+Us 4 and Jess Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) I have a stupidly huge watch list for caches and travellers, and I get stupid amount of emails each day, so today was the day to clear off the caches I can't even remember doing and the travellers that are no more It was quite sad to see how many TBs/geocoins that had gone missing either being muggled/stolen/lost/sat in folks bags from 5 year ago and got me to thinking there must have thousands upon thousands of pound worth of travellers missing in action....I have lost a few quids worth myself A coin is £5/10 average, a TB tag is £5.00 even if you add a worthless item to it... I have about 50 Geo Coins in a book, do I let them sit there and collect dust, or send them out and hope they don't go missing? So a few questions... Do people still send out TBs/geocoins to travel? or are they a not worth the effort/cost/chance of losing them? In the early days of our caching Ground Speak sent out thousands of TBs promoting diabetes to counties/States all around the world, has anyone seen one of those lately? They can't all be missing? I must admit we have not seen one for a few years now... Then there were the Jeeps green/white and red ones? (I can't remember what those were for) Has anyone seen one of those lately? They were a great thing to find a few years back and everyone was battling to log one of those.. So all in all...Have you lost much money on travellers? Do you still send them out? Are they going to become a thing of the past? Mandy Edited July 25, 2012 by Us 4 and Jess Quote Link to comment
+GAZ Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I have a TB tag that I got way back in 2002/2003.......never got round to attaching something to it......so it's never been sent out! Maybe I should? Quote Link to comment
+Original A1 Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 That's funny, because yesterday I started compiling an Excel spreadsheet of caches I'm watching, for much the same reason, namely too many e-mails and yet a continued interest in certain caches (like the Cuckoo one, about a zillion logs for which were made after the Geolympix the other day). That way, I can remind myself that I would like to find it one day, but don't get the e-mails. With some, they will wait until I'm heading to a particular geographical location, I'll have a look to see whether I've fulfilled whatever criteria is necessary and hopefully find the cache. As for trackables, I have long since accepted that it's part and parcel of the game that they'll go missing. It doesn't stop me trying to do something about it though, and every now and then I'll wing an e-mail to whoever has hung onto it for several months (or longer). I did get a result last week that way, but on the whole, there's little response, which is disappointing, but not unexpected, I suppose. As such, I don't let any GCs out into the wild any more, and face much the same dilemma about what to do with them other than to take them to events where there are usually the same crop of people who've seen them before... Quote Link to comment
+The Blorenges Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I have about 50 Geo Coins in a book, do I let them sit there and collect dust, or send them out and hope they don't go missing? Well... if you release them they certainly will go missing eventually, but will it be sooner or later? If you don't want them any more you could always Ebay them... or, if you can't be bothered with that, how about giving them to any new cachers you meet at events? Do people still send out TBs/geocoins to travel? or are they a not worth the effort/cost/chance of losing them? Yes, I still send out both but I treat them as a gamble. In the same way that some people will feed £5/£10 into a fruit machine, I'm happy to release trackables knowing that some will "win" and give me interest over several months or years, with the others I may "lose" almost immediately. In the early days of our caching Ground Speak sent out thousands of TBs promoting diabetes to counties/States all around the world, has anyone seen one of those lately? They can't all be missing? I must admit we have not seen one for a few years now... Then there were the Jeeps green/white and red ones? (I can't remember what those were for) Has anyone seen one of those lately? They were a great thing to find a few years back and everyone was battling to log one of those. I haven't seen one of the Diabetes TBs for about a year. The last jeep TB I saw was at an event - haven't seen one in the wild for several years. They were good fun at the time - we made an early morning expedition into Wiltshire to get our first white jeep "Little Orson", I remember him well, he's out in New Zealand now. MrsB Quote Link to comment
+Us 4 and Jess Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Part of the problem is with the 'collectible' status of many that I find, that say 'user hasn't set their collectible preference'. I always contact the owner to ask but I'm sure others will take that as a sign that they can be kept. That could actually be a very valid point!! 6/7 years ago when I was sending my first travellers out on their journeys, the TB/Geo Coin pages did not have the information on that they do now...so9 yes maybe people who have found my TBs/Coins think that I have sent them out for other to keep...maybe there are millions of coins in peoples possession that they genuinely think are a gift to them as the more "seasoned" cachers have not changed the information on the travellers page to say it is not a collectible. Is it not polite to contact the travellers owner to ask though? Do most travellers not have some kind of information on their tracking page telling us what they would like to do? Hmm M Quote Link to comment
+The Blorenges Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Those trackables where the 'user hasn't set their collectible preference' function with a default status the same as those marked "not collectible", i.e. the cacher who finds one in a cache does not get the option to move it to their own collection. See bottom of this link: Help Center - Trackable Collections MrsB Quote Link to comment
+Us 4 and Jess Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 Those trackables where the 'user hasn't set their collectible preference' function with a default status the same as those marked "not collectible", i.e. the cacher who finds one in a cache does not get the option to move it to their own collection. See bottom of this link: Help Center - Trackable Collections MrsB That's interesting I didn't know any of that, thanks Lucilla so even if us "oldies" have not changed the status of our travellers pre when they changed the information on the TB/Coin page, they should still show as they have to be kept moving on and are not for peoples online collection. It just proves how many people must have "private" collections, it seems such a shame to me that people pay good money for coins and send them out into the the wild for the pleasure of others to see and they go missing.... M Quote Link to comment
+zarbi&zarbibird Posted July 29, 2012 Share Posted July 29, 2012 We've sent 9 trackables out into the big wide world and only one is still going strong. Most have lasted less than a year before being stolen Some people may kindly say misplaced/forgotten etc. Not me though. Anyway, lesson learnt. We will not be releasing any more trackables but will always help others on their way Chrissy Quote Link to comment
+Goose84 Posted August 4, 2012 Share Posted August 4, 2012 I found a diabetes coin a couple of weeks ago. I've got trackables - one is in sweden and one running around Scotland somewhere Quote Link to comment
+Bean & Sprout Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 We found a diabetes blue ring one and have been caching less than a year. Have also seen another one go in and out of one of our caches a few months ago. We have sent quite a few trackables out but now realise they are going to get stolen. I do try and keep an eye on TBs in our caches and have sent emails to those who have logged cache finds but not mentioned the TBs in the cache to try and track them down. So far only one TB we have moved on seems to have gone AWOL without being logged as picked up, although several we have sent out have gone missing... In future I intend to send out a laminated picture of our trackables. This means if they do go 'missing' we can re-start them. Quote Link to comment
+Ranger Roo Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 Found a green and a white jeep today - Both had been missing for nearly a year. Quote Link to comment
+Malpas Wanderer Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 My diabetes bug has been dropped and retrieved at the Mega event today, (neither action by me). Quote Link to comment
+Original A1 Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Well if anyone sees Little Miss Sunshine (Tracking Code TB32QTC), please tell her to stop tarting around the Low Countries and get herself to Scotland! She's been off flirting with all those Germans/Dutch/Belgians for way too long now! Quote Link to comment
+Happy Humphrey Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 I have 123 trackables - mostly geocoins - out of which about 100 have gone missing (mostly presumed stolen). Conclusion: geocachers are a light-fingered bunch! Further plan of action: don't bother buying any more. The main culprits seem to be UK-based, although other countries aren't much better. OK, some were in muggled caches and a few might just be "resting" in someone's account (Father Ted style) but I think that the majority have been scooped up by the crooks. Quote Link to comment
+maw, paw + the piglets Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 We tried to pre-empt the possibility of folk keeping our trackables by drilling each one with a hole close to the rim and putting in a clear plastic keyring complete with its objective and THIS IS NOT A SWAP inside. The metal bit of the keyring was then soldered closed so it couldn't be used as a keyring. It didn't work as loads of ours have disappeared. Having said that, one has reappeared 2 YEARS after it was picked up. We have a small cloth bag which Maw made out of hi-vis fabric and trackables we pick up are put therein to ensure they are never lost in the caching bag. We have one coin which went out to celebrate the life of a friend who died aged just 18. It had details of why it was sent out and its mission. It has gone too despite even contacting, in their own language, the person who last had it. It really gets upsetting at times. Quote Link to comment
+Pharisee Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Over the years since I started geocaching, I've released 69 travellers out into the wild... 33 of them are still going. I keep an Excel spreadsheet that gives their last recorded location (or cacher), the date they last moved and their individual mileages. The 'most travelled ' was a '4th Annual Scottish Cache Bash' coin that clocked up just over 25,000 miles before becoming lost somewhere in Luxembourg. I still have an active travel bug that's catching up with 24,500 but that's in South Australia and hasn't moved since November last year. The total mileage for all the travellers is currently 384,614 miles. I'm hoping to hit half a million miles before they all get lost!! I don't get sentimental over them... Once I've let them go, that's it. I never expect to see them again and I don't get too upset when they disappear... They all will, eventually. That's the nature of the beast. Quote Link to comment
+Kryten Posted August 17, 2012 Share Posted August 17, 2012 Dishonesty has ruined this aspect of the game. Since all but one of my travellers have been stolen I don't intend to release any more. Quote Link to comment
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