Jump to content

Do people not care about swag items?


Recommended Posts

since it is referred to as the "worldwide treasure hunt", I feel there should be treasure at the end of the hunt whether you want to trade or not.
As I mentioned in my reply to your other post, that's part of why I avoid describing geocaching as a "treasure hunt". Instead, I describe it as a "scavenger hunt". The things you find in a scavenger hunt are usually of little value, and the point is the experience of finding them.

I prefer "High Tech Hide & Seek".

No entitlement potential. B)

I prefer 'treasure hunt.' If done right the cache and cache site are the treasure, not what's in it. :)

Link to comment

I'm new to geocaching, only found a few easy ones so far, but have not taken anything out, just signed the logbooks. This is a fascinating read though, and some real ideas about what to leave. I'm currently moving house and was about to throw out a lot of child friendly stuff, but now will sort through instead and keep the best items and just drop off in caches as I go.

Cool! It's pretty easy to figure out trade items to stock your caches or swag bag with... look at each item and ask yourself "Would I like this item well enough to trade something nice for it?" or "Would I want my kid to find this in a cache?"

Link to comment

We are still relatively new at caching but have found too many (IMO) micros.

Both of us love SWAG; me probably more-so that he. This previously weekend we ran into many cache where we could exchange SWAG.

 

When we pull up & stop I usually hand him the gizmo to carry & we both start searching; I guess mainly because I am the one who has seen the cache page, comments, photos, map, etc.

Once we find the cache, depending on the cache size.

Micro (nano, bison, etc) - I glance at the log then I let him unroll it to actually read through it.. meaning that HE gets to re-roll those small things LOL while I head back to the vehicle making necessary documentation on gizmo & notebook.

Larger cache which contain SWAG - I glance at the log then start digging through the SWAG as he reads through the previous logs. Wanting to see what others have left he'll glance at the SWAG. I have no idea why but if there is a bouncy ball in there he is all for trading something for it (same goes for golf balls if my 22yo son is with us & spies one) :laughing:

 

To me the trade doesn't really matter much; I'm not "looking" for anything specific. I do (I think) always trade even or up. Depending on the size of the cache & what's already in there I/we usually leave a variety of items. Some items are from previous caches, some are things we have bought specifically for SWAG but I also usually try to leave some handcrafted items I've made (and place within it's own zip-lock type bag). Most of the items we have right now are just miniature items make from polymer clay & hand-painted. But I'm currently making some charms, pendants, key-chains, earrings.

 

Hubby also talked me into making a "copy" of the handy-dandy TOTT that I made him specifically for nanos, bisons & other micros to place as SWAG in some caches.

7f51371c-193c-4ff9-9e34-fdadbf2a9d20.jpg

Link to comment

I only called it the "worldwide treasure hunt" because thats what it says on geocaching.com's home page. I guess it just comes down to what you like, and like any other message board about any other thing, everyone is going to feel differently about things and on different levels of intensity. We dont have any friends that are into this, so everything I know is just from this website. Then I read through some of these posts on the board and see how hardcore some people are, and it makes me feel silly for even posting anything at all! I really just wanted to know if the garbage in the box was common, and I got my answer!

Link to comment

>>why do people make caches far away from where they live ?

 

> Depending on how you define far, there can be many possible answers.

> many of the nicest hiking caches I have done have not been hidden by people

> living there. Most cachers live in cities and close to cities and not in the mountains.

 

you as a CO agree to maintain a cache after it is repported as in need.

"too far away" is a location you dont visit on a regular basis, or will be able to visit easyly when YOUR cache is in need,

that is why I ONLY create caches near my home, and near my job,

the two locations I visit ALL the time, so my caches are maintained 1-2 days after a need is shown,

I also READ all logs, and take care visitors get more or less what they expect, like diff/terr ratings

is it hidden correctly, so the levels are correct for others, but cache may still be in perfect shape, just not perfect location..

or a hint can change over time, I write hint near a tree, suttently it is a stub, and there are 100 other stubs all over =

hint is useless, and must be rephrased.

it is a full time job for me to handle my caches, I do it with pride and joy,

if I one day dont, I just archive them all and go out and pick up the containers,

better that, over non maintained stuff, for sure DONT expect visitors to maintain anything,

they dont care at all it is your job not theirs. all you get is a TFTC, and that is all you should expect.

 

oh another funny one : the other day I got a note : log book almost full,

I drove there with a new log, and found 50% of its space used and else in perfect dry shape,

talk about wasting my time :-)

so I kindly wrote : cache maintained halve used log now changed to a new one.

Edited by OZ2CPU
Link to comment

Newbie - since 02/10/2012, 83 caches found.

 

I've seen several posts on the forums here complaining about swag quality - why does the swag suffer so much? It's not the most important thing about geocaching but certainly it's one aspect that makes the game fun and I like to have a little keep-sake of the day, but there's so much junk! My swag includes heart key-rings as a 'signature item' and other cheap items like rubbers, party favours, bubbles, or little plastic toys I've got laying round the house from Kinder eggs that I may leave too...but what I'm seeing in caches are rusty pennies, rusty used hair slide, salt packets, rubbish.

 

I like leaving nice swag items for the same reason I like to do a little light maintenance on caches - to keep the game fun and pleasant for everyone - I'd hope it would also rise the quality of swag items locally, or at least be a nice surprise for a kid out geocaching with their family. I'm starting to feel stupid for leaving these items when no one else bothers and then I re-visited a cache today to find my items still there, I suspect either people had nothing of equal value to trade or just don't like to trade...but then, why am I bothering? Should I not bother? Do people just not care about swag items?

 

 

I feel exactly the same. My son (6) and i have been doing this for a month or so now and we are hooked. I love the search and he loves the swag. We have found a few good things but mostly junk. Whats with reciepts? i find loads of them. I put in marbles, a rubber ball, and dice. even if we dont take anything. I love the pay it forward concept, but surely we all have to do it to make it work ?

I did find a small cat figurine, seemed like it was left just for me, mad cat lady that i am , he has pride of place on the mantlepiece.

My next investment will be a box of small bags for the log books. :)

Link to comment

YES! My family cares about the swag! My kids scour the house for something at any mention of caching. I wanted our first outing to be a successful and fun reminder of our hunts~ so we did choose several P&G's.

 

For myself~ I don't really care-- but I like to find NICE things - NOT rusty pennies or washers like we found this weekend. we hadn't gone in years and I was shocked to see the lack of nice swag! Almost every cache this past wknd had gross pennies, buisiness cards or broken toys. My children were disappointed but did trade a few items. Next weekend, I think we will plan a trek into the back country and judge the swag there!

 

I must agree with several other cachers-- my kids don't like the micros & it does seem like the ratio of micros/traditional caches has gone up since we last went (about 4 years ago).

 

ETA: I have been teaching my children the trade up concept and how to help maintain the cache~ so we carry extra paper, baggies and such to help out the caches. My kids also have a dedicated cache bag now! ;D

Edited by jobows
Link to comment

Generally, I have no interest in swag. On rare occasion, something will appeal to me, and I will trade for it. But that is vvery rare. Container. Log Book. That's all I'm inetersted in. Nice view or nice place is an extra.

 

Bubbles are really bad swag. They leak and make a mess.

Many years ago (that would be 2004), I hid my first cache. Yup! You guessed it! I put bubbles in the cache! Returned five years later, when I was in the area, and removed the bubbles. Because 'they leak'. I must have found a good brand at the Dollar Store. They didn't leak. (Yeah. You read that right. First maintenance five years later. And I only stopped by to remove the bubbles.)

Link to comment

 

> Depending on how you define far, there can be many possible answers.

> many of the nicest hiking caches I have done have not been hidden by people

> living there. Most cachers live in cities and close to cities and not in the mountains.

 

you as a CO agree to maintain a cache after it is repported as in need.

 

Yes, but on the one hand it used to be common understanding that a cache on a mountain does

not need to be maintained within 2 days (some of them are not even reachable during several months

of the year) and on the other hand, there are many maintenance issues that finders can

take care of. Removing trash belongs to the latter group as well as putting a new log sheet

into a remote cache. Stocking a cache with trad items is not obligatory, so the same holds in my opinion for

removing worthless, but not dangerous items that someone else put into the cache.

 

"too far away" is a location you dont visit on a regular basis, or will be able to visit easyly when YOUR cache is in need,

that is why I ONLY create caches near my home, and near my job,

the two locations I visit ALL the time, so my caches are maintained 1-2 days after a need is shown,

 

That's your decision. Typically such caches are not the caches I like and not those for which I started geocaching.

I do not expect a cache hider to climb up a mountain right after a maintenance issue showed up. Not even

the next week end is a reasonable requirement for me for such caches. It can well take one month and I am

still ok with it. Everything shorter than 1 week is not reasonable for me even for urban caches as there are many geocacher who

typically have time for geocaching only at the week end. As it comes to mountain hikes further factors come into play: weather conditions, whether one has a whole day to spend etc

 

it is a full time job for me to handle my caches, I do it with pride and joy,

if I one day dont, I just archive them all and go out and pick up the containers,

better that, over non maintained stuff, for sure DONT expect visitors to maintain anything,

they dont care at all it is your job not theirs. all you get is a TFTC, and that is all you should expect.

 

What I wrote was not about expectations. It was about what used to be a common practice in former years.

There was not that much of a distinction between cache hiders and cache seekers. Most cachers took both roles and it

was common to help out each other. This also allowed to have a reasonable number of nice hiking caches and not only

tons of urban caches.

 

oh another funny one : the other day I got a note : log book almost full,

I drove there with a new log, and found 50% of its space used and else in perfect dry shape,

talk about wasting my time :-)

so I kindly wrote : cache maintained halve used log now changed to a new one.

 

That happens often, but is not funny and it even gets much more frustrating when such a cache requires a

4 hour walk.

 

Cezanne

Edited by cezanne
Link to comment

Let me ask a question, as I'm looking at placing my own cache soon. What's some good FTF prizes, and swag to load up with?

 

I put small FTF congratulations cards in my caches which are big enough to acomodate them. Other than that a few nick nacks for the kids from hawkins bizzare.

 

Regarding the OP's point: I personally don't care about swag, i used to a little when i first started but you quickly learn that that's probabaly the smallest atraction to the activity. However when i place a cache i try to stash average sized caches where i can because you still can't beat finding a decent sized cache, even if there's only a log book in it, it also gives room for a good sized log book which people area more likely to leave a few lines in.

 

MO anyway

Link to comment

A dry logbook is all I ask. Maybe an interesting sig item. Maybe a traveler. Lots of swag gets in the way of finding the logbook or the travelers.

This is definitely how I feel about caching. I have only swapped swag twice -- one was on my first cache, and the second was to get some carabiners to hide some tree caches at some point. My first hide will have some nice swag with it, but after that I'll only go all out for milestone hides. =)

 

I like hides that either make me think, or teach me about where I am. I don't need some trinkets to remind me of the place.

Link to comment

I think that, with the history of geocaching, the population that hid and found caches valued the swag trade as part of geocaching. (Especially with larger containers) But, as you add hundreds, then thousands, then millions of geocachers, you will get other opinions. You will get other value systems. You will get angels and thieves. It's just the maturation of the game.

 

When I place caches, I put in good swag to start. Then, as others have noted, they degrade quickly. I won't restock the swag like I used to 5-7 years ago. I'll go and clean out the trash, sure. (And check that the logbook is there, signable, etc!)

 

The game has moved on, it seems. So many people, no way to have the same set of values, or determination of value of a swag item.

 

I can't say that it doesn't bum me out when I've placed something like a new, unwrapped new release DVD (~$15) in a cache and seen it disappear. But, I highly doubt anyone will ever own up to it or try to improve cache karma in the future. So, I move on.

Link to comment

I very rarely trade items. When I hide a cache I try to stock it with a few things for kids to trade.

 

Swag deteriorates, sometimes very quickly.

 

I've had finders innocently log that they traded a travel bug or geocoin for some piece of swag. I don't get worked up about it as I assume it's nothing nefarious, but that basically takes a swag item for nothing. I remember being confused about TB and geocoins at first as well (took a while to learn that you don't need to leave something to move one along) so I can relate to the confusion.

 

Other people don't have anything with them to trade but a child with them has to have some little doo-dad from the box so they let them take it rather than deal with a possible tantrum. Maybe they throw a rock, golf ball, or leaf sitting a few feet away to even things out.

 

One cache I found I noticed the finder above me wrote in the paper log he or she took a gift card and ceramic something or other in exchange for a coupon - the coupon was expired prior to their found date! I thought it was weird to log such a lopsided trade and not just do it without creating a record. :laughing:

Link to comment

I think that, with the history of geocaching, the population that hid and found caches valued the swag trade as part of geocaching.

 

I do not agree. I have observed that the importance attributed to swag has always been subject to a lot of variation depending on the region.

I started geocaching in Autumn 2002 and found caches in my home region, Vienna, Denmark, and four different provinces of Germany within my first year

of geocaching. I realized that the habits in these regions and other regions I have told about by friends were quite different already back then.

Among the first geocachers in my area, there were hardly any with children and single cachers dominated the game. Trading never has been a high value around here.

 

My main reason for geocaching is being physically more active and not to play a game or to encounter nice objects. I combine geocaching with hikes and bike tours and I am not willing to carry along trading items during such activities. I am already glad if I have the really important things with me and do not forget anything of them at home. In order to reduce the weight to be carried, I typically also leave items like my camera at home and I'm definitely not willing to carry along a sortiment of nice items for trading for several hours and quite some height meters up and down.

 

Cezanne

Edited by cezanne
Link to comment

Let me ask people: when I'm trekking out into the woods for more than a park and grab, I already have a financial ocmmitment involved. Gas, Tolls, Hiking expenses, and so-on. What does it harm me to put an extra $1-$5 on that to grab a piece of nice swag?

 

Honest to goodness, the best piece of swag I found was tissues, since the girlfriend was there and had to pee -oh so bad-. Since then, she's enjoyed geocaching, and seeing that it can help her :-P

 

So, as experienced, mature, geocachers, what kind of swag would you honestly like to see for the <$5 and <$10 ranges?

 

I've personally thrown in a few maps of the area in one large cache I found, $6. But hopefuly somebody without one will take it, and return to the area and enjoy it that much more since they can find all the signifigant points.

 

I think for <$5, things like decks of cards, post-cards, little notebooks work great.

 

For <$10, perhaps an unactivated geocoin, or travel bug. A map of the area.

 

PS, as a side note, I work as a photographer, and love to shoot alot of these areas. Do you think printing some 4x6/5x7, putting them in a ziploc and leaving them in a cache is a good idea?

Link to comment

Let me ask people: when I'm trekking out into the woods for more than a park and grab, I already have a financial ocmmitment involved. Gas, Tolls, Hiking expenses, and so-on. What does it harm me to put an extra $1-$5 on that to grab a piece of nice swag?

 

Honest to goodness, the best piece of swag I found was tissues, since the girlfriend was there and had to pee -oh so bad-. Since then, she's enjoyed geocaching, and seeing that it can help her :-P

 

So, as experienced, mature, geocachers, what kind of swag would you honestly like to see for the <$5 and <$10 ranges?

 

I've personally thrown in a few maps of the area in one large cache I found, $6. But hopefuly somebody without one will take it, and return to the area and enjoy it that much more since they can find all the signifigant points.

 

I think for <$5, things like decks of cards, post-cards, little notebooks work great.

 

For <$10, perhaps an unactivated geocoin, or travel bug. A map of the area.

 

PS, as a side note, I work as a photographer, and love to shoot alot of these areas. Do you think printing some 4x6/5x7, putting them in a ziploc and leaving them in a cache is a good idea?

 

Paper items don't usually do well. They get wet or dirty. Even condensation could ruin the pictures. Then again there's no reason you couldn't try leaving a few. I wouldn't recommend leaving a lot.- perhaps laminating them?

 

I have left $5 FTF gift certificates to the local ice cream parlors for my 5 stage multis.

Edited by Luckless
Link to comment

 

PS, as a side note, I work as a photographer, and love to shoot alot of these areas. Do you think printing some 4x6/5x7, putting them in a ziploc and leaving them in a cache is a good idea?

 

I don't know how long they would last in the cache, but if I saw some really cool photographs as swag, I would definitely trade for them.

 

I have some favorite photos that I have taken, and what I do is make cards with them by cropping them a bit and mounting them on a piece of cardstock. (Half a sheet, and folded in half)

Link to comment

 

PS, as a side note, I work as a photographer, and love to shoot alot of these areas. Do you think printing some 4x6/5x7, putting them in a ziploc and leaving them in a cache is a good idea?

 

I don't know how long they would last in the cache, but if I saw some really cool photographs as swag, I would definitely trade for them.

 

I have some favorite photos that I have taken, and what I do is make cards with them by cropping them a bit and mounting them on a piece of cardstock. (Half a sheet, and folded in half)

 

I just researched a way to waterproof photo paper. It basically involves spraying a waterproofing liquid on the photo, then letting it dry. Also, I might do some 2x3's as well, for smaller caches. Should have some time to try this this coming weekend. Will report back with my findings.

Link to comment

Isonzo said "Over time, the swag on a cache that requires 3 miles or more of walking will do okay.

Under that, it's junk by the time it's been found 6 times. "

 

For me this is both true and untrue. It's true because it's exactly what I find in the world. It's untrue for me though because it's the cache owners responsibility to make it untrue. Maintain your caches people.

 

I too believe it is part of the responsibility of the cache owner to maintain their caches by first placing a container that will protect the contents. Second checking on the container a couple of times a year to remove junk and wipe down the box of dirt, pebbles, twigs and leaves that inevitably accumulates. It's the dirt and moisture that contributes to a shabby looking cache with shabby looking swag. A clean container will attract better swag. I personally will not leave my handcrafted swag in a messy cache and especially one that leaks.

 

As a cache owner I like getting comments about the quality of the swag in our caches. Like this one:

 

My mom and I went to this one, it was her second cache and she was the one to find it! Wow what a beautiful area, thanks so much for helping us find it! This is a STELLAR cache with some really good trinkets for once. I took a manicure set and left a basketball keychain, my mum took some stickers and left a mini address book and a rubber toy snake. TFTC!!!!
:)

Link to comment

To each their own. I mostly despise logbook only caches and micros unless they are cache and dash. I don't like searching all over every black widow crack in an abandoned house foundation just to note I was there.

 

I love well hidden small to medium cache containers and swag, mostly signature swag. I recently started my own signature swag for our team (multi colored chain mail keychains-hand made). Sure they cost me time (what else am I gonna do in front of the idiot box?) and maybe 25 cents in supplies, but I watched someone find one I had left behind five minutes before. Worth it! Sometimes I'll leave two, or other handy swag if I remember to bring enough. (I keep a certain amount in the car for caching on the fly, but bring extra when I actually mean to cache).

 

When I first started caching, there were few caches, well hidden, with wonderful swag, and TBs that had a description of where they wanted to go attached to them. Now, there are often five micro caches in a small area with nothing but a log book. What, do I really need to note that I was here, oh and here 100 yards away, and here 100 more yards from that, etc. I don't see the point in that, it might as well be a virtual cache. But I do see the point in putting a "treasure chest" in a unique location for people to discover. I like going to the general area and "feeling" for where the cache owner would have hidden it. A micro cache could be hidden nearly anywhere with no real intelligence needed, but a container cache needs some creativity to look like it belongs where it is.

Link to comment

 

PS, as a side note, I work as a photographer, and love to shoot alot of these areas. Do you think printing some 4x6/5x7, putting them in a ziploc and leaving them in a cache is a good idea?

 

I don't know how long they would last in the cache, but if I saw some really cool photographs as swag, I would definitely trade for them.

 

I have some favorite photos that I have taken, and what I do is make cards with them by cropping them a bit and mounting them on a piece of cardstock. (Half a sheet, and folded in half)

 

I just researched a way to waterproof photo paper. It basically involves spraying a waterproofing liquid on the photo, then letting it dry. Also, I might do some 2x3's as well, for smaller caches. Should have some time to try this this coming weekend. Will report back with my findings.

 

Kyle: maybe you can make a postcard? "Out geocaching, wish you were here!"

Link to comment

Trading, I worry, is less of a part of the game for "newbies" around my area lately. There are a number of local new cachers in my area who have been very clear about their intentions with cache swag:

:) Found it 04/19/2012

Nice long hike with XXXXX after a five mile run. Second to find. Took movie ln sl. TFTC

(emphasis mine)

 

There seems to be a trend in my area where caches are missing swag after a few specific cachers have visited. Also, poor coordinates and disingenuous hints when hiding, and a habit of not rehiding others' caches well are the new MO around town.

 

I would love to see some nice photos in a cache, and would be sure to make a trade if there was one I liked. Cool idea, to be sure.

Edited by NeverSummer
Link to comment

We do the swag thing because we cache with our kids. It's important to them so it's important to us. I always carry a good selection of quality swag items (not necessarily expensive, but things that my kids like trading for) and sometimes we'll toss in a few extra into a cache that's full of lousy swag. We live in the wet part of Oregon so a lot of the caches are wet. That's normal and to be expected here, it's just hard to keep anything dry. So some caches we find are pretty gross. Those we just sign the log and move on; no sense crying over spoiled swag.

Link to comment

 

But even if you are trying to be fair, how do you evaluate the value of a trade?

 

 

We recently were on a hike with five ~10-11 year old Boy Scouts and showed them the game. Inside the cache we found was a spent .30 caliber shell casing. You would have thought they had found the Rosetta Stone wrapped in the Holy Grail. The coolest thing ever.

 

So exactly to your point - if these kids had had $10 between them, they would have gladly left it as a 'fair trade.'

 

One man's trash is another man's treasure...and kids like the darnedest things.

Link to comment

When shorter, Scout thought the greatest thing since sliced bread was can pull tabs. Scout had a huge collection. Each virtually identical. To Scout this was truly valuable and would squeal like a stuck pig whenever one was found. Even to the point of pulling them off unopened cans. (yes really) That fad has now passed. If I were to find a pull tab in a cache I'd consider it junk and probably CITO it. Value assigned does not always correlate with cost. It's a personal thing. The only things I trade for are personal sig items that I do not yet have in my collection. I carry a small pouch with swag left over from my trading days, but my real purpose is to get my fat lazy *&^ off the couch and keep the cardiologist off my back.

Edited by ras_oscar
Link to comment

I care about swag a lot more when I cache with my 3 year old. Its also a bit more expensive to stock stuff that non kids would like, unless I go to stores a bit more far away like a gag store or something.

 

Just hid a regular cache today and tried to put some decent swag in it. Course, one was a VHS tape, I could get reamed for that. We had a double!

Link to comment

I care about swag a lot more when I cache with my 3 year old. Its also a bit more expensive to stock stuff that non kids would like, unless I go to stores a bit more far away like a gag store or something.

 

Just hid a regular cache today and tried to put some decent swag in it. Course, one was a VHS tape, I could get reamed for that. We had a double!

 

WOW, like totally retro, dude!

Link to comment

We call our geocaching bag the "Swag Bag!" We will go GCing as a family and the boys take turns reviewing the found cache and they decide what's going to be traded. Our swag bag has different types of items: carabiners, Angry Birds erasers, mini pens, antique butterfly pins, etc. Buying swag off of ebay is a fun little hobby! My general rule is that swag should cost around a dollar, give or take. I also want to put something new in, preferably wrapped. We have seen some pretty crummy swag in caches. Last weekend I found two caches with some cub scouts, their first experience, and the swag wasn't just poor, it was pretty much literal garbage: chewed on party horn, broken army men, bottle cap...

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...