Society of Better Swag

[TheDoctorPH]

ok i been lurking this thread for a long time and i love the idea of a club for this type of thing.

 

personally, i love sculpting,mostly out of soapstone or wood, and i think im going to start making some things to put in the caches i find. im also thinking about keeping a blog with picture of each one i make.

 

we'll see how it goes, but either way i will always be working to improve the state of swag in my area.

[+blackhorse221]

personally, i love sculpting,mostly out of soapstone or wood, and i think im going to start making some things to put in the caches i find. im also thinking about keeping a blog with picture of each one i make.

 

Awesome idea. Personalized swag is some of the best out there.

 

I just cleaned out a cache full of soggy business cards and movie stubs and threw in a whole bunch of little finger lights and mini compasses for the kids. $20 on Amazon got me two big bags full of little trinkets perfect for Geocaching. And the kids love this kind of stuff.

 

I'm not expecting $40 leatherman knives and gas cards in every cache, but for crying out loud, stop throwing trash in there, people! No more pennies (unless they're stamped/collector types), bottle caps, spent bullet cartridges, etc. Get creative and have quality!

[TheDoctorPH]

the worst swag i ever found was a cache filled so full with alphabet fridge magnets that you couldnt even close the box.

 

i was thinking about making my things Trackable. is there a way to do that officially?

[+niraD]

i was thinking about making my things Trackable. is there a way to do that officially?

Yes. See the Help Center document Tracking Code Policy

 

Tracking numbers cost $1.50 each, with a minimum order of 50.

[+Jimwise]

As a parent trying to keep an apathetic 9 year old interested in Geocaching, I have also been inspired by this thread and have been actively cleaning up and restocking appropriate sized caches with loot I carry around with me. Maintaining caches integrity has become half the game for us now. Count us in!!

[+RockNRip]

I am lucky--our small community has a core group of cachers that usually leave pretty good SWAG. There's usually something good in every cache that is big enough to hold it. I'm a little "crafty" so I usually have a few handmade pendants/jewelry (I posted a pic on the FB SOBS page) to trade and DH is a coin collector so that's what he trades with. I do keep a bag of dollar items to help out some of the sadder caches.

 

We took our nephew out this last weekend (he's around 9 also) for his first time caching and we found a few fun things for him, miniature army truck, arrowhead, flashlight keychain. He thought it was all pretty neat.

 

On the other hand, last month when visiting my in-laws in NV, they graciously drove us around and my mother-in-law helped us to find a few caches. Only a couple that we found were not micros/nanos, and those unfortunately had pretty much junk in them. She was not impressed.

[CraftyKel*]

Excellent thread, have now found the FB page.

 

We've only been going just over a week. My Mrs makes hand-made jewellery and we take a selection of that with us as well as a selection of toy cars, figurines, pocket games, etc and always try to leave a cache with better loot than when we found it. It's awful to open a cache with the kids and see a load of old store loyalty cards, playing tokens from an board game, sweet wrappers, etc, nothing of interest to them, their faces drop

 

My next spare cash will be spent on spare log books/sheets/bags so that we can replace logs when needed as well.

 

If all cachers had a similar attitude I'm sure things would be better for everyone. If all anyone finds in containers is junk then I can see nobody bothering in future and just going micro/nano all the time and that is bad for families. Swag makes this great, healthy hobby fun for the kids!

 

I agree with what a previous poster said, most new cachers I think are eager and enthusiastic (like we are) and do swap well. I think it's likely it's the 'old hands' who have become jaded, or disillusioned with swag that are perhaps making it worse....but then again, it's probably a mix of both.

 

Anyways, just wanted to add my penny's worth to an excellent cause

 

Russ

[TheDoctorPH]

i didnt even know there was a FB page. i have now liked it

[+murrayix]

I was getting pretty disappointed with the swag in the caches around here; I guess try to set an example. I love finding retro or homemade things in the containers; I've started to drop off my duct tape roses. I think choosing swag to pass on is really part of the fun.

 

One of the containers I found yesterday had a peanut... an old musty peanut.