward feature can be so hard to understand

 

Except the one I moved to collection to test the system no longer appears in my inventory so how do I let it "visit" the cache? Or is a collection item not one that moves? If that's the case it used to work with inventory anyway?

 

I think MrsB's explanation of what they should be called makes most sense!

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if you have one that you use to keep track of your mileage all you have to do now is click on "visited" when you log the cache and it does it all for you, no need to drop and retrieve as before

 

what i don't get is how can such a simple and straight forward feature can be so hard to understand

 

Except the one I moved to collection to test the system no longer appears in my inventory so how do I let it "visit" the cache? Or is a collection item not one that moves? If that's the case it used to work with inventory anyway?

 

I think MrsB's explanation of what they should be called makes most sense!

 

I agree totally with MrsB and tomtwogates.

 

@t4e - yes sir for somebody starting out afresh. I am happy to leave my collection right where it is now though. I have 4 travelers that travel with me all the time - my FTF Coin to all my FTF's, my EarthCache Coin to all EC's visited, my 50 Hides Coin to all caches I hide and my Cachemobile TB that goes to every cache with me. I am happy to place them into the "Collection" tab.

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Okay, I think I am beginning to understand why I am confused. I was not aware of this concept of collections of geocoins. Are you saying that people have a batch of coins made for them and then they just keep them at home in a box, or maybe in a display or something and haul them out and drag them to events so that other people can peer at them and say "nice" and log that they "discovered" that coin (well done!) and get a nice icon on their website to prove it. Hmm, okay each to his own I guess.... just doesn't seem to me to have too much to do with geocaching.

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I, as do many other coin collectors, have a personal coin cache where the collection is kept [logged into]. This way they are 100% safe and nobody but yourself can access.

 

What is a personal cache? How do you prevent others from accessing a cache?

 

It's a cache which you create but never submit for publication. The coords will usually need to be somewhere that they will never conflict with the publication of a real cache.

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Okay, I think I am beginning to understand why I am confused. I was not aware of this concept of collections of geocoins. Are you saying that people have a batch of coins made for them and then they just keep them at home in a box, or maybe in a display or something and haul them out and drag them to events so that other people can peer at them and say "nice" and log that they "discovered" that coin (well done!) and get a nice icon on their website to prove it.

 

Not exactly. Some geocachers collect geocoins in the same way that other people collect stamps. They buy coins that they particularly like and keep them in "mint collection" in albums. The coins are activated to their geocaching account and then moved into their Trackables Collection. This means that they don't appear in their Trackables Inventory with other trackables that are waiting to be dropped off into a cache. Such Collections are often taken along to events so that other cachers can see them and log them as 'discovered' if they wish.

 

Hmm, okay each to his own I guess.... just doesn't seem to me to have too much to do with geocaching.

 

I know what you mean, but many of those who own such collections of coins also have coins which are out travelling. They have experienced many of those coins disappearing very quickly when out "in the wild" and may not be prepared to risk releasing some of their most treasured coins only to see them deliberately stolen or picked up by inexperienced cachers who think that the coin is just a particularly great bit of swag.

 

MrsB :blink:

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We haven't been caching for long and today, retrieved our first TB from a cache and also grabbed a TB from another cache and will get them both going again real soon.

 

This probably sounds pretty normal to you all and not much to do with the Topic "Collectible Travel Bugs," but the Travel Bug named Happy that we grabbed, was not Happy at all.

 

You see, Happy had been morphed into Tweety somewhere along the line! Thats right, Happy was gone and a Tweety imposter was attached to Happy's TB tag.

 

So I can only assume that some one really liked Happy, removed Happy from the TB tag and left the TB tag in the cache. Then someone else felt sorry for the lonely TB tag and attached a Tweety which is rather sweet .

 

Now, we hope the owner of Happy can at least enjoy the new travels of Happy Tweety.

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