Leaving/Taking Caches

[+Team A.R.C.S.]

So what are some things you like to leave/take in caches? I live in a smaller town, with maybe 20 or so geocaches locally, and find that mostly the things left behind are....pocket lint. Not literally, but it seems like nobody wants to leave anything of even small value or interest.

 

What are some things you like to place that may have no intrinsic value, but do have a collectors/finders odds and end feel to it?

 

I like to leave dice, plastic action figures (small), I left an old compass (I upgraded), cheap odd coins - anything I may find in an antique shop for $2 or less. If I was any good with carving I might leave a carved stick/figure, I may try that in the future.

 

Does anybody look for specific items when caching? Making a collection perhaps?

[+NeverSummer]

Phew. Not at all what I thought this thread was going to be about...

 

[+NeverSummer]

I keep a bag of things to trade. Sometimes it is new batteries, other times a hotwheels car. Books, CDs, location-based swag like paperweights or glassware.

 

Mostly, it is trade items that have been in and out of other caches, not unlike a travel bug. I'll grab a thing here, swap it for something in the next one, etc. Usually I'll trade in a nice thing, and take out some of the Mctoys or bottle caps or bus tickets, or movie stubs, or candy bars, or...

 

(edit to add stuff)

Edited November 1, 2012 by NeverSummer

[Pontoffel Pock]

Do some searching on SWAG. Dollar store stuff is popular. This hobbie wasn't meant to 'break the bank', so don't go crazy on putting expensive trade items in the cache.

 

I most often have a sealed pocket first aid kit, some hotwheel/matchbox cars, and new AA batteries with me I can trade with.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Pontoffel Pock

[+Bubbles&Bonkers]

SIGNATURE ITEMS!!

[+niraD]

The only things I trade for are personal signature items left by other geocachers.

 

I carry an assortment of trade items to leave in exchange for these sig items, including foreign coins, small ceramic figurines, assorted inexpensive toys, and various other things that friends give me (since they know I can use them as trade items when geocaching).

 

And recently, I left a broken analog watch, but that was because the CO requested it as part of the cache's theme.

[+redsox_mark]

I'm not really interested in SWAG swapping. So I generally take nothing and leave nothing. (I do like moving trackables however).

 

In my own caches, I like to keep them stocked with stuff which children like. While some adults are into SWAG swapping, I find it is generally kids who get the most out of that part of the game.

[+fbingha]

If I happen upon something really interesting, I will take it but usually I take nothing other than trackables. I do like to leave something in every cache I visit though. I have a signature item on the way and I like to leave good toys, not happy meal type, for kids. I have been buying big lots of toys and foreign coins on eBay so that it works out to about a $1 a toy and a maybe $.25 for a foreign coin/note. No one else around here really does it but maybe I can encourage others by doing it.

Edited February 11, 2013 by Keystone

[+Team A.R.C.S.]

Do some searching on SWAG. Dollar store stuff is popular. This hobbie wasn't meant to 'break the bank', so don't go crazy on putting expensive trade items in the cache.

 

I most often have a sealed pocket first aid kit, some hotwheel/matchbox cars, and new AA batteries with me I can trade with.

 

Haha definitely agree! I just was a little bummed at a few in my area, one had a tissue in it. Not a package, just a single folded tissue lol...Another near a graveyard had a plastic flower I'm pretty that was taken from a grave. I was just hoping others out there were a little more creative in the effort!

 

What is searching on SWAG, I'm kind of new to the site.

[+NeverSummer]

Do some searching on SWAG. Dollar store stuff is popular. This hobbie wasn't meant to 'break the bank', so don't go crazy on putting expensive trade items in the cache.

 

I most often have a sealed pocket first aid kit, some hotwheel/matchbox cars, and new AA batteries with me I can trade with.

 

Haha definitely agree! I just was a little bummed at a few in my area, one had a tissue in it. Not a package, just a single folded tissue lol...Another near a graveyard had a plastic flower I'm pretty that was taken from a grave. I was just hoping others out there were a little more creative in the effort!

 

What is searching on SWAG, I'm kind of new to the site.

SWAG is "Stuff We All Get". It's the "stuff" in geocaches. (However, we don't all "get" it. We trade it)

 

If you search the forums for "SWAG", you will see many other discussions about trading items. If it is suggestions you're looking for, a good rule of thumb is to have, and trade for, things that you find interesting or useful. Trash is not SWAG, but to someone a McToy might be.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

In many of the threads about swag, I among others mention foreign coins. There are numerous web site where one can order coins from many different countries in bulk. They'll find in almost any cache bigger than a micro (which often are not used for trading items anyway) and is the kind of item that is collectable. Other than that, anything home made, especially if there is something about it that identifies who place it is pretty popular. There was a local cacher that bought a couple of large boxes of 1" copper balls and they became someone collectable among local cachers and everyone knew where they came from. A "signature item" doesn't necessarily need to have a geocaching handle on it.

[+NeverSummer]

In many of the threads about swag, I among others mention foreign coins. There are numerous web site where one can order coins from many different countries in bulk. They'll find in almost any cache bigger than a micro (which often are not used for trading items anyway) and is the kind of item that is collectable. Other than that, anything home made, especially if there is something about it that identifies who place it is pretty popular. There was a local cacher that bought a couple of large boxes of 1" copper balls and they became someone collectable among local cachers and everyone knew where they came from. A "signature item" doesn't necessarily need to have a geocaching handle on it.

Agreed. I dropped Lake Superior Agates for a while.

[+Ms.Scrabbler]

I'm not really interested in SWAG swapping. So I generally take nothing and leave nothing.

 

(I do like moving trackables however).

I just want to bold this because many new cachers (and not so new ones) don't understand the difference between them and swag. This is not pointed to the OP, it's just something that should be brought up often.

 

Geocoins and travel bugs are NOT to be kept in a collection at home.

[+Manville Possum]

I'm not really interested in SWAG swapping. So I generally take nothing and leave nothing.

 

(I do like moving trackables however).

 

Geocoins and travel bugs are NOT to be kept in a collection at home.

 

I disagree. I keep mine at home in a ammo can. They used to be a fun part of this game to me, but too many went MIA. Now I just collect them.

[+Tahoein' Bunch]

We always leave when we take, I even purchased a box of really cool screwdrivers that fold they were swiss army, About $2.75 each they were inexpensive and a really neat geo tool i thought. some days i would trade others i would just drop no big also cheap small flashlights make great tradeables. but i agree with most Dollor tree stuff is great alot of times or Harbour freight Mirror on a stick $1.50 heck ya lose it or break or give it no big deal. did you enjoy the cache? thats what counts. around here we have verry lttle theme cachers so thats not usally a big conceren.

[+Ms.Scrabbler]

I'm not really interested in SWAG swapping. So I generally take nothing and leave nothing.

 

(I do like moving trackables however).

 

Geocoins and travel bugs are NOT to be kept in a collection at home.

 

I disagree. I keep mine at home in a ammo can. They used to be a fun part of this game to me, but too many went MIA. Now I just collect them.

Your own or ones you find?

[+YaYa&PaPa]

Edited November 2, 2012 by YaYa&PaPa

[+Manville Possum]

I'm not really interested in SWAG swapping. So I generally take nothing and leave nothing.

 

(I do like moving trackables however).

 

Geocoins and travel bugs are NOT to be kept in a collection at home.

 

I disagree. I keep mine at home in a ammo can. They used to be a fun part of this game to me, but too many went MIA. Now I just collect them.

Your own or ones you find?

 

Only the ones that I own. I seldom will ever pick one up anymore, I use the discovered option and put them on my watch list to watch them dissappear. I still enjoy finding a trackable like a kid with a box full of good swag. I can't recall the last time I saw one in the wild. I like to collect the older trackables, but shop Groundspeak has one that I am interested in. I really like my hiking stick medallion and my trackable patch that they sell.

I used to leave some of the unactivated American Flag micro's in geocaches, but now I leave signature items. It may be a rock with coordinates on it and my user name.

Edited November 2, 2012 by Manville Possum Hunters

[+OZ2CPU]

please ARCS, trade up, trade even or dont trade..

and please research this forum for good and bad swag items.

 

please REMOVE items listed as bad,

such as:

anything sharp or pointy,

condoms,

lighthers,

candy (all sorts are compleetly NO NO in caches)

food (all sorts are compleetly NO NO in caches)

batteries not packed in original and water tight bag = used and bad too,

any ordinary stones,

trash

simple stuff from the forrest

(and anthing too big for the container to close correctly)

--------

Please ADD items known to be good and usefull,

New dry log

New working PEN

cheap plastic toys

100$ bills (ok that was a joke)