How long should I wait to mark a travel bug as missing?

[+TheRosesDLEE]

How long should I wait to mark a travel bug as missing?

Also, can anyone recommend someone who will put the missing numbers onto a new tb?

 

About 10 months ago me and the geotwins each released our own tb with the idea of having a race to see whose travelled furthest and whose visited the most countries.

Mine went missing from the cache I placed it in (other cachers have confirmed it isn't there) 

Ella's made it a grand total of 272 miles before a cache it was placed in got muggled and destroyed. 

Emily's has done nearly 3800 miles, visited a handful of countries and is currently winding it's way around Germany.

 

[+kunarion]

I start working on a revived version of a lost TB after one year. Be sure to make it plain on your TB page that there's a new version in play, in case the old one turns up.

 

If mine will ever reappear, they seem to show up after about 18 months. Then they're gone again.

 

If you want to make a nice inexpensive replacement tag, look at places like amazon, for “engraved dog tags”. Tags available in many shapes, and you can have four lines of engraved text, front and back, the whole thing for under four dollars with free shipping.

 

Edited March 11, 2019 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

Agree with the "one year".   Though, if there's an accompanying note from a hoarder, reseller, thief, it could be sooner...

EBay and amazon have a lot of dog tag vendors.   Most engrave 'em for you.

We've never sent a missing trackable out again.   What's the point ? 

 - The site won't/can't help in lost property ...  and to be clear, it is the TO's property...

If we were going to "reuse" those codes,  it'd be for something worn, carried, or added to a custom part on one of the Harleys.

 - The  code would allow others to discover (whatever it is)  it at events, or in passing on a trail. 

[+dprovan]

8 hours ago, TheRosesDLEE said:

How long should I wait to mark a travel bug as missing?

Well, it's your TB, so, of course, it's up to you. Personally, I only mark a TB missing if I know for a fact it's not where the system says it is.

 

But what you're really asking, I think, is how long you should wait to re-release a second copy of the TB. I'm fascinated by the possibility of a lost TB resurfacing, so I'd never re-release a TB. In a case like you describe where you're all following a race, I'd issue a second TB -- Emily's Second, for example -- instead of re-releasing the first. But, again, it's up to you. How likely is it that a TB you're pretty sure is missing will resurface? Unlikely, so I wouldn't worry about a specific time period, just re-release it when you're pretty sure and recognize that there's a tiny chance the old one will resurface and you'll have to deal with the confusion from that. Even the confusion of two TBs traveling with the same code isn't a big deal, so it's not like you have to worry about causing a catastrophe.

[+NanCycle]

If it is not in the cache it is listed as being in, mark it missing sooner rather than later.  This is just saying that it isn't n that cache and no one knows where it is.  

 

As for reissuing as a replacement, I go with 18+ months.  I just had one reappear after over 3 years.  It had been reissued and re-disappeared again in that time.

[+Goldenwattle]

I have found a TB was that missing for over three years, and several for up to two years. I have several TBs that are missing. I don't see why I would replace them, so I don't reuse those numbers. If I want another TB travelling I start with a new number. That way there is no worry about a TB suddenly turning up again and then having two TBs travelling with the same number.

[+Dave_W6DPS]

I don't re-release the same number. It wipes the history of the first iteration.

 

Absent direct evidence, I usually don't mark them missing for a couple of years.

[+NanCycle]

8 hours ago, Dave_W6DPS said:

I don't re-release the same number. It wipes the history of the first iteration.

 

No, it doesn't.  The full history is still there. 

[+kunarion]

2 hours ago, NanCycle said:

No, it doesn't.  The full history is still there. 

 

+1

 

I revive my lost trackables, and they get new engraved tags, new attachments and goals.  I change the write-up to explain what it was and what it looks like now, and I keep the old logs.  I haven't sent out my revived trackables, because most of them are expensive vanity versions of the lost ones, such as Instant Karma.  But I could re-use the tracking number in some way, even releasing it as a whole new-improved trackable.  Especially with long-dormant trackables, the tracking number is fully recyclable.

[+cerberus1]

11 hours ago, Dave_W6DPS said:

I don't re-release the same number. It wipes the history of the first iteration.

Absent direct evidence, I usually don't mark them missing for a couple of years.

 

Re-releasing the trackable using it's tracking code simply allows it to receive logs again.   

 - "History" no different than before. 

We do know a few people who "wiped the history" by deleting logs.  That's not an automated Groundspeak function with trackables. 

All the hate-mail they got, I doubt they'd do that again.  How to make friends and influence people...  

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by cerberus1
addification

[+Goldenwattle]

If you reuse your TB number, don't be surprised if you end up with two separate travel journeys being recorded. I have found long lost trackables and set them travelling again. Risky to reuse the numbers, and I don't understand why you would. Get a new number.