Reviving TBs

[BeanSpoons]

I have seen a couple of posts in the TB forum that have mentioned 'reviving' lost TBs. My question is, how do you revive a TB that has gone missing?

 

I had one go missing at the first cache I left it in, and came on the forum to see if it was possible to release another item (e.g. keyring) as a replacement for this TB, using the tracking number for the TB that is gone. Has anyone else done this and is it something that is allowed?

 

Thanks all!

[+Lieblweb]

The rule of thumb....is... If your TB has been missing for 1 year - you can re-release them.

 

Re-releasing them is easy. Get a new tag with the original TB code on it, add a traveler, and place it inside a cache.

 

I currently have two TB's that are re-releases. I added "II" to their original names on the pages so I know they're re-releases. I changed the description slightly to tell its story. I've used my 'copy tags' for one of them. The other didn't come with a copy tag, so I made up a tag using a piece of aluminum and stamped numbers in it with a cheapo traveler. I normally don't do things 'on the cheap or on the ugly' - but in terms of TB's..... you really don't want to make them 'pretty' or else they'll disappear again. But, that's up to you.

 

I have two other TB's (aluminum tags) made up and ready to be re-released here soon.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Lieblweb

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

It is allowed, it is YOUR number, you bought it.

It is best to wait a year or so before a re-release. Even then, be prepared for the original to reappear, at which time one of the two should be removed from circulation.

 

Many re-releases are accomplished simply by writing or engraving the number onto another object. Some go to elaborate lengths to make or create a tag that is at least similar in design/style to the original... like using a blank dog-tag and numbering it for a TB. I dunno how one would go about recreating a Cachekinz.

 

Photocopies really should be avoided as they physically don't last too long... and many consider such to be a "proxy", a fair number of geocachers rebel against proxy releases. They simply won't move them -- I hear of some folks REmoving them!

 

A re-release should be so noted on the TB page. It does not have to resemble the original, but should be so noted as a note log and also in the body/mission of the TB page.

Leave the previous logs/discoveries intact... to remove or delete them affects the caching history of other geocachers.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Gitchee-Gummee

[+kunarion]

I have seen a couple of posts in the TB forum that have mentioned 'reviving' lost TBs. My question is, how do you revive a TB that has gone missing?Thanks all!

Once you're ready to revive it, make a new tag (or use the Copy Tag). Mention in some way that the TB was lost, and now it's revived as [whatever it looks like now, as compared to the original], and post its photo. As Gitchee-Gummee said, you can get blank metal dogtags, and you find them most anywhere you can get keys made, and might find one for less than a dollar. Engrave or scratch the TB code and some info onto that.

 

I revive 100% of my dead TBs & coins. Usually I craft a new design that's much fancier, and keep them. I had some very nice metal tags professionally engraved with the TB name and code, for $5 each. I don't call revived TBs proxies, they are simply the TB returned to my control and then back in play. I don't change the TB's name, except while it's in limbo (as soon as I realize it has evaporated), when I will append the words [MISSING] to its name before I officially Mark It Missing. When I'm ready to revive it, I usually make a "Grab" log, and it's now returned to my inventory.

 

I changed one of my dead Geocoins' names to add the word [proxy] once revived, since Geocoins (such as Cachekinz) are a whole other ballgame. But I almost never change the TBs' names. The thieves didn't get my TB name. The TB is not a re-release, proxy or anything but the TB, revived back to me. That's how I roll.

 

But months before making the new version (especially for placing in a cache), I have made appropriate logs on the TB's page that there's a problem, that I'm waiting for it to turn up. And I add info about the last time I heard from my TB, and place that in huge red letters at the top of the TB description. See this. Most TB Owners only send that info telepathically, they don't present anything on the TB page that mentions any issue. I can't read minds, and I'd bet one or two other people who may otherwise be able to help locate the TB can't read minds, either.

 

[EDIT: Your missing Cachekinz Trackable is properly called a "Cachekinz trackable tag", and (although every such traveling item may be called a "travel bug") a Cachekinz tag is commonly referred to as a Geocoin. The official Groundspeak Travel Bugs are a different thing.]

Edited November 11, 2013 by kunarion