"retrieving" vs. "grabbing" a Travel Bug

[Lilmissy001]

Hey there!

 

New to Geocaching but LOVE it. I don't quite understand the difference between "retrieving" vs. "grabbing" a Travel Bug. Does it have to do with the cache that it's originally placed in? As in - I would "retrieve" it from it's original cache, (as in the one it was originally listed in), and I would "grab" it from a cache (as in one that it was placed in, but not it's original?). Slightly confused over this topic!!

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

LM001

[jholly]

If I have a travel bug in my inventory and want to transfer it to you so it is in your inventory so you can drop it, you would grab it from me. Think of it being in my hand and you grab it and now it is in your hand. However, if the travel bug is in a cache you would retrieve the travel bug from the cache. It is now in your inventory, i.e., hand. Does this help?

 

Edit: Grab - person to person

Retrieve - cache to person.

Edited August 20, 2011 by jholly

[+nuclearjanitor]

First of all, welcome to the game!

 

This, sadly, is a source of confusion for new cachers. A summary:

 

"Retrieve" Used when you obtained the trackable from the cache that it is inventoried to.

"Grabbed" Used if you either: 1) Obtained the trackable from a cache other than the one that it is inventoried to, or 2) Obtained the trackable from another cacher.

 

My two cents about grabbing from another cacher:

My parents always taught me that it is rude to grab something out of someone elses hands. I feel this applies to trackables as well. The other cacher may not have had a chance to log the drop or forgot about it. As a personal rule, if I obtain a trackable that is still listed in another cachers inventory, I will send them a friendly note 'reminding' them that they need to log it into the cache. If no reply is received in a reasonable time, then I will grab it from that cacher and 'visit' it to the cache I took it from to update its travels (aka mileage).

 

I hope this clears it up, I would be happy to go into a greater explanation if you have any other questions!! Happy caching.

[+Steve0512]

I once got mixed up with DISCOVERED and RETRIEVED. It was a nightmare to get it all sorted out.

[jholly]

First of all, welcome to the game!

 

This, sadly, is a source of confusion for new cachers. A summary:

 

"Retrieve" Used when you obtained the trackable from the cache that it is inventoried to.

"Grabbed" Used if you either: 1) Obtained the trackable from a cache other than the one that it is inventoried to, or 2) Obtained the trackable from another cacher.

 

My two cents about grabbing from another cacher:

My parents always taught me that it is rude to grab something out of someone elses hands. I feel this applies to trackables as well. The other cacher may not have had a chance to log the drop or forgot about it. As a personal rule, if I obtain a trackable that is still listed in another cachers inventory, I will send them a friendly note 'reminding' them that they need to log it into the cache. If no reply is received in a reasonable time, then I will grab it from that cacher and 'visit' it to the cache I took it from to update its travels (aka mileage).

 

I hope this clears it up, I would be happy to go into a greater explanation if you have any other questions!! Happy caching.

No, when taking a travel bug from a cache you always retrieve the travel bug. You have a choice of taking it from cache it is inventoried in if that is where you found it, or somewhere else if it is not in the cache where you found it. Retrieving from some where else is about the only choice you have if the bug was in the missing state prior to retrieving it. I really don't worry about the mileage since when I drop it the mileage will be computed from where it was last to where I drop it. The mileage to the cache where I found it probably won't add much.

 

It is true that you can grab a TB from someone you don't know and have not communicate with, but many times it is between fellow cachers to facilitate person to person transfers. But the advice about emailing and waiting before grabbing is good advice. I wold not drop it until I grabbed it.

[Lilmissy001]

If I have a travel bug in my inventory and want to transfer it to you so it is in your inventory so you can drop it, you would grab it from me. Think of it being in my hand and you grab it and now it is in your hand. However, if the travel bug is in a cache you would retrieve the travel bug from the cache. It is now in your inventory, i.e., hand. Does this help?

 

Edit: Grab - person to person

Retrieve - cache to person.

 

Thank you, this was very helpful. I think I've got it now.

[+Markwell]

Grab - person to person

Retrieve - cache to person.

Slight fixes:

 

I suggest "account inventory" instead of person and "cache page inventory" instead of cache. That just makes it clearer that this is only what happens to the Geocaching.com data, not the real world stuff. A traveler can be grabbed from a cache by a person and never have a change of information on the site. Unfortunate, but very true. So - a more complete and accurate version (to also include "Discovered" and information about "Missing")

 

Grabbed - account inventory or missing to another account inventory

Retrieve - cache page inventory to account inventory

Dropped - account inventory to cache page inventory

Discovered - stays on cache page inventory to account inventory right back into cache page inventory (with one logged)

Marked as Missing - removed from cache page inventory by account, but not placed into specific account inventory (can only be done by cache page owner or traveler owner

[+nuclearjanitor]

No, when taking a travel bug from a cache you always retrieve the travel bug.

 

I really must disagree with you...

 

[+Markwell]

Grabbed - account inventory or missing to another account inventory

Retrieve - cache page inventory to account inventory

Dropped - account inventory to cache page inventory

Discovered - stays on cache page inventory to account inventory right back into cache page inventory (with one logged)

Marked as Missing - removed from cache page inventory by account, but not placed into specific account inventory (can only be done by cache page owner or traveler owner

 

I really must disagree with you...

 

Grabbed - account inventory or missing to another account inventory, or an account indicates it was "grabbed from somewhere else"

Retrieve - cache page inventory to account inventory

Dropped - account inventory to cache page inventory

Discovered - stays on cache page inventory to account inventory right back into cache page inventory (with one logged)

Marked as Missing - removed from cache page inventory by account, but not placed into specific account inventory (can only be done by cache page owner or traveler owner

[+The Blorenges]

Hey there!

 

New to Geocaching but LOVE it. I don't quite understand the difference between "retrieving" vs. "grabbing" a Travel Bug. Does it have to do with the cache that it's originally placed in? As in - I would "retrieve" it from it's original cache, (as in the one it was originally listed in), and I would "grab" it from a cache (as in one that it was placed in, but not it's original?). Slightly confused over this topic!!

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

LM001

 

You can find more useful info about trackables over in the Travel Bug Forum.

 

TB etiquette - Retrieve v. Grab

 

MrsB

[Lilmissy001]

First of all, welcome to the game!

 

This, sadly, is a source of confusion for new cachers. A summary:

 

"Retrieve" Used when you obtained the trackable from the cache that it is inventoried to.

"Grabbed" Used if you either: 1) Obtained the trackable from a cache other than the one that it is inventoried to, or 2) Obtained the trackable from another cacher.

 

My two cents about grabbing from another cacher:

My parents always taught me that it is rude to grab something out of someone elses hands. I feel this applies to trackables as well. The other cacher may not have had a chance to log the drop or forgot about it. As a personal rule, if I obtain a trackable that is still listed in another cachers inventory, I will send them a friendly note 'reminding' them that they need to log it into the cache. If no reply is received in a reasonable time, then I will grab it from that cacher and 'visit' it to the cache I took it from to update its travels (aka mileage).

 

I hope this clears it up, I would be happy to go into a greater explanation if you have any other questions!! Happy caching.

 

Thanks! this explains it!!

[+EdrickV]

A little tip if you do find a TB/Geocoin that's not logged into the cache inventory and still says it's in someone's personal inventory, look to see if that user has already done their log. (The one time I've had to "grab" a TB, the dropper had already made a log entry and mentioned dropping a TB, but apparently forgot to actually do the drop. So I grabbed it and visited it at that cache for mileage. Too bad that TB later ended up in a cache that got muggled. )

[+nuclearjanitor]

Too bad that TB later ended up in a cache that got muggled.

An all too common fate for the little (usually) travelers.

[+MuzzaDazzler]

First of all, welcome to the game!

 

This, sadly, is a source of confusion for new cachers. A summary:

 

"Retrieve" Used when you obtained the trackable from the cache that it is inventoried to.

"Grabbed" Used if you either: 1) Obtained the trackable from a cache other than the one that it is inventoried to, or 2) Obtained the trackable from another cacher.

 

My two cents about grabbing from another cacher:

My parents always taught me that it is rude to grab something out of someone elses hands. I feel this applies to trackables as well. The other cacher may not have had a chance to log the drop or forgot about it. As a personal rule, if I obtain a trackable that is still listed in another cachers inventory, I will send them a friendly note 'reminding' them that they need to log it into the cache. If no reply is received in a reasonable time, then I will grab it from that cacher and 'visit' it to the cache I took it from to update its travels (aka mileage).

 

I hope this clears it up, I would be happy to go into a greater explanation if you have any other questions!! Happy caching.

 

Thanks! this explains it!!

Sorry to intrude but am in the middle of finding this and yet have already "grabbed" as who do you reply to? I found two tb's recently in caches of which no-one had logged their arrival or recent travels. I contacted owners of the tb's and received pleasant enough replies but did not know who I should contact with a view to nudging them to drop it off so I could log it correctly. Having been searching today after finding another unlogged tb and thinking I must be doing something wrong I then discovered your post.

Please advise.

Regards

[+Bear and Ragged]

First of all, welcome to the game!

 

This, sadly, is a source of confusion for new cachers. A summary:

 

"Retrieve" Used when you obtained the trackable from the cache that it is inventoried to.

"Grabbed" Used if you either: 1) Obtained the trackable from a cache other than the one that it is inventoried to, or 2) Obtained the trackable from another cacher.

 

My two cents about grabbing from another cacher:

My parents always taught me that it is rude to grab something out of someone elses hands. I feel this applies to trackables as well. The other cacher may not have had a chance to log the drop or forgot about it. As a personal rule, if I obtain a trackable that is still listed in another cachers inventory, I will send them a friendly note 'reminding' them that they need to log it into the cache. If no reply is received in a reasonable time, then I will grab it from that cacher and 'visit' it to the cache I took it from to update its travels (aka mileage).

 

I hope this clears it up, I would be happy to go into a greater explanation if you have any other questions!! Happy caching.

 

Thanks! this explains it!!

Sorry to intrude but am in the middle of finding this and yet have already "grabbed" as who do you reply to? I found two tb's recently in caches of which no-one had logged their arrival or recent travels. I contacted owners of the tb's and received pleasant enough replies but did not know who I should contact with a view to nudging them to drop it off so I could log it correctly. Having been searching today after finding another unlogged tb and thinking I must be doing something wrong I then discovered your post.

Please advise.

Regards

If you have "Grabbed" the TB's they will now be in your inventory (Will be showing as "In the hands of..." on the TB's page.) The previous cacher is now unable to "Drop" the TB's...

 

At this point you can "Visit" the TB's into the cache you found them. Either when you post you log, or edit it, or post a "Note" on the cache page.

 

Next is to "Drop" them in whichever cache you leave them in.

When logging the find,the caches will show at the bottom of the logging page.