What does this mean?

[+jellis]

I thought one of my trackables was still alive and moving. Now Im not so sure. It has been logged for a long time in Germany. I recently wrote to the last cacher who claims to be moving it and then I get this message on the trackable. I tried to translate it but it looks like the cacher may have gotten the number on a site or something. But some make it look like they are moving it. Can anyone tell me how they got the number exactly?

 

An alle TB Owner und aktuellen Halter vielen Dank. Wir haben diese Schmuckstücke sehen können in Nordhausen beim 3 Nordhäuser Geo Talk.

[Keystone]

Here is the referenced event cache.

[+msrubble]

I tried to translate it but it looks like the cacher may have gotten the number on a site or something.

 

and

An alle TB Owner und aktuellen Halter vielen Dank. Wir haben diese Schmuckstücke sehen können in Nordhausen beim 3 Nordhäuser Geo Talk.

 

"Many thanks to all the TB owners and current holders. We were able to see these coin pieces in Nordhausen during the 3rd Nordhäuser Geo Talk."

 

Too bad we can't sort TBs in a cache by owner. Almost 300 coins logged through, mostly of the personal tracking type that never leaves the owner.

 

I think yours is still traveling.

[cezanne]

I thought one of my trackables was still alive and moving. Now Im not so sure. It has been logged for a long time in Germany. I recently wrote to the last cacher who claims to be moving it and then I get this message on the trackable. I tried to translate it but it looks like the cacher may have gotten the number on a site or something. But some make it look like they are moving it. Can anyone tell me how they got the number exactly?

 

An alle TB Owner und aktuellen Halter vielen Dank. Wir haben diese Schmuckstücke sehen können in Nordhausen beim 3 Nordhäuser Geo Talk.

 

Since you did not provide a link to your trackable, it was tiresome to look up the history.

 

I'm pretty sure that this is what happened: The cacher who still has your TB took it among others to the event which has been linked by Keystone. There all attendees of the event who

like to discover trackables will have had the chance to write down all the trackables numbers of trackables shown to them by other attendees or even lists with the trackable codes were offered/distributed to everyone interested after the event. Many of the event attendees then end up with long lists of trackables and they then use mass loggers (like project-gc and others) to log discover logs for all trackables at the event in one shot (so all discover logs get the same text). As the author of your cited log above attended the event and the holder of your trackable attended the event, everything fits into this very common picture.

 

I visit events rarely and when I visit events I exchange trackable there even less frequently. In very special cases I hand a trackable over to a cacher I meet at the event and even in this short moment, typically some other cachers nearby will show up and ask "May I discover this trackable?" and if one answers negatively, those cachers will react angrily.

Edited November 27, 2014 by cezanne

[cezanne]

By the way: If you need help in contacting the current holder in German, drop me a note. I could translate whatever message you want to send to German and

would offer to translate the answer (if you happen to receive one) back to English.

[+jellis]

My coin

 

I have tried to contact many of the holders of the coin about releasing it so maybe it can venture out of Germany. But I get no replies.

[+jellis]

I had found some coins that were missing for years and they were left at a local event drilled and wired together. I contacted the owner and ended up returning the coins to him. This was about 5yrs ago. He still holds the coins. But recently he has been getting discovered logs on them also from Europe.

[cezanne]

I have tried to contact many of the holders of the coin about releasing it so maybe it can venture out of Germany. But I get no replies.

 

It might help to try to contact them in German, that's why I offered you my help. Right now your trackable is in East Germany and in my experience the ability and willingness to reply to English mails is there not any higher as it is in some more rural areas of my region (where it is low).

 

In any case the chances for a trackable to leave countries like Germany or Austria are often not very good - in my area I often notice that trackables get stuck in the area for years even though they move around. Lots of caches are visited only by locals who do not travel around that much.

There are TB motels near highway rest areas that are visited by travelers, but often those caches are not that safe and also I tend to avoid TB motels if possible for dropping trackables as often the proportion of trackables that get lost is quite high.

The best chances to get a trackable out of some place are if one knows someone who is going to travel to another country soon (caching flight attendants, pilots etc are sometimes good candidates to be asked for help).

 

It's not a new phenomenon that trackables often are held for long times by cachers, but what has become much more common are issuing took it logs for all visited caches and mass discovering at events (which might add an additional level of confusion as some cachers are behind with logging for weeks or months, and so also their discover logs might shop up with big delays and often they use the current date at the time of the log as this simplifies mass logging).

Edited November 29, 2014 by cezanne

[+jellis]

Thanks for trying

[+Joe the Mailman]

Thanks for trying

You may want to contact NWKBerlin. She lives in the Albany area of NY, and travels to Germany often. She may be able to rescue it for you.

[cezanne]

I contacted the holder of your GC and asked him whether it would be possible to drop off the GC in a safe cache that gets visited not too rarely. He wrote back and dropped off the GC.

I hope that the GC will get picked soon and starts to travel again. Good luck.