smasher43 Posted February 19, 2015 Posted February 19, 2015 Hi I’m new to geocaching, been a basic member for 2 months, 30 caches so far. I am considering upgrading to premium membership, but would like to know how many more premium caches are there than regular caches, and what is the difference? Are there quite a lot of premium caches around or not that many? I’m in the UK. Any advice appreciated. Quote
+Gackt Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 Hi smasher43, welcome to the addictive hobby Each area has a differing amount of premium caches. Just a few miles from my home there is a ring of over 100 premium member caches. In your area there may be many less, or much more. For the main part the caches are no different to those available to everyone. It is just that the cache owners have decided to set them to be for premium members only. There are a number of reasons why a CO may choose to set them as premium only, I will let others list reasons for that, but one of which is that an audit is available to the CO so they can see who has been looking at their cache pages. If you would like to get an indication of how many more caches would be available to you if you were to pay up, then may I direct you to THIS BLOG POST I wrote last year. I have just checked out the same procedure I detailed on there, and it still works. I put a video on there to help explain too. In short sign out of your account and take another look at the map of your area Hope this helps you, happy caching! Quote
+Bear and Ragged Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 Do you use a GPS or an app on the phone? If an app, which one? (eg Groundspeaks trial app or Groundspeaks paid app, or another app) Premium Member Only caches (in the UK) tend to be 'few and far between' unless you're in town and they have been PMOd to prevent 'new phone app' users from finding them. Quote
+Bear and Ragged Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) . Edited February 20, 2015 by Bear and Ragged Quote
+Original A1 Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 Welcome to the hobby. Probably like many others, I followed a similar pattern to you and after 2 weeks (6 years ago tomorrow), became a premium member. To be honest, it's an exceptional return you get for a relatively small outlay each year and I don't usually give it any further thought, other than as a cache setter where most of my puzzles have been put to premium membership. There is a two-fold reason for this: 1) it offers just a slightly stronger protection against people who might go and despoil my hide (alas, it happens, and any member of the public who learns about this game can log into the site, look at the map to see where caches are and go and remove them. Although it sounds far-fetched, it has happened and they are perhaps slightly less likely to pay to look and see where those caches are, etc.) and 2) I quite enjoy having the occasional peep to see who's been working at my puzzles (although I'm intrigued that some people seem to enjoy revisiting the pages many many many times, even when they've already found the cache!). It's really up to you. I don't know too many people who regret it. Happy caching. Quote
+MartyBartfast Posted February 20, 2015 Posted February 20, 2015 I just did a quick, not very scientific, survey based on some of your recent finds and it looks like ~%10 of the caches in that are are premium only, so not a huge percentage. Personally I thing the advantages to PM is about the other features it gives, rather than the access to PM only caches. Quote
+Delta68 Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 (edited) Although the replies have all answered the original question, I don't feel the original question was the correct question The main benefits of Premium Membership are notifications and pocket queries http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=7 With over 170,000 active caches in the UK alone, there's plenty to find without premium member only caches but we certainly could manage without PQs! M Edited February 21, 2015 by Delta68 Quote
smasher43 Posted February 21, 2015 Author Posted February 21, 2015 Do you use a GPS or an app on the phone? If an app, which one? (eg Groundspeaks trial app or Groundspeaks paid app, or another app) Premium Member Only caches (in the UK) tend to be 'few and far between' unless you're in town and they have been PMOd to prevent 'new phone app' users from finding them. I use a smartphone with the geocaching paid app. Quote
+londontavern Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 Funnily enough I was asked that question a few nights ago. Of my 2135 (ish) finds, only 48 are premium member caches and nearly all were to do with 3 series that I did in one small area near Dorchester. And nope they were no different to the 'norm', in fact one series IMHO was rubbish. However as has been said the other benefits are well worth the price of premium membership. Only today I downloaded in one gulp 500+ caches in Cyprus our next holiday destination. Quote
+Bear and Ragged Posted February 21, 2015 Posted February 21, 2015 (edited) Do you use a GPS or an app on the phone? If an app, which one? (eg Groundspeaks trial app or Groundspeaks paid app, or another app) Premium Member Only caches (in the UK) tend to be 'few and far between' unless you're in town and they have been PMOd to prevent 'new phone app' users from finding them. I use a smartphone with the geocaching paid app. Your 'advantage' of Premium membership will be the ability to run Pocket Queries, which you can download to the phone when you have phone signal, or wifi, so you can get/access cache details when there is no phone signal. Bookmarks are handy to save caches to. (And you can run a PQ from a Bookmark) Premium Member Only caches are not necessarily any 'Better' than any other cache... And, having looked at the area you've been caching, PMO caches are a very small % of caches out there. Groundspeaks "Benefits of Premium Membership." Edited February 21, 2015 by Bear and Ragged Quote
+castagnari Posted February 22, 2015 Posted February 22, 2015 I'm wondering why the OP hasn't yet used the 30 day free trial code I sent him. Quote
BOBBLES WORLD TOUR Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Hi I’m new to geocaching, been a basic member for 2 months, 30 caches so far. I am considering upgrading to premium membership, but would like to know how many more premium caches are there than regular caches, and what is the difference? Are there quite a lot of premium caches around or not that many? I’m in the UK. Any advice appreciated. More and more each day. Start slow with those caches you can see (and find) before you shell out £24.99 ( a weird exchange rate) Good luck. Quote
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