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Swag question


geostorm321

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Hello,

Totally new here. I get the concept of if you take something you leave something of more value but if you come across a box without much in it is it frowned upon to put say like 5-7 random pieces of swag in the box just to be nice for the next people who find it? Thanks.

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No...it ain't frowned upon...leave as much as you want or as much as you can.

Agreed, except for the "leave as much as you can" part. I encountered a cache that was STUFFED FULL with a plastic bag of swag. I had to work at it for a while to get the swag out so I could get to the logbook. I was tempted to chuck the swag to make it easier for the next finder. :rolleyes: So a few pieces? Sure, go for it. (Keep in mind, though, that a small number of COs don't want swag in their caches at all. Check the cache listing.)

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... I get the concept of if you take something you leave something of more value but if you come across a box without much in it is it frowned upon to put say like 5-7 random pieces of swag in the box just to be nice for the next people who find it?

Unless that's changed (these happen w/o notice sometimes...), it's "leave something of equal or greater value".

- The lady who took a custom Lucite crayon box, trading a free "Go Army!" shoelace lanyard for it, didn't get that memo I guess...

 

We'd be tickled to find one who actually leaves more than was there. :)

When we do maintenance, we find most our ammo cans are empty.

They're even taking the pencils and sharpeners...

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Yes feel free to do so! It is much appreciated by most all of us! I have heard the complaint on a few of our caches though. We placed out a regular or small so filled with swagg the FTF complained...(Well not a big complaint) But said they wanted to drop off a TB but it was to full of swagg. Also a couple of times I have seen some say on ours they don't like to have to look threw all the swagg to find the log. Those are few and far between. Most like to have swagg and I think it is great if you want to add some!

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No...it ain't frowned upon...leave as much as you want or as much as you can.

Agreed, except for the "leave as much as you can" part. I encountered a cache that was STUFFED FULL with a plastic bag of swag. I had to work at it for a while to get the swag out so I could get to the logbook. I was tempted to chuck the swag to make it easier for the next finder. :rolleyes: So a few pieces? Sure, go for it. (Keep in mind, though, that a small number of COs don't want swag in their caches at all. Check the cache listing.)

The NSW National Parks service here has a condition in their geocaching policy that caches on their land must contain only a logbook and pen/pencil, so no swag (or trackables) allowed. There might be other places having similar land owner conditions, although it'd normally be mentioned in the cache description.

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Thank you all for the replies. SO helpful! I wasn't expecting a response and I got like what 7? So THANK YOU!!! Yeah, I ask because I've made a few finds that were a little bit hard to get to and lol no pay off so I don't want the next person disappointed too. I like BOTH the challenge of find AND the treasure hunt of goodies :) and I also like to give, I like how it makes ME feel :)

 

I can't understand people taking from the cache and not leaving a thing, I don't know anyone who is without small trinkets and small stuff to give/trade for. LOL don't we all have catch-all drawers? hhahaa :)

 

Happy hunting!!!

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Hello,

Totally new here. I get the concept of if you take something you leave something of more value but if you come across a box without much in it is it frowned upon to put say like 5-7 random pieces of swag in the box just to be nice for the next people who find it? Thanks.

 

I think it's sweet of you to help. I just started GC'ing a month ago have found 8 caches and 3 of them I had to put new log or swag in. I wonder if there is a special paper that we are supposed to use for the logs though? Something that takes the elements should it get wet.

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Hello,

Totally new here. I get the concept of if you take something you leave something of more value but if you come across a box without much in it is it frowned upon to put say like 5-7 random pieces of swag in the box just to be nice for the next people who find it? Thanks.

I think it's sweet of you to help. I just started GC'ing a month ago have found 8 caches and 3 of them I had to put new log or swag in. I wonder if there is a special paper that we are supposed to use for the logs though? Something that takes the elements should it get wet.

You do realize you don't have to do either, right? :)

We use Rite in Rain strips as a temp fix for an active Owner, but only to keep things going until the CO can fix things himself.

When placing a cache, a CO agrees that they'll do maintenance...

- We already have a lot of that paper, so no big deal.

 

I wouldn't go to any personal expense when the CO is the one who should be doing maintenance, so regular paper's fine. :)

If the log's wet, it may be issues with the container, not simply the paper inside.

We sure won't replace containers for them.

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Hello,

Totally new here. I get the concept of if you take something you leave something of more value but if you come across a box without much in it is it frowned upon to put say like 5-7 random pieces of swag in the box just to be nice for the next people who find it? Thanks.

 

I think it's sweet of you to help. I just started GC'ing a month ago have found 8 caches and 3 of them I had to put new log or swag in. I wonder if there is a special paper that we are supposed to use for the logs though? Something that takes the elements should it get wet.

 

 

Me too!!! I'm thinking it's pretty addictive so far lol :)

 

Not sure about the logs though, most I have seen are just regular paper or little notebooks.

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Twice I've had someone tell me there was no log in my cache because they assumed the cute artsy logbook was actually swag.  I've also seen a local cacher sign the swag thinking it was the logbook. 

I shouldn't be, but sometimes I am so surprised to find my cache devoid of anything but the log after I placed a handful of gifts/unactivated trackables inside. On the other hand, I've had people leave so much swag that the ziplock gallon bag wouldn't close, risking water getting inside. I had to take a few things out.

My favorite swag to find is signature items!

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48 minutes ago, garyo1954 said:

With the weekend coming up (being out and about) I put together some swag to leave.
Since I put little boxes out with a necklace inside from time to time anyway, I figured I'd just personalize a few for caching.

swag.jpg

Wow! Those are fantastic! I sure would love to find one of those in a cache.  

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1 hour ago, garyo1954 said:

Got out this morning. Found one, left swag.

DNF 3 nanos or micros. Was within 2 GPS feet but.....alas!

Kinda off-topic , but civilian GPS is only "accurate" to around 10' on a perfect day.  That would mean the CO and you would have to have perfect days. Did you happen to notice your location +/- ?  Two feet, but +/- 27 feet isn't that close, right?  I put the GPSr away around 25 feet and start looking by the D/T.  :)

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19 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

Kinda off-topic , but civilian GPS is only "accurate" to around 10' on a perfect day.  That would mean the CO and you would have to have perfect days. Did you happen to notice your location +/- ?  Two feet, but +/- 27 feet isn't that close, right?  I put the GPSr away around 25 feet and start looking by the D/T.  :)

You're completely on track cerberus1.

I pay attention to the GPS to see which direction and how far away. It won't locate the object but (hope) it gets me close. This was a busy street corner. Traffic in front and on the left and a train track say 50 feet away (with a moving train at the latter part of the search). It's a street corner. There is a monument. GPS said is was the monument. Nothing. Starting at the curb to 6 feet past the monument in both directions, I found 11 cents but no cache. On average, I expect GPS to get me withing 12 - 20 feet. (Accuracy said within 3 feet).

It was a totally different environment than the one in the rural area. Within 92 feet, I started watching the compass, moving NW. Feet continued to drop. At a grove of trees GPS said within 6 feet. Put the GPS away and began looking around. It jumped out
I'm new at everything involved, especially GPS. So I fumble around between maps, compass, descriptions, etc. Then I noticed the route tracker. Duh!
Need to learn how that works so I'm not searching on the map for the next cache. If set up properly seems it would take you from cache to cache.

Overall, I didn't have a good master plan. I knew leaving home the first stop. Never expected to end up near the monument. So didn't find a lot, but I learned a bit about caches and GPS. And I enjoyed the beautiful weather!

(Really off topic, biggest smile came when I got Facebook message that a young fella had located one of my treasure boxes and wanted to keep it. With my blessing, keep it. I love getting those messages letting me know they have it and like it enough to keep!)



 

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On 3/9/2018 at 1:16 AM, garyo1954 said:

With the weekend coming up (being out and about) I put together some swag to leave.
Since I put little boxes out with a necklace inside from time to time anyway, I figured I'd just personalize a few for caching.

swag.jpg

AMAZING handiwork there! Is the laser engraving done in-house by you?

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37 minutes ago, K13 said:

AMAZING handiwork there! Is the laser engraving done in-house by you?

Thank you K13.

Yes sir all done right here at home. I have a CNC router and a laser.

The router was supposed to be a father son project back in 2012, but the son acquired a girlfriend which was more interesting than a computer operated router. 
Added the laser last year when son married girlfriend.

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On 3/9/2018 at 2:16 AM, garyo1954 said:

With the weekend coming up (being out and about) I put together some swag to leave.
Since I put little boxes out with a necklace inside from time to time anyway, I figured I'd just personalize a few for caching.

swag.jpg

Very nicely done.   When I first started a lot of geocachers would leave "signature items".  A lot of them were not as artistic as this but if one found a cache, and saw a specific type of swag item, you could tell that it was either there by a specific cacher or traded from some other cache.   There was a local cacher that bought a couple of boxes of 1" copper balls at a garage sale and that became her "signature" swag.  I met her at an event and mentioned that I had obtained one of her "balls" and she handed me another and said, "every male geocacher should have two".   There was another geocacher that worked for some sort of cable company and would leave RGB or ethernet cables, or cable splitters in caches.  

 

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34 minutes ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

Very nicely done.   When I first started a lot of geocachers would leave "signature items".  A lot of them were not as artistic as this but if one found a cache, and saw a specific type of swag item, you could tell that it was either there by a specific cacher or traded from some other cache.   There was a local cacher that bought a couple of boxes of 1" copper balls at a garage sale and that became her "signature" swag.  I met her at an event and mentioned that I had obtained one of her "balls" and she handed me another and said, "every male geocacher should have two".   There was another geocacher that worked for some sort of cable company and would leave RGB or ethernet cables, or cable splitters in caches.  

 

Thank you. I suspect little wooden boxes and wooden whatnots will be my signature. There is always going to be so it works out beautifully.   

newstuff.jpg

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On 3/13/2018 at 1:56 PM, garyo1954 said:

Thank you K13.

Yes sir all done right here at home. I have a CNC router and a laser.

The router was supposed to be a father son project back in 2012, but the son acquired a girlfriend which was more interesting than a computer operated router. 
Added the laser last year when son married girlfriend.

I just ordered a laser engraver, they are too cheap to not want to play with!  I figured some custom wooden nickel swag would be a fun find, and I think I might have gotten the idea from you in a different thread.

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On 4/18/2018 at 9:01 AM, StumblinMonk said:

I just ordered a laser engraver, they are too cheap to not want to play with!  I figured some custom wooden nickel swag would be a fun find, and I think I might have gotten the idea from you in a different thread.

If you like woodwork, they can be fun. Assuming its a K40 laser, there are a few groups on Facebook that will help get you set up and running. Bring a grain of salt. Most will offer advice on upgrades you should buy before you do any cutting.

I'm an oddball. I bought the laser after home building and running CNC router table (since 2011). I've seen people run their stock table for years without problems and people who buy a laser, spend $1500 on improvements and give it all away for $900. 

They never get the idea its not what you have to work with, its the work you can do with what you have. For the fun of it, (and to keep this geocache related)...

Here's a 100mm, 8 ring cryptex, completely made with my laser with cedar and poplar.  

cryptex.jpg

cryptex2.jpg

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