Signature items

[+Sarmanikan]

Myself and a couple of friends want to get into Geocaching, but we want to come up with a signature item to leave in the caches we find. It needs to be cheap (Less then a dollar or two per cache) but also have some sort of meaning. Since we're new to this, I'd like to post the idea that I came up with today and get some feedback...

 

We're thinking of taking different colored metal scale-mail scales, each of us would have our own color, and make a "keychain" out of them using a blue chainmail link to hold them together. The idea is we'd add or remove the different colored scales depending on who was there to find the cache. The reason for the blue ring holding the scales together is a tribute to our friend who passed away in a car wreck last year, without whom the three of us would have never met each other or become friends in the first place.

 

I could easily add travel bugs as well down the road for particularly memorable caches.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

PS. If anyone else has awesome signature items they use, I'd like to hear what they use for themselves too!

[+Anonymike7]

Respectfully, I think your idea sounds a bit too complex. Adding/removing scales on a cache-by-cache basis could quickly turn into a lot of work and bookkeeping (that is, having to track how many scales you have of any one color at any given time.) I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your friend, and I think it's great that you and your other friends want to honor him.

 

My thought would be to come up with a team name that references your friend in some way and make a single sort of token/item with the team's name on it. That way, any or all of you can have tokens on hand at any time to drop off in a cache, without having to worry about adding or removing pieces.

 

Personally, I make my signature tokens out of polymer clay. They're super-cheap, easily customized/personalized, and rather durable. If you want to attach them to TBs, it's also easy to drill a hole through them.

[+kunarion]

I think that would be a great item! Will there be cache names or an included sheet explaining the item? If not, mysterious is fine, too. Just wondering.

[+Sarmanikan]

Respectfully, I think your idea sounds a bit too complex. Adding/removing scales on a cache-by-cache basis could quickly turn into a lot of work and bookkeeping (that is, having to track how many scales you have of any one color at any given time.) I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your friend, and I think it's great that you and your other friends want to honor him.

 

I agree that it'd be complex to add/remove based on what cache we go to. Perhaps we'll make them all the same and just each have some on hand to drop in a cache. We should be able to make 100 of them for about $30 so they wouldn't be too expensive.

 

I do like the idea of a team name with a single item for anyone on the team, that way we can add other friends to the team that might be interested in joining later!

 

I think that would be a great item! Will there be cache names or an included sheet explaining the item? If not, mysterious is fine, too. Just wondering.

 

I had thought about that, either finding a way to put our geocaching.com names on it, or a small card explaining the symbolism. Maybe some sort of keychain tag to go along with it or something... Or maybe just leave it as a mystery. I'll have to think on this!

[+niraD]

I'd trade for your signature item. One way to let people know what it is (and why) is to put each one in a small ziplock bag (available in the bead section of a craft store) with a small explanatory note.

 

If you want the colors to represent who was there, then you could make them with all the colors, and then remove the color(s) of those not present. Then save the unused scales for when you make more. But that depends on how hard it is to add/remove scales.

[+blackhorse221]

I think that's an amazing idea. It makes your geocaching experience more significant. While obviously it wouldn't work for nanos/micros, it would be perfect for those larger caches. I agree it would be a fair amount of work, but how much more special it would be for a cache owner (or another cacher) to find your SWAG that had so much meaning and work put into it. I'd say go for it, and please post a photo if you move forward with this plan!

[FaithCacher22]

I think it sounds great, having a team item that still represents your friend. I'd love to find one of those!

[+WarNinjas]

I think it is a great idea!

 

On your original topic of sig items to drop that are not to expensive. Here is what we just did. We had 500 made. It then brings it down to $.20 each. It is kind of expensive to start $100 but if you break it down it is cheep per cache considering you will have many micros you cant drop them off in.

We had some made that were for our caches so someone could have a FTF on a WarNinjas cache and also ones to drop off in the ones we were FTF on. Then other fun ones as well. You could make them up with your team name to represent you friend you lost. Sorry to hear about that.

 

[+Don_J]

Respectfully, I think your idea sounds a bit too complex. Adding/removing scales on a cache-by-cache basis could quickly turn into a lot of work and bookkeeping (that is, having to track how many scales you have of any one color at any given time.) I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your friend, and I think it's great that you and your other friends want to honor him.

 

I agree that it'd be complex to add/remove based on what cache we go to. Perhaps we'll make them all the same and just each have some on hand to drop in a cache. We should be able to make 100 of them for about $30 so they wouldn't be too expensive.

 

I do like the idea of a team name with a single item for anyone on the team, that way we can add other friends to the team that might be interested in joining later!

 

I think that would be a great item! Will there be cache names or an included sheet explaining the item? If not, mysterious is fine, too. Just wondering.

 

I had thought about that, either finding a way to put our geocaching.com names on it, or a small card explaining the symbolism. Maybe some sort of keychain tag to go along with it or something... Or maybe just leave it as a mystery. I'll have to think on this!

 

Either I'm missing an important fact, or I just don't see the complexity. There are three of you. Each have identical signature items with the exception of the color. You have key-rings. Each of you should have key-rings with you when you cache. If you are alone, put your colored item on the keyring and drop it in the cache. If two of you are caching together, both put your item on the ring and drop it in the cache. If later, you revisit the cache with the third person and the ring is still in there, then he can add his item, or if someone has retrieved it, you could start fresh by dropping a new ring with all three items. If I was part of this, I think it would be cool to find a cache that already had your item in it and add mine.

 

It's a cool idea that doesn't have to be as hard as it sounds.