Letterbox Hybrids

[+Brian~!]

Been playing around with an idea for a Geocache. Basically there's only a handful of caches in Pimlico in London. Inspired by the Carry on series of caches, I'm thinking about placing a cache inspired by the Ealing comedy "Passport to Pimlico".

 

And then over the weekend, the missus explained Letterboxing to me and it's just kind of come together with an idea to have the logbook mocked up to look like a passport that you'll have to stamp.

 

But I have a couple of questions before I can go much further on the hybrids. You see, I've not found one yet (in fact I don't even know where there are any nearby!). So I get that you have a unique stamp inside in order for letterboxers to stamp their books, but in the hybrid, is the book that gets stamped and stays with the cache the same as the log book - or do I need two different books?

 

Also, how unique does the stamp have to be? Will I have to craft it somehow, or can I pick up an antique one from the stamp in the market in Islington? Finally, do I include an ink pad in the cache, or will a letterboxer bring one with them? (I toy with the idea of getting a self inking stamp, but I think a pad is just more reliable.

 

Thanks for any help, and thanks again for the responses to my underwater cache query before - I ended up placing it on land in the end, it became GC2HVJ2 "A Walk by Yeading Brook".

 

Regards,

 

Brian / Miyagawa

[+*mouse*]

Hi there,

 

Of the hybrids I've found, only one from memory had a unique stamp - the others were very generic of the sorts that you could pick up in any high st, so it doesn't really matter what you choose. I think unique or unusual is nicer, but by no means essential.

 

As for the log books, from memory I think I have only ever seen one in hybrids - but again I don't think it matters and if you prefer the idea of two then there's no reason why not.

 

I have also seen stamps attached to the log book to prevent them becoming accidentally taken as trade items - might be a good idea if you want to prevent it going missing...

[+Brian~!]

Hi there,

 

Of the hybrids I've found, only one from memory had a unique stamp - the others were very generic of the sorts that you could pick up in any high st, so it doesn't really matter what you choose. I think unique or unusual is nicer, but by no means essential.

 

As for the log books, from memory I think I have only ever seen one in hybrids - but again I don't think it matters and if you prefer the idea of two then there's no reason why not.

 

I have also seen stamps attached to the log book to prevent them becoming accidentally taken as trade items - might be a good idea if you want to prevent it going missing...

 

That's a good idea, probably best to tie the stamp to the log book somehow, otherwise someone might think it's a trade item. Certainly one log book is easier.

[+Bear and Ragged]

Hi there,

 

Of the hybrids I've found, only one from memory had a unique stamp - the others were very generic of the sorts that you could pick up in any high st, so it doesn't really matter what you choose. I think unique or unusual is nicer, but by no means essential.

 

As for the log books, from memory I think I have only ever seen one in hybrids - but again I don't think it matters and if you prefer the idea of two then there's no reason why not.

 

I have also seen stamps attached to the log book to prevent them becoming accidentally taken as trade items - might be a good idea if you want to prevent it going missing...

That says it all!

 

As for leaving an ink pad, I'd say not to.

Either it will put ink everywhere, or will dry out before it can be used!

Best to say in the listing that "You will need to bring your own ink pad"

 

* I think most true letterboxers do bring their own ink pad,along with their own hand crafted, personalised stamp. *

[+Delta68]

We've set a few LBHs

 

Our first one we used a hand cut stamp, two log books and also included an inkpad

 

When we set our (soon to be archived) Abberley Advent[ure] series we managed to buy 24 different Christmas stamps off ebay. Didn't bother with inkpads though as they can just make a yucky mess and most cachers don't bother with the stamps anyway.

 

We also only supplied swaps in the final in an attempt to prevent the stamps from going AWOL...

[+The Chaos Crew]

in our first (and only so far, but looking to hide another over the next week or two) LBH, we put the stamp, inkpad, and stamping cards (for anyone who wanted to take a stamped impression away with them but didn't have a personal logbook) in a small sealed box within the larger cache. This is labelled with clear instructions that the stamp and ink pad are to be left with the cache, and so far, touch wood, it has worked ok.

 

The ink pad is a good quality one with a firm snap shut lid which has survived fine so far, but if it did leak it would only leak inside the smaller box.

 

I wanted to include ink as, although letterboxers will usually bring their own, most geocachers wouldn't necessarily think to, and I wanted everyone to be able to experience the letterbox element fully.

 

The only thing so far that people don't seem to "get" are the stamping cards, I meant for people to take them away with them with an impression of the cache's stamp, but instead some people seem to be stamping their own stamp on them and shoving them into the logbook never mind

 

As for hand carved vs shop bought, I did attempt to handcarve the stamp for our first, but frankly made a complete hash of it, so used a shop bought, but nice and unusual, stamp instead.

 

enjoy hiding your letterbox hybrid, I wish more people would, they are my favourite kind of cache

[+NickandAliandEliza]

There's a stall that sells stamps in the flea market bit of Covent Garden. They have some really weird freaky ones that you probably won't find anywhere else. Our avatar is one of them. The original stamp was quite messy, so we ordered a custom one with the same design that was self inking. The company was called Rubberstampz or something similar.

[+currykev]

There's also a shop near the British Museum.

 

http://www.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/

 

More exciting than the boring museum.

[+The Chaos Crew]

There's also a shop near the British Museum.

 

http://www.bladerubberstamps.co.uk/

 

More exciting than the boring museum.

 

I loooove that shop, pricey though.

[+Bear and Ragged]

Groundspeak approved sellers of geocaching items - ukgeocachers.co.uk/ - can provide you with a 'personalised' rubber stamp, if you supply the drawing.