Small trinkets for small containers

[+SurveyContactTeam]

I know small/mirco containers like film canisters usually aren't meant to hold much more than a log book, but I've started thinking about collecting small items like interesting/cute beads that could fit comfortably inside. What I'm wondering is, how many other cachers do the same thing?

 

I know there is a core group of cachers on the forum who have little to no interest in trading for swag, but for those of you who are: do you keep small items in your caching bag to trade in small containers? Are you happy to find little swag items in film canisters, or are you more likely to just ignore it?

[+mpilchfamily]

I know people who have a bunch of those flat marbles they use as there calling cards. They leave them in every cache they visit and are small enough to fit in most small sized caches.

[+zerocool5878]

I personally don't have interest in swag items. But my daughter loves it. Everyweek my wife goes to the dollar store and get a few swag items for her to trade. Small items in Small cache is cool and she likes those but in a micro I don't think she would be interested.

[+L0ne.R]

I know small/micro containers like film canisters usually aren't meant to hold much more than a log book, but I've started thinking about collecting small items like interesting/cute beads that could fit comfortably inside. What I'm wondering is, how many other cachers do the same thing?

 

I know there is a core group of cachers on the forum who have little to no interest in trading for swag, but for those of you who are: do you keep small items in your caching bag to trade in small containers? Are you happy to find little swag items in film canisters, or are you more likely to just ignore it?

 

If you can fit it in, why not? One of the original intents of geocaching, and still is, was to trade swag (take something, leave something). Unless the CO specifically asks people not to leave swag items. Altoids tins have plenty of room for small items. Film canisters have a bit of room depending on how much space the logsheet takes up.

 

[+succotash]

Some of the most interesting swag we've found is/are small items. This includes metal, glass and wood items of interesting shapes. We carry things like little glass eggs, metal and glass beads, and foreign coins to trade in small caches. (The tiny car in Lone R's photo looks really interesting.)

[+popokiiti]

I saw a square bead (like a miniature dice) somewhere that had the letter A on the faces. Best thing I found in a film canister was an earth magnet shaped like a thumb tack.

[+niraD]

The only things I trade for are personal signature items left by other geocachers. A lot of them fit in micro-caches like film-canisters. I carry foreign coins and a few small trinkets, in case I find a sig item that I'd like to trade for.

[+SurveyContactTeam]

Thanks for the opinions! My sig item is currently too big to fit in very small containers, but it sounds like making a collection of little items won't be a waste of time after all.

[+briansnat]

I've often put out micros with trade items. Some things I used were small earrings, trout fishing flies (with tape on the hook tip), a few colored paper clips strung together, dime sized collectible and foreign coins, flag lapel pins and beads.

[+SuperRat]

The tiny erasers that you can buy at the dollar store at times or at a place like staples almost always fit in micros. They are usually only about a centimeter across, come in many different designs, and come in large numbers for cheap prices.

 

Edited June 27, 2011 by SuperRat

[+TheMayfieldFamily]

If I am out by myself or with other adults I just trade for sig items. When I'm out with my daughter then we trade anything. We are thinking about putting a baggie with some string and a bead. Then in other caches leave just a bead so that the little kids can make a caching necklace as they find caches. Not sure on this yet but an idea we are kicking around.

[+sixsix210]

If I am out by myself or with other adults I just trade for sig items. When I'm out with my daughter then we trade anything. We are thinking about putting a baggie with some string and a bead. Then in other caches leave just a bead so that the little kids can make a caching necklace as they find caches. Not sure on this yet but an idea we are kicking around.

 

This actually sounds like a cool idea. My wife is obsessed with penguins and I recently found glass penguin beads that will fit in a very small cache. Until now we've discovered that stickers are a cool option for tiny caches as they take very little space, and kids love em.

[+RhinoInAToga]

We would usually find micro caches that had been there for some time, & they would contain things like run-of-the-mill rocks, a dead flower probably picked nearby probably two months before, a fish bowl glass rock, and change. (not interesting coins, just..change.)

However, we were recently FTF on a micro cache: Film canister. (We don't usually go for FTFs unless we're already out, so we don't have many. Perhaps that, & the fact that we're still new, is why I haven't seen this before.) There were all kinds of cool, tiny things in there! Tiny erasers, a bracelet, little tiny plastic animals. I was impressed with the care they took in their hide, and that they found so many micro goodies to include in it. I didn't realize there was such tiny swag to be found. I had seen a random tiny rabbit here, a minuscule mermaid here.. Not that much swag in one, though. It has me planning to go out & buy some for our micro hides.

If you plan on doing the same, I say go for it. It shows you take pride in your hides, & when trading, you trade quality swag even though it is tiny. That's what I learned about/from the person who hid that cache, anyways. I have a feeling I'm going to consider us "noobs" for quite a long, long time. I keep discovering new aspects to this game that could make us better cachers.