How do I buy a largr amount of tracking codes

July 17, 2015

I got a list of codes in my mind.

3.8k · July 17, 2015

I got a list of codes in my mind.

Short answer is you can't do what you want.

Long answer is you buy the code from Groundspeak, a minimum of 50. But they have to approve whatever the codes are on. And you don't get to pick the codes. Best of can do is choose a custom prefix- that is the first 2 characters. But I believe you have to pay extra for that as well.

If you tell us what you're planning, someone may be able to help you do it another way.

Edited July 17, 2015 by T.D.M.22

15.3k · July 17, 2015

This Help Center article has the details:

Tracking Code Policy

July 17, 2015

I got a list of codes in my mind.

If you tell us what you're planning, someone may be able to help you do it another way.

Well. Do you want to know the truth or do you prefer a nice story?

Edited July 17, 2015 by lunatic shrink

4.9k · July 17, 2015

I'd like the entire ossi truth. Please.

Hans

July 17, 2015

I'd like the entire ossi truth. Please.

Hans

I would like to set free a sample of some hundred codes to make a statistic how they spread under choosen conditions. And dogtags are to expensive. To be precisely: I can't afford it. :-)

July 17, 2015

Perhaps you could host a trackable race. That way you would have a number of trackables (maybe not hundreds) starting from one location. With a little work you could probably extract what ever data you're looking for.

There's even a website to help out with these races.

July 17, 2015

Perhaps you could host a trackable race. That way you would have a number of trackables (maybe not hundreds) starting from one location. With a little work you could probably extract what ever data you're looking for.

There's even a website to help out with these races.

Hm ... I am interested in questions like: How effects the given task on the traveling distance over time. It needs 15-20 bugs minimum in every group to compaire this groups with nonparametric methods.

Edited July 17, 2015 by lunatic shrink

7.8k · July 17, 2015

Hm ... I am interested in questions like: How effects the given task on the traveling distance over time. It needs 15-20 bugs minimum in every group to compaire this groups with nonparametric methods.

It sounds like you're wanting to attempt some kind of experiment using trackables, though it isn't clear exactly what this experiment would be. You should understand that trackables are very unreliable. With the massive increase in the number of new cachers in recent years, more and more trackables have gone missing. A study I did of the trackables listed in the local caches around here showed that approximately 80% are missing. Of the trackables I've released, none are actively moving anymore. As long as your experiment is run over a fairly short timespan, it might work. However, be prepared to have many of them go missing or otherwise stop moving within the first year.

3.6k · July 18, 2015

You mean when the TBs hit the Black Holes never to be able to get out?

July 18, 2015

You mean when the TBs hit the Black Holes never to be able to get out?

I wonder if there are some kind of 'bad cashers' who come around to destroy the cash. Yesterday I had found a destroyed cash with pieces all around. There was a perfectly correct logging of the disturbance in the exposed logbook on the street. The destroyer used a red ballpen that should withstand rain for some time.

Edited July 18, 2015 by lunatic shrink

3.3k · July 18, 2015

You mean when the TBs hit the Black Holes never to be able to get out?

I wonder if there are some kind of 'bad cashers' who come around to destroy the cash. Yesterday I had found a destroyed cash with pieces all around. There was a perfectly correct logging of the disturbance in the exposed logbook on the street. The destroyer used a red ballpen that should withstand rain for some time.

While there have been "bad cachers," more likely "bad muggles" did the damage.

3.3k · July 18, 2015

I'd like the entire ossi truth. Please.

Hans

I would like to set free a sample of some hundred codes to make a statistic how they spread under choosen conditions. And dogtags are to expensive. To be precisely: I can't afford it. :-)

Lunatic shrink (great name, by the way!), if I were to suggest that there might be the possibility of a funded research project, a cacher called Kat Brigade might think i'm joking. Just to send that theory into a black hole, here's a cite to an actual academic study:

Ihamäki, P. (2015) User Experience of Geocaching and Its Application to Tourism and Education, Phd thesis, Annales Universitatis Turkuensis B404, University of Turku, Juvenes Ltd., Turku

Also, maybe you could check with Groundspeak about an internship or do a study as an independent contractor for them with pay.

3.3k · July 18, 2015

I got a list of codes in my mind.

If you tell us what you're planning, someone may be able to help you do it another way.

Well. Do you want to know the truth or do you prefer a nice story?

Just curious - what was the "nice story"?

July 18, 2015

I got a list of codes in my mind.

If you tell us what you're planning, someone may be able to help you do it another way.

Well. Do you want to know the truth or do you prefer a nice story?

Just curious - what was the "nice story"?

It has something to do with a caribbean beach, trackable girls and light clothing. And tequilla. ~~~~

3.3k · July 18, 2015

I got a list of codes in my mind.

If you tell us what you're planning, someone may be able to help you do it another way.

Well. Do you want to know the truth or do you prefer a nice story?

Just curious - what was the "nice story"?

It has something to do with a caribbean beach, trackable girls and light clothing. And tequilla. ~~~~

I've heard there are some geocaching novels. Sounds like you already have a plot for a new one.

5.9k · July 18, 2015

You can try your experiment with Euro bills... registering on EBT, by instance.

July 18, 2015

I got a list of codes in my mind.

If you tell us what you're planning, someone may be able to help you do it another way.

Well. Do you want to know the truth or do you prefer a nice story?

Just curious - what was the "nice story"?

It has something to do with a caribbean beach, trackable girls and light clothing. And tequilla. ~~~~

I've heard there are some geocaching novels. Sounds like you already have a plot for a new one.

Hm ... A code-obsessed shrink in the caribbean who places tracking codes on clueless female tourists. Sometimes he lures them into a hidden 'geocash-stargate' and teleport them to Saalfeld in Germany. Probably the most boring city on earth. There they have to work in the local magarine factory.

Edited July 18, 2015 by lunatic shrink

July 18, 2015

You can try your experiment with Euro bills... registering on EBT, by instance.

Some travelbugs comes with a descrition that makes pity or sympathy. Like: "My aunty elisabeth had this goal on her bucket list."; "My children want to see the item travel and experience adventures so please make pictures".

Other travelbugs are simply dogtags and travel without any wrapping story in background.

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?

Edited July 18, 2015 by lunatic shrink

5.9k · July 18, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?

There are no perfect strategies, because the cache and the trackables inside it, may get muggled or simply destroyed (by fire or other situations), but a TB dedicated to somebody or something deceased... with a passport and with a good grip, so the object attached won't get lost, would have a good chance of enduring.

But, the Euro bills are almost safe not to get lost.

PS: Unless you take this trackable to Events only... but that will not fulfill your experiment, I guess.

Edited July 18, 2015 by RuideAlmeida

15.3k · July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?
There are no perfect strategies, because the cache and the trackables inside it, may get muggled or simply destroyed (by fire or other situations), but a TB dedicated to somebody or something deceased... with a passport and with a good grip, so the object attached won't get lost, would have a good chance of enduring.

In my non-scientific opinion, it helps to have an object that is somewhat interesting (in the "different or unusual" sense), but no so attractive/valuable that it encourages people to keep it.

And a goal (other than just traveling) helps, as long as it isn't too difficult a goal.

July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?
There are no perfect strategies, because the cache and the trackables inside it, may get muggled or simply destroyed (by fire or other situations), but a TB dedicated to somebody or something deceased... with a passport and with a good grip, so the object attached won't get lost, would have a good chance of enduring.
In my non-scientific opinion, it helps to have an object that is somewhat interesting (in the "different or unusual" sense), but no so attractive/valuable that it encourages people to keep it.

And a goal (other than just traveling) helps, as long as it isn't too difficult a goal.

And if the object is that much attractive to the people that they keep it. Why do they keep the dog tag as well? Why do they not simply keep the object and drop the blank dog tag? Why is there such a large percentage of missing dog tags over relatively short time?

A dog tag is worth nothing and is not transferable. Why do it disappear together with its object?

Edited July 19, 2015 by lunatic shrink

July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?
There are no perfect strategies, because the cache and the trackables inside it, may get muggled or simply destroyed (by fire or other situations), but a TB dedicated to somebody or something deceased... with a passport and with a good grip, so the object attached won't get lost, would have a good chance of enduring.
In my non-scientific opinion, it helps to have an object that is somewhat interesting (in the "different or unusual" sense), but no so attractive/valuable that it encourages people to keep it.

And a goal (other than just traveling) helps, as long as it isn't too difficult a goal.

And if the object is that much attractive to the people that they keep it. Why do they keep the dog tag as well? Why do they not simply keep the object and drop the blank dog tag? Why is there such a large percentage of missing dog tags over relatively short time?

A dog tag is worth nothing and is not transferable. Why do it disappear together with its object?

Quite simple actually. It's not so much about the 'thing' being desirable, it's about it all being so small. So small the or gets lost in a bag or a car or a drawer. I would guess that most cachers ate simply opportunity cachers, that is instead of meticulously planning a weekend of caching they wake up on Saturday morning, work out they have nothing on and go get one or two. Or there's one close by to something else they are doing. Our there's one or two on the track they ate walking the dog on.

So you have all these people who don't geocache for the sale of geocaching, they go out, find one and it has a TB in it. They take the TB intending to drop it 'somewhere cool' but in the meantime life goes on and the TB gets buried deeper and deeper into the handbag or glovebox or junk drawer. Next time the drawer is cleared out is years down the track and they have no use for the game piece any longer or the person doing the cleaning out is different to the one who put it in there.

July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?
There are no perfect strategies, because the cache and the trackables inside it, may get muggled or simply destroyed (by fire or other situations), but a TB dedicated to somebody or something deceased... with a passport and with a good grip, so the object attached won't get lost, would have a good chance of enduring.
In my non-scientific opinion, it helps to have an object that is somewhat interesting (in the "different or unusual" sense), but no so attractive/valuable that it encourages people to keep it.

And a goal (other than just traveling) helps, as long as it isn't too difficult a goal.

And if the object is that much attractive to the people that they keep it. Why do they keep the dog tag as well? Why do they not simply keep the object and drop the blank dog tag? Why is there such a large percentage of missing dog tags over relatively short time?

A dog tag is worth nothing and is not transferable. Why do it disappear together with its object?

Quite simple actually. It's not so much about the 'thing' being desirable, it's about it all being so small. So small the or gets lost in a bag or a car or a drawer. I would guess that most cachers ate simply opportunity cachers, that is instead of meticulously planning a weekend of caching they wake up on Saturday morning, work out they have nothing on and go get one or two. Or there's one close by to something else they are doing. Our there's one or two on the track they ate walking the dog on.

So you have all these people who don't geocache for the sale of geocaching, they go out, find one and it has a TB in it. They take the TB intending to drop it 'somewhere cool' but in the meantime life goes on and the TB gets buried deeper and deeper into the handbag or glovebox or junk drawer. Next time the drawer is cleared out is years down the track and they have no use for the game piece any longer or the person doing the cleaning out is different to the one who put it in there.

Hm ... good point.

And if you make the object attractive it won't disappear that way? I use golden copper coins to make it appear precious. But I pierce the coin with a drill to make i unattractive to coin collectors.

But I guess the best method is to send out a larger amount of blank dog tags and see ho many survive over the time.

July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?
There are no perfect strategies, because the cache and the trackables inside it, may get muggled or simply destroyed (by fire or other situations), but a TB dedicated to somebody or something deceased... with a passport and with a good grip, so the object attached won't get lost, would have a good chance of enduring.
In my non-scientific opinion, it helps to have an object that is somewhat interesting (in the "different or unusual" sense), but no so attractive/valuable that it encourages people to keep it.

And a goal (other than just traveling) helps, as long as it isn't too difficult a goal.

And if the object is that much attractive to the people that they keep it. Why do they keep the dog tag as well? Why do they not simply keep the object and drop the blank dog tag? Why is there such a large percentage of missing dog tags over relatively short time?

A dog tag is worth nothing and is not transferable. Why do it disappear together with its object?

Quite simple actually. It's not so much about the 'thing' being desirable, it's about it all being so small. So small the or gets lost in a bag or a car or a drawer. I would guess that most cachers ate simply opportunity cachers, that is instead of meticulously planning a weekend of caching they wake up on Saturday morning, work out they have nothing on and go get one or two. Or there's one close by to something else they are doing. Our there's one or two on the track they ate walking the dog on.

So you have all these people who don't geocache for the sale of geocaching, they go out, find one and it has a TB in it. They take the TB intending to drop it 'somewhere cool' but in the meantime life goes on and the TB gets buried deeper and deeper into the handbag or glovebox or junk drawer. Next time the drawer is cleared out is years down the track and they have no use for the game piece any longer or the person doing the cleaning out is different to the one who put it in there.

Hm ... good point.

And if you make the object attractive it won't disappear that way? I use golden copper coins to make it appear precious. But I pierce the coin with a drill to make i unattractive to coin collectors.

But I guess the best method is to send out a larger amount of blank dog tags and see ho many survive over the time.

I don't know if attractive is the key, quite often the theory is thrown around in the TB forum that an attractive travel mate is what makes them disappear. I reckon the key is a Bigger travel mate. If you had something the size of a brick that is harder to bury in crap they are more likely to remember it and possibly make a special trip to get rid of it, same if the wife kicks it every time she gets in the car. Downside of course is that there are many times fewer caches big enough to take a brick than there are ones to take a Maccas toy size Travel Mate.

July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?
There are no perfect strategies, because the cache and the trackables inside it, may get muggled or simply destroyed (by fire or other situations), but a TB dedicated to somebody or something deceased... with a passport and with a good grip, so the object attached won't get lost, would have a good chance of enduring.
In my non-scientific opinion, it helps to have an object that is somewhat interesting (in the "different or unusual" sense), but no so attractive/valuable that it encourages people to keep it.

And a goal (other than just traveling) helps, as long as it isn't too difficult a goal.

And if the object is that much attractive to the people that they keep it. Why do they keep the dog tag as well? Why do they not simply keep the object and drop the blank dog tag? Why is there such a large percentage of missing dog tags over relatively short time?

A dog tag is worth nothing and is not transferable. Why do it disappear together with its object?

Quite simple actually. It's not so much about the 'thing' being desirable, it's about it all being so small. So small the or gets lost in a bag or a car or a drawer. I would guess that most cachers ate simply opportunity cachers, that is instead of meticulously planning a weekend of caching they wake up on Saturday morning, work out they have nothing on and go get one or two. Or there's one close by to something else they are doing. Our there's one or two on the track they ate walking the dog on.

So you have all these people who don't geocache for the sale of geocaching, they go out, find one and it has a TB in it. They take the TB intending to drop it 'somewhere cool' but in the meantime life goes on and the TB gets buried deeper and deeper into the handbag or glovebox or junk drawer. Next time the drawer is cleared out is years down the track and they have no use for the game piece any longer or the person doing the cleaning out is different to the one who put it in there.

Hm ... good point.

And if you make the object attractive it won't disappear that way? I use golden copper coins to make it appear precious. But I pierce the coin with a drill to make i unattractive to coin collectors.

But I guess the best method is to send out a larger amount of blank dog tags and see ho many survive over the time.

I don't know if attractive is the key, quite often the theory is thrown around in the TB forum that an attractive travel mate is what makes them disappear. I reckon the key is a Bigger travel mate. If you had something the size of a brick that is harder to bury in crap they are more likely to remember it and possibly make a special trip to get rid of it, same if the wife kicks it every time she gets in the car. Downside of course is that there are many times fewer caches big enough to take a brick than there are ones to take a Maccas toy size Travel Mate.

Ja, good point. Think this is right.

July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?

I suggest a tattoo on your body.

13.7k · July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?

I suggest a tattoo on your body.

+1

For "best" strategy, I agree.

Good & better may be a backpack, hiking stick, or something with you much of the time, to be discovered only.

3.3k · July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?

I suggest a tattoo on your body.

Yes, but then the "best strategy" also requires exercise and good nutrition.

Some giant turtles live 125 years - but applying a TB logo to them raises some ethical concerns which should be discussed in a new thread.

July 19, 2015

What kind of 'bug-type' is the best strategy if you wanna create a long living trackable?

I suggest a tattoo on your body.

+1

For "best" strategy, I agree.

Good & better may be a backpack, hiking stick, or something with you much of the time, to be discovered only.

Or a highly usable small thing that is needed only sometimes? A pressure gauge or a pattern-depth-gauge for tires? A satelite finder?

August 2, 2015

Try geokrety.org. Similar to travelbugs, but free.

How do I buy a largr amount of tracking codes

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Link to comment

Join the conversation