Custom Trackable Box

[amidknight]

Sorry if this is a duplicate, I'm not that active when it comes to caching. Also, I'm going to be exceptionally brief.

 

My mother passed away. She had a ton of small shells. I have roughly 50 left after the services. She loved road trips and stepping off the highway to check out oddball sites. I'm taking her on one more as I head back to Nashville, TN. Along the way, I would like to drop some travel bugs along the way.

 

I would like to create my trackables and travel bugs and want to make sure I'm understanding the implementation details.

 

The shells themselves can't take a travel bug tag (and the collective cost is beyond my budget); therefore, I was going to purchase the codes (50 = $75 compared to $300).

 

I was going to put the code on a box; thereby, making the box the trackable. The box would contain the obituary, my eulogy, and, of course, the shell - and possibly some other details and logging tools, if they can fit (a cache within a cache so to speak).

 

1. If I'm understanding correctly, I should be able to put the tracking code on the box, activate it, and all the rest and be just fine.
2. Further, I should be able to change the goal for each trackable, if desired.

 

Is this correct? Is there an easier way to accomplish the high level goal of my mother essentially continuing to travel the world via the shells and story afforded by the obituary and eulogy?

[+kunarion]

4 hours ago, amidknight said:

If I'm understanding correctly, I should be able to put the tracking code on the box, activate it, and all the rest and be just fine.

 

Do you mean there are 50 boxes, each with a shell and slips of paper?  What size are the boxes?

 

If a box has just a "tracking number", remember that people won't necessarily know what it is.  I wish cachers could independently figure out any missing information, but that's just a wish.  Anyhoo, there's a lot of information on an actual The Travel Bug dogtag, including a "Travel Bug logo".  Plus once someone's found a Travel Bug, now they know what it is.  So each box will need something that makes it "look like a Travel Bug", makes it identifiable.  Otherwise, it could still work, but all those moving parts and pieces, not fitting smaller containers, it's starting out kind of iffy.

 

Also, there's an approval process for getting those cheap tracking numbers for Geocoins, based on the Geocoin's design.  You will need to check on that.  I've never seen a shell in a box Geocoin.  That would be a new one!

 

As for the easier way, I don't know about the shells, but if you buy 50 trackable tags (even the cheaper ones on clearance), and if you have a compact remembrance text (Name, dates, some info), you can get laser-engraved tags online including text engraving of four lines on each side for under $4 each (the cheapest I've found), free shipping.  Google that, or refer to threads about cheap tags around this Forum.  Securely attach a real Trackable tag to the remembrance tag, and that's a compact Trackable item that might travel well.

 

Yet you don't need to necessarily "buy Trackables" at all.  Design them how you like, place them in caches, have info that finders "email you and pass it on".  It's not in the "Geocaching Trackable" database, but it's less red tape, and less cost.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by kunarion

[amidknight]

Thanks Kunarion.

 

Great questions.

 

Yes, 50 boxes. About the size of a deck of cards or pack of cigarettes. So, it would definitely need to travel between larger caches. They were the smallest I could find that can hold the shell + words, including the travel bug language (thanks for the link, the image is way helpful).

 

Are those tracking numbers only for Geocoins? I don't need the design, just the numbers for less than $5 a shot and to know that if I put them on there in a way that covers the bases you mention - like a sticker or engraving. The bulk, budget, and constraints are the toughest constraints but I'm staying flexible.

 

I tried searching for remembrance tags and came up with various interesting things. Is there a link that helps me understanding that?

 

The non-trackable will be the deep fallback. I'm trying to give this to more than just me. Leveraging the Geochaching infrastructure to let her friends and other family members to watch the trackables move.

 

Thanks again!

 

ps. I am considering a smaller container for some of them. Is Geocoin a generic term for a trackable? I was thinking it was literally a coin.

Edited March 18, 2019 by amidknight
add postscript

[+kunarion]

3 hours ago, amidknight said:

Thanks Kunarion.

 

Great questions.

 

Yes, 50 boxes. About the size of a deck of cards or pack of cigarettes. So, it would definitely need to travel between larger caches. They were the smallest I could find that can hold the shell + words, including the travel bug language (thanks for the link, the image is way helpful).

 

Are those tracking numbers only for Geocoins? I don't need the design, just the numbers for less than $5 a shot and to know that if I put them on there in a way that covers the bases you mention - like a sticker or engraving. The bulk, budget, and constraints are the toughest constraints but I'm staying flexible.

 

I tried searching for remembrance tags and came up with various interesting things. Is there a link that helps me understanding that?

 

The non-trackable will be the deep fallback. I'm trying to give this to more than just me. Leveraging the Geochaching infrastructure to let her friends and other family members to watch the trackables move.

 

Thanks again!

 

ps. I am considering a smaller container for some of them. Is Geocoin a generic term for a trackable? I was thinking it was literally a coin.

 

As it applies to numbers that may be purchased in bulk, a “Geocoin” is any officially trackable item that is not “The Travel Bug” barcode bug dogtag. The “50 tracking numbers” deal is for Geocoin designers, and The Travel Bug already has a design. “Geocoins” (everything not the official Travel Bug) may be most anything. I really don't know if the “design” can or cannot be a box with a shell in it.

 

If you're inscribing something on a TB-sized tag, it won't be an obituary and a eulogy, it will be more compact info. A remembrance or whatever, that would be at most the person's name and relationships, and important dates. As a trackable item, there's plenty of room on its online page for photos, articles, everything you'd like.

 

Even a box the size of a deck of cards is on the large size for a TB that you hope will travel. It needs to have some substance, but there's a balance. You want it small enough where cachers aren't holding the item trying to find a “big enough cache”, yet it may not be a suitable cache for trackables, merely being big and empty.  Since you must place 50 of whatever you make, the logistics of just placing that many card boxes in such a way they travel far and wide, will be challenging.

 

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by kunarion

[amidknight]

Another set of fair points. Maybe I should look at this differently - again, still learning the language.

 

Separate the shells into small, medium, and large as they are the physical constraint.

 

Create the cacheable as a hitchhiker (??). Where the shell is the hitchhiker, the tag is the trackable, and the container is just that - like a car on a road trip.

 

Some might just be a plastic baggie with the shell and trackable information - small. Others will be medium, roughly two inches cubed. And a few large.

[+cerberus1]

51 minutes ago, amidknight said:

Another set of fair points. Maybe I should look at this differently - again, still learning the language.

Separate the shells into small, medium, and large as they are the physical constraint.

Create the cacheable as a hitchhiker (??). Where the shell is the hitchhiker, the tag is the trackable, and the container is just that - like a car on a road trip.

Some might just be a plastic baggie with the shell and trackable information - small. Others will be medium, roughly two inches cubed. And a few large.

 

Not sure if you fully understand how trackables work, so pretty-much everything you may need to know about Trackables.   

What is a "cacheable" ?    It sounds (to me) like you're looking at a moving cache, not allowed for some time.

Whatever you plan to send out must be together, and it needs to be easily recognized as a trackable. 

All parts of your trackable together must be able to fit into another cacher's  small or large cache.

 

I realize that you have respectful intentions, but realize that once these things leave yours hands, you have no control of them.

They could end up stolen, dismantled, visited months on end by one person just as his personal cache finds counter, or placed in a cache behind a porta potty.

 - Maybe not what you or your Mother's friends and family members feel as respectful...

 

If me, I'd have one trackable ( a Travel Bug).  I'd use a nice bead baggie, with a short  laminated obit of my Mom, and maybe include a shell inside.

I'd "visit" her to caches I find, or allow others to "Discover" how wonderful she was at events or meeting on-trail. 

A lot more respectful and the trackable never goes "missing". 

 

ETA...  I'd use whatever shells left to go into caches as swag, and mention in my Found It "Left a shell, as my Mom would have done" (or similar).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by cerberus1
addification

[amidknight]

 

Thanks!

 

3 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

Not sure if you fully understand how trackables work, so pretty-much everything you may need to know about Trackables.   

 

I freely admit I don't know how this works in reality.  However, I'm pretty sure I understand it from the book learnin' perspective. If a shirt or a sticker or a lego can be a trackable, why not a box? Travel Bugs are often attached to other items; so, having the trackable, which is really the ID, connected to a shell, doesn't seem too far fetched.

 

As for the term "cacheable" - pretty sure I made that up. If I wanted to leave a box somewhere with a shell in it and never have it move - it would become a cache - maybe a travel hotel or something. However, if I want the box to be moveable it has to be able to be put into a cache - cache-able - able to be cached.  Again, pretty sure I made up the term, it was late and I didn't want to hit the glossary.

 

Direction I'm going as I iterate is I think there will be:

 

1. "smalls" - shell + tag for details go to GeoCaching.com (all in a baggy). That way some can fit in some micro to medium caches.

2. "mediums" - shell + tag + maybe a bit more (all in a baggy) + some container (fabric, small box, and so on) that can fit in most pockets - this way the full trackable can be separated from the container and still be viable. (Kind of fitting in a macabre romantic poetry way.) Fits in medium to large cache.

3. "Larges" - shell + tag + maybe a bit more (all in a baggy) + a bit more sizable container. Still separable from the container. Fits in large caches.

 

To kunarion's earlier point and the docs we could do:

 

1. Full trackable design submitted for custom tag: Baggy + shell + tag; or

2.the tag *is* the trackable design submitted; therefore, the shell becomes the hitchhiker attached to it, only given circumstance, they are "attached" by a bag instead of a dog-tag chain.

 

Part of the point here is that I don't cache much. So, I'm counting on the community to help me help mom. And I'm hoping to create a wonderful experience for everyone involved. And, to your point, cerberus1, like any artist should know, I know as soon as I put this into the world all sorts of things can happen. Some could steal the box, throw the shell in a river, and use the trackable badge for kindling. And that's okay, that's life - impermanent. I have many other ways to remember my mother besides shells traveling the world in baggies - these aren't for me to remember her - these are for others to become aware of a woman I found to be an exceptional human being.

 

I have faith that there is more love and compassion in this world than malice and incompetence.  

 

 

ps. For what it's worth, I would rather be able to show up at a cache randomly and find her there instead of actively look for her.

 

pps. I like the checking in with her concept you mentioned. Maybe I'll mark some as collectible and people could do that.

 

 

Edited March 18, 2019 by amidknight

[amidknight]

Design was approved!

 

Used @kunarion's (didn't know we can tag people) mention of a remembrance. So, the front is a standard Geocoin with the trackable ID + "track at" language. So, if the box fails, the baggy fails, the shell disappears and so on, still have the token and remembrance + the trackable page, obviously.

 

Now to design the page, print, laminate, and finish the packages.

 

Thanks for the feedback and information @kunarion and @cerberus1! 

[amidknight]

Wanted to thank everyone for the help and ideas!

 

I started a project thread, which I think is okay.

 

Thanks again! Happy caching!