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Magnetic Post Box Caches


niccrosskill

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Hi

Ive recently seen that Durban has many Magnetic Post Box Caches where there is no physical container, but rather a magnetic strip with a log sheet glued to the back of it. Ive noticed that there dont seem to be any caches like this in the Westen Cape like this and have been told via the grapevine that caches with no physical container are frowned upon in the Westen Cape.

 

Please let me have your views on this type of cache?

 

Thanks

Nic

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Hi Nic,

 

I know of one such cache in the Western Cape currently active - for obvious reasons, I won't mention it here. :) On speaking to some of the cachers that went to the Mega Event, quite a large portion of their finds were as a result of postbox / LPC type caches whereby they found the finds quite boring and uninspirational. In Gauteng, power trails are quite popular where the postbox or LPCs are easy to hide in an urban environment.

 

I suspect that the reason why it is frowned upon here in the Cape is that we can put out great caches due to the outdoor opportunities that we have? I am not too sure though. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of postbox / LPCs. I like having to find a container rather because when a container is involved, the hider generally has to put some thought to the hide itself to prevent muggles from muggling the cache.

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A postbox cache is not too different from one of those small nano containers about the size of a pencil head. Agree that LPC/postbox/nona for numbers/power trails etc. are all aimed at certain finders - and are normally indicated as such on the D/T rating and cache size.

 

The "container" is actually the logsheet in this case - one has also seen SD card containers, zip lock bags, pet ID containers, key holders, faux acorns/pine cones/dog droppings etc. all being used in various caches.

 

So the "container" itself is not so much the issue as it fu;lfils the guidelines of geocaching.com - it is more a case of whether these types of caches "push your buttins" or not.

 

I think "ipodmusicman's" post above hinting at a similar cache in the WC - probably hints at the fact that this technique has been used to some stealth type effect at a particular cache?

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When you say "Post box cache", do you mean a cache on a post box? If so, then I would be one of those Capetonians doing the frowning.

Here is a quote from the Geocaching guidelines:

 

"When you go to hide a geocache, think of the reason you are bringing people to that spot. If the only reason is for the geocache, then find a better spot." – briansnat

 

I personally do not see a post box as a wonderous place worthy of being shared with strangers.

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Agreed CapeDoc - not an "exciting" place - but although the quote on the guidelines is offered - this cache type is not forbidden by the placement guidelines

 

http://www.geocaching.com/about/guidelines.aspx

 

However - as you and many others have mentioned on the Power Trail thread - certainly not everyone's cup of tea! Any in a way it is a more scattered form of a power trail.

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There is also a listing guideline saying that cache placements must comply with all applicable local laws.

 

In the USA and Canada, it is against postal regulations to attach anything, including a geocache, to a post office mail collection box or delivery mailbox. In the USA we are particularly sensitive to the issue because of multiple incidents of explosive devices being sent through the mail or attached to post office boxes.

 

I gather that, in your country, there is no corresponding legal restriction?

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There is also a listing guideline saying that cache placements must comply with all applicable local laws.

 

In the USA and Canada, it is against postal regulations to attach anything, including a geocache, to a post office mail collection box or delivery mailbox. In the USA we are particularly sensitive to the issue because of multiple incidents of explosive devices being sent through the mail or attached to post office boxes.

 

I gather that, in your country, there is no corresponding legal restriction?

 

None that is enforced or applied - as far I know.

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Current guidelines say :

Geocache Contents

Geocache containers include a logsheet or logbook.

For all physical caches, there must be a logbook, scroll or other type of log for geocachers to record their visit.

 

Where is the "container" in a flat magnet? I have read about overseas cachers getting around the "container" part by simply taping a bag (container) to the back of the flat magnet. This all seems a little silly to me, surely there should be a logbook/sheet etc inside some kind of container? Where does this end - if I dont need a container of some sort then I may just as well take a permanent marker to the bottom of a rock and write a GC number and note telling the cacher to add their name to the rock? or maybe something way more creative like this:

 

 

There you have a container and a log of sorts, but WHY, WHY, WHY????

 

Surely we all have some pride in what we do, let us not degrade to this level.

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From a Groundspeak side - the flat magnetic strip with a piece of paper (logsheet) that can be replaced is acceptable as a cache. However writing straight onto a container is not acceptable.

 

The placement location and value of a cache for a cache sake is another matter - probably better discussed on a thread regarding cache quality, placement, power trails etc. And that I tend to agree with many of you - not really my cup of tea - but for others - go for it (and I too have a good few of these finds - but they have garnered no favourite points from me).

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I came across some brilliantly ingenious examples of flat magnetic sheet caches in Australia. I will not give details here as I intend placing a few of them myself! :ph34r: I think it is a matter of the location and what is appropriate for that particular location.

 

As for the "Water Bottle" example above that is pure GEOLITTER and nothing more than that! Anybody found placing such a cache ought to receive a fine for littering - in ANY country! :unsure:

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As an owner of a few. Yes they are purely number generators but then if you want to have fun, they can be really difficult to find on a muggle perspective. In crowded areas you have to up the level of stealth to at least retreive a cache like this. I usually carry a piece of paper or even a post card with and bend down to write something on the paper. But along with this, if you know that a postbox is active, there is a secondary hobby i have that i can incorporate a postbox cache with called postcrossing. This involves sending trackable postcards to random people accross the globe and receiving one in return from another random person. Maybe not your cup of tea finding postbox caches, but maybe collecting postcards is.

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Yes they are purely number generators

That's where you loose me. I really don't see the point.

The best geocaches are purely experience generators.

They give you an experience independent to (but may include) finding the cache.

 

I say it again, I am jealous of your Geocaching experiences, not your Geocaching numbers. That may mean with a large number of finds, I may hardly be jealous.

 

(Where I talk about you/your, I mean it generally, not specifically you, Wazat)

 

If I did look at numbers, I would look at difficulty and, more especially, terrain rating of your finds. The higher your numbers there, the more I would envy you.

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Cape Town Cachers

 

Watch out for my planned series of Magnetic Post Box Caches that will take you on a tour of all the most scenic Post Boxes In Cape Town.

 

It will be called What Would Postman Pat and his Black An White Cat Think ### (where ### will be the number in the series)

 

A postal power trail if you will. This should be enough to make sure CapeDoc will have no other option other than going postal on me.

 

Following the Postman Pat series, in even earlier planning stages, is the Aqualung ### series.In this series, where I pay homage to British rockers Jethro Tull, you will be taken on a tour of the best Park Benches Cape Town has to offer. Expect locations from the beautiful to the mundane. Caches will receive and extra grading - HPC (from 1 to 5). This stands for the Human Poo Coefficient and will warn you of the likelihood of being exposed to this hazardous substance (courtesy of Aqualung and his ilk). This series will be of interest to those of you who have completed your Fizzy Challenge as now there is a whole new matrix to work towards. This series might prove useful if the current rate of economic decline and Eskom increases is maintained. After completing the series you will have a great advantage over your less fortunate non-geocaching colleagues as you will know where all the best park benches are on which you can sleep.

 

Keep on caching

 

Trev

Edited by trevorh7000
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There is also a listing guideline saying that cache placements must comply with all applicable local laws.

 

In the USA and Canada, it is against postal regulations to attach anything, including a geocache, to a post office mail collection box or delivery mailbox. In the USA we are particularly sensitive to the issue because of multiple incidents of explosive devices being sent through the mail or attached to post office boxes.

 

I gather that, in your country, there is no corresponding legal restriction?

 

None that is enforced or applied - as far I know.

 

Ohh yes it is.. Around here this is a pretty big no-no.

 

Shaun

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Yes they are purely number generators

That's where you loose me. I really don't see the point.

The best geocaches are purely experience generators.

They give you an experience independent to (but may include) finding the cache.

 

I say it again, I am jealous of your Geocaching experiences, not your Geocaching numbers. That may mean with a large number of finds, I may hardly be jealous.

 

(Where I talk about you/your, I mean it generally, not specifically you, Wazat)

 

If I did look at numbers, I would look at difficulty and, more especially, terrain rating of your finds. The higher your numbers there, the more I would envy you.

I see your point Capedoc, but in hindsite I have some of the most difficult to get to caches behind me found as well as placed. Hardly one that a guy in a wheelchair would get to. A postbox cache on the other hand can be accomodating for both the numbers seeker, the one that likes the challenge of stealth or someone in a wheelchair. Somewhere we have to try and cater for most people and though i myself am not too interested in postbox caches, i will not let them slip me by. Also my sons have been very careless on normal caches and i have used PO Box caches to teach them the art of stealth. I have watched newbies during the Mega all decend on GZ despite there been many muggles around. I find in that case a PO Box cache can in some way teach new cachers how to be discreet in retreiving caches. So yes lots of cons for the purists out there, but pros for those who are learning. And though they may all be the same concept, i did one last Sunday that was slightly different and i almost didn't see it.

 

As for high number of finds. GPS Boosted them quite a bit and though they were generally all the same boring caches. Maybe 5 to 10 stood out worthy of a favorite point, the rest, no comment. The experience, fun to work along with three others and just get the series out of the way. Great friendships made, hating 640 finds together. I had more fun last weekend finding about 17 caches in a kloof and bushwacking 420m through thorns, trees, bush and slippery rocks and wading in a river just for a FTF.

Edited by Wazat
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There is also a listing guideline saying that cache placements must comply with all applicable local laws.

 

In the USA and Canada, it is against postal regulations to attach anything, including a geocache, to a post office mail collection box or delivery mailbox. In the USA we are particularly sensitive to the issue because of multiple incidents of explosive devices being sent through the mail or attached to post office boxes.

 

I gather that, in your country, there is no corresponding legal restriction?

 

None that is enforced or applied - as far I know.

 

Ohh yes it is.. Around here this is a pretty big no-no.

 

Shaun

Shaun

 

the comment was made on the South african forum in relation to the SA situation....

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Wazat brings up an interesting point on stealth - there is a PO cache in Pinetown right at the entrance to a large shopping centre. The CO when placing it did not expect it to last -well surprisingly it has lasted a few years now and has become a minor talking point about how to retrieve the cache at prime time and then return it without being seen.

 

So they can be fun.

 

Similarly a nano on a street post that gives a bit of history on the city on lives in - well research giving the name of the street, who the person was and what they did - I find interesting - although the cache itself is a drive by park and grab with very little skill.

 

I would not like all my cache to be like that, but they add too the variety.

 

I travel a bit, and often some of the caches I do in close proximity to my hotel in Europe are also the "pointless" type - next to a little known monumemnt, in a small park where you, or even in a supermarket car park.

 

But apart from not teaching me much I have had fun walking in an Italian neighbourhood following my GPSr rather than doing something else.

 

I suppose the issue is (for me at least) not my favourite cach etype, but I have found a few, but they are not something I go out my way to find, pretty much like most urban caches actually.

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I think somewhere along the line we lost the point that the original postbox series was:

 

The one is for you to find a cache where you shouldn't even have to get out of the car (OK, you might have to) and the second to remind you of a time where correspondence took days and not mere seconds. Maybe this cache will prompt you to post a letter for old times sake to a loved one.

 

In a day and age where we are all using electronic means to communicate to everyone, I find it still wonderful to receive a postcard or a letter from someone elsewhere in the world. And although i doubt some of these are as active as they should be I have had wonderful success at sending postcards from one of the postboxes in my area. In fact a postcard i sent to the Netherlands arrived in 3 days of me sending it. I have seen some emails take longer to be responded to.

 

So yes while we all have our views about easy roadside PO Box caches, have a look back at the secondary purpose of why it is there. Send a postcard a letter to someone you know or love. As i mentioned i do Postcrossing as a secondary hobby to Geocaching, give it a look and post a card from a PO Box and await the return cards. Amongst the usual bills and accounts i take great joy in receiving and reading Postcards from all over the world.

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There is also a listing guideline saying that cache placements must comply with all applicable local laws.

 

In the USA and Canada, it is against postal regulations to attach anything, including a geocache, to a post office mail collection box or delivery mailbox. In the USA we are particularly sensitive to the issue because of multiple incidents of explosive devices being sent through the mail or attached to post office boxes.

 

I gather that, in your country, there is no corresponding legal restriction?

 

None that is enforced or applied - as far I know.

 

Ohh yes it is.. Around here this is a pretty big no-no.

 

Shaun

Shaun

 

the comment was made on the South african forum in relation to the SA situation....

 

Well I learned something. I had thought this placement type was restricted via Groundspeak, turns out it would fall under local restrictions/permissions.

 

Shaun

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I still post the odd letter or thank you card...

 

I sent and received a postcard the other day. There is no mistaking that personal touch and extra effort. I even bought some extra stamps to keep in my wallet so I could do it more on the Spur of the moment and drop it off in the Post Box thats just 100m from my house - It was probably 5 years ago or more that I have used that Box.

 

I really liked the idea that someone mentioned earlier in the thread of PostCrossing or whatever that postcard things was. I was just a bit hesitant to sign up with my home address but ultimately ones home address is hardly that private so I will probably sign up.

 

A international postcard costs R5.40 if I remember correctly - I can't check because they are forever stamps! So buy a whole book and beat inflation. Perhaps an innovative cacher could build a PostBox into his cache - the PO Box would be stage 1 and the cache hunter would have to record some information from the PB in question and write it down onto the back of a post card and send it to the CO for clues to the next stage.

 

So if nothing this thread might encourage a few people to put pen to paper and send a letter or post card across the world bringing back memories of an age where using the PB was the only way of communicating.

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As a matter of interest I have just received 8 postcards via postcrossing from totaly random people from places like The Netherlands, Ireland, South Korea, Germany, Finland, Russia and France. The awesome thing here is that I am getting some great cards, and some amazing stamps. As a stamp collector as a child this is bringing back some fond memories. Now I am getting lots of stamps and some post cards. So a new hobby. and where it took off was from a fellow geocacher Batsgonemad. I signed up ages ago but while maintaining a PO Box cache of mine I decided to send the first Postcard almost 10 months after getting an address for it. It is better as you start sending the cards cause the number you can send rises according to the number you receive. It is a slow start and yes one or two go missing but once you get going you can receive new cards quite frequently.

 

I like your idea Trevor, but i think it will not get past the reviewer, due to the fact it becomes a condition for logging. I was thinking of maybe doing a postcard swap cache. Where you can drop one in for another. I bought about 50 postcards just for post crossing but they are of about 5 variations, which is ok for post crossing as the cards are all going to be new to anyone who receives them. But it would be nice to exchange them among locals with the simple encouragement of maybe posting them. It is still an idea, but i am working on it.

 

As a matter of interest I received a card from someone in the Netherlands who has sent over 3800 postcards over 4 years.... Yes that is a hefty amount on stamps. And there statistics show only (wait for it) one card received from South Africa. Either a lot went missing or there just are not that many of us here sending them.

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