Travel Bug was taken 10/8, never placed - no response

[KenChole11]

Hi!

 

I discovered geocaching this summer. Enjoying it, I decided to purchase a travel bug in October. I placed it near my home and waited. 2 days later, another member acquired my travel bug and mentioned it would be traveling from VA to Mississippi. I waited. It wasn't moved but I thought maybe the user would place it over the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

Before the holiday, I emailed. They didn't respond. During the holiday, I emailed again and they did not respond. I just emailed again. They were very active at the time of finding my TB, but not since late October now.

 

I'm very disappointed because it was my first travel bug and it literally made it nowhere. Any advice? How long should I wait before I mark it as lost?

[+T.D.M.22]

Hi!

 

I discovered geocaching this summer. Enjoying it, I decided to purchase a travel bug in October. I placed it near my home and waited. 2 days later, another member acquired my travel bug and mentioned it would be traveling from VA to Mississippi. I waited. It wasn't moved but I thought maybe the user would place it over the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

Before the holiday, I emailed. They didn't respond. During the holiday, I emailed again and they did not respond. I just emailed again. They were very active at the time of finding my TB, but not since late October now.

 

I'm very disappointed because it was my first travel bug and it literally made it nowhere. Any advice? How long should I wait before I mark it as lost?

 

You can mark it as missing now- if it's found it can still be logged, and will be "un-missing" so to speak- all back to normal.

 

Also, remember that whenever you put something out there in the care of strangers, things will go missing...

[+Panther&Pine]

I'd say check back in the spring.

[+WarNinjas]

Some TB's are successful and travel long and far and others disappear right away.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

One thing that could help to allay that feeling of disappointment is to release trackables in groups, or a goodly number within a short period of time. I say so because that gives you less time to dwell on the singular one that does go missing.

 

You stay busy with thinking about new ones to put together and launch as well as the others that haven't disappeared (yet).

 

Yes, you do need to resign yourself to the fact that these things disappear... but they can also magically reappear, sometimes within months, sometimes years later. Not that you should count on them reappearing, but when or if that happens, it is a real treat.

 

It's easier to take the bad when you have an amount of good still out there.

 

The approach of holidays and/or winter often slows geocachers and trackable movement. The geocacher with your trackable doesn't appear to have been out much at all since retrieving yours... still has another in-hand also, for a longer period of time.

 

Repeatedly emailing does little good, if they've never responded to the first or second.

Mark it as Missing now if you want, but personally I'd wait for a few more months.

Edited December 6, 2014 by Gitchee-Gummee

[+Bear and Ragged]

 

Repeatedly emailing does little good, if they've never responded to the first or second.

Mark it as Missing now if you want, but personally I'd wait for a few more months.

 

If you mark it as 'Missing' (known as Unknown Location) it is removed from the cachers inventory... Makes it easier for them to forget about it.

 

I'd leave it there, on show in their inventory, for a while longer...

Who knows, maybe in the new year, with better weather, they may start caching again, and drop the TB's they have.

[KenChole11]

Thanks for the responses.

 

Like I said, I gave benefit of the doubt and thought maybe they would release it during the holidays. Just disappointing. I didn't want to mark as missing too soon, if that wasn't a good idea.

 

I once found a handwritten bug on a poker chip. The description said the original bug was lost and they resent it out with the poker chip. Is that acceptable?

[+cerberus1]

I once found a handwritten bug on a poker chip. The description said the original bug was lost and they resent it out with the poker chip. Is that acceptable?

Yep.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Sending an replacement out is acceptable.

General advice is to wait for a year from the date-of-loss... again, because missing ones do show up, sometimes.

[+WarNinjas]

I marked one as missing from one of my caches and the TB owner put it back into the cache. I just leave it there now. There is a good chance yours could show back up.

[+Scratch Ankle]

I had one that the cache owner marked as missing as well as a cacher noting that it was missing before that. Several months later it was retrieved from that same cache, got back in play for about a month, and now seems to be lost again. Trackables dissapearing is the cost of playing the game.

[+kunarion]

I had one that the cache owner marked as missing as well as a cacher noting that it was missing before that. Several months later it was retrieved from that same cache, got back in play for about a month, and now seems to be lost again. Trackables dissapearing is the cost of playing the game.

The first two TBs I marked Missing, reappeared a year and a half after disappearing. Yeah, then vanished again. I still see one or two of mine logged very infrequently, but just a log or two, then they're gone again. I revive my TBs (at my leisure) in a much fancier form, and almost always then keep them myself.

 

But a good plan is to place a TB into the wilds, watch it travel, and never stress. The logs get made (or not) by finders. There's no extra work necessary by the Trackable Owner to track it, research it, nor mark it missing. Proper logs by the finders could be said to be the cost of playing the game.

 

Trackables dissapearing is the cost of playing the game.

Trackables are a fee some people extract, as a perk of playing the game.

Edited December 7, 2014 by kunarion

[+Huntleigh]

Hi!

 

I discovered geocaching this summer. Enjoying it, I decided to purchase a travel bug in October. I placed it near my home and waited. 2 days later, another member acquired my travel bug and mentioned it would be traveling from VA to Mississippi. I waited. It wasn't moved but I thought maybe the user would place it over the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

Before the holiday, I emailed. They didn't respond. During the holiday, I emailed again and they did not respond. I just emailed again. They were very active at the time of finding my TB, but not since late October now.

 

I'm very disappointed because it was my first travel bug and it literally made it nowhere. Any advice? How long should I wait before I mark it as lost?

 

Don't despair it may show up eventually. One of my travel bugs got picked up be a novice cacher in Australia. The cacher then went off the air completely. I had written it off and then, 10 months later, it shows up in the UK! And not even in a cache -- some cachers, looking for a new cache site found it hanging on a fence post.

 

The rediscovery in England

[+WarNinjas]

Best story I seen was a friend of mine moved to a different state. His new caching friend over there was at a garage sale and told the ones who were having the garage sale he was looking for containers and toys for geocaching. They said we did that before and we have something from it. They went and got a fish TB they have had for 5 years and gave it to him. My friend ended up with it and brought it back here and gave it to me. To bad the TB owner was no longer active.

[+dellmill]

I just got ahold of around 5 TB that had been in another's possetion for over 4 years, now I'm releasing them back out. So keep an open mind about these guys.

[+dharma cache]

Hi!

 

I discovered geocaching this summer. Enjoying it, I decided to purchase a travel bug in October. I placed it near my home and waited. 2 days later, another member acquired my travel bug and mentioned it would be traveling from VA to Mississippi. I waited. It wasn't moved but I thought maybe the user would place it over the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

Before the holiday, I emailed. They didn't respond. During the holiday, I emailed again and they did not respond. I just emailed again. They were very active at the time of finding my TB, but not since late October now.

 

I'm very disappointed because it was my first travel bug and it literally made it nowhere. Any advice? How long should I wait before I mark it as lost?

[+dharma cache]

I know how you feel, I finally have had time to put out some caches and I decided to put one out with a travel bug. Someone picked it up and still has it. I knew it could go missing, but really, I had my first travel bug out two days and now it is being held hostage. I have emailed them but no response. This is rather disappointing. If you don't move them on, don't take them. However, I will probably place another one some day.

[+cerberus1]

I know how you feel, I finally have had time to put out some caches and I decided to put one out with a travel bug. Someone picked it up and still has it. I knew it could go missing, but really, I had my first travel bug out two days and now it is being held hostage. I have emailed them but no response. This is rather disappointing. If you don't move them on, don't take them. However, I will probably place another one some day.

Only been a month, but they were caching just yesterday.

Did you try the message center?

This is supposed to be the way to contact those phone folks with "never" listed for when they've last visited the site.

[+Cachefoxxe]

If your bug is lost in a Cache you can try to have it rescued by using tb-rescue.com. You post about your lost TB info including the last cache it was in, and cachers in that are who have signed up get alerts to go and try to rescue it.

[+cerberus1]

No offense, but it seems that tb rescue is for people who can't believe COs and logs saying it's missing.

Why, it has to be hidden away somewhere in the last cache mentioned.

Most in my State are still listed to be "rescued" from the same still-visited cache for over a year.

- Thankfully not an option when the trackable's swiped by another (as in this case).

[+Cachefoxxe]

No offense taken, I did say try guess I should have added in its a long shot. For me I have no problem believing a co or logs. Its when there is no mention that gets my attention.

Edited May 27, 2015 by CacheHunterLogan