How do i protect my TB from going missing?

[+BabyYodaGeocaches]

You see i got a few TB for Christmas and i am scared to put them out in the wild becouse i dont want them to get muggled. what should i do? Should i add a tag saying not to keep and that it is not swag or should i keep it as it is?

Edited January 6, 2021 by BabyYodaGeocaches

[+kunarion]

5 minutes ago, BabyYodaGeocaches said:

You see i got a few TB for Christmas and i am scared to put them out in the wild becouse i dont want them to get muggled. what should i do? Should i add a tag saying not to keep and that it is not swag or should i keep it as it is?

You likely will never see them again in any case.  Sure, extra info might help educate some finders.

 

But you can’t control them in the wild.  If you don’t want them lost, keep them.  You can use the Tracking Numbers in many ways as mentioned in this Forum. 
 

Good luck! 

[+BabyYodaGeocaches]

i added some more things to make seem more like a Travel bug and not SWAG.  I think it will go well and if you want to see the Travel bug i will put the Tracking Number here: TB9T8A7

Also i think this Travel bug will go far we just have to hope!!!

[+kunarion]

3 minutes ago, BabyYodaGeocaches said:

i added some more things to make seem more like a Travel bug and not SWAG.  I think it will go well and if you want to see the Travel bug i will put the Tracking Number here: TB9T8A7

Also i think this Travel bug will go far we just have to hope!!!

That’s pretty cool, with a cool icon, too! 

[+BabyYodaGeocaches]

Thx!!!    

[+cerberus1]

4 hours ago, BabyYodaGeocaches said:

You see i got a few TB for Christmas and i am scared to put them out in the wild becouse i dont want them to get muggled. what should i do?

Should i add a tag saying not to keep and that it is not swag or should i keep it as it is?

 

Travel bugs used to say "Don't keep me" already on them.  They don't anymore ?

Obviously the wording didn't deter too many folks from helping themselves...

[+VelkyBobik]

I attached tag with TB mission to some of my trackables but some people just igonore it. Even if the tag says "if you can't meet the requirement please don't take me". I'm not discouraging you to attach a similar tag, just don't be surprised not everybody respects this even if clearly stated.

[+BabyYodaGeocaches]

What i did was put a tag on the bag and attached one the the TB! i also added what its mission is!!!

[Darwin473]

What I've done with all of mine is kept the metal tag at home and sent out a proxie instead - either a cheap aluminium tag I mad myself or a laminated bit of paper. This way, I'm not too fussed if that TB goes missing, and if it's MIA too long I can simply re-launch it.

 

20 hours ago, kunarion said:

You likely will never see them again in any case.

 

Yes, this. The chances of a TB returning home are really low - so you should have the mindset of "I'm launching this out into the world, let's see where it goes!" rather than having a sentimental attachment to it. When I bought my first TB I was very attached to where it went and what happened to it, now that I've bought a bunch more I'm less stressed about how they individually perform. Note: I'm not an employee nor do I have a financial interest in people buying TB's! 

 

Best of luck to your TB, may it travel far and wide! 

[+kunarion]

1 hour ago, Unit473L said:

Yes, this. The chances of a TB returning home are really low - so you should have the mindset of "I'm launching this out into the world, let's see where it goes!" rather than having a sentimental attachment to it. When I bought my first TB I was very attached to where it went and what happened to it, now that I've bought a bunch more I'm less stressed about how they individually perform. Note: I'm not an employee nor do I have a financial interest in people buying TB's! 

 

Best of luck to your TB, may it travel far and wide! 

 

I hardly ever get any logs on my Trackables anymore, and certainly haven't seen them.  One day I placed a Geocoin with the intent of it going to Germany (supposedly, Trackables circulate there forever).  It arrived in Germany, and a couple weeks later it was back here in Georgia in its first cache.  So I grabbed my coin back, and I've had it ever since. 

[+cerberus1]

2 hours ago, Unit473L said:

What I've done with all of mine is kept the metal tag at home and sent out a proxie instead - either a cheap aluminium tag I mad myself or a laminated bit of paper. This way, I'm not too fussed if that TB goes missing, and if it's MIA too long I can simply re-launch it.

 

Aluminum's okay...at least someone made sure it'd last a while. Some proxies seem to be sort of a "why bother..." thing.

As an experiment, our neighbor left someone's laminated piece of paper "proxy" in their cache, and it sat for over a year.    

 - It looked like all the other crumpled scrap left over when the "good stuff's" gone. 

I'm one of the few here who will tell people where their proxy "trackables" actually are, but I don't bother with pieces of paper either anymore.  

We've seen some using plastic luggage tag-like things, and even bingo "chips"  would hold up a while.   

 

 

 

[+Chipper3]

On 1/5/2021 at 7:36 PM, BabyYodaGeocaches said:

i added some more things to make seem more like a Travel bug and not SWAG.  I think it will go well and if you want to see the Travel bug i will put the Tracking Number here: TB9T8A7

Also i think this Travel bug will go far we just have to hope!!!

I see you haven't released your bug.  Go for it or it want go anywhere.  =)  

[+BabyYodaGeocaches]

ok!

[+4heberts]

Our experience with TBs:

If they stay in North America, they often get kept or lost.

If they get to Europe, they remain active and travel a lot.

We think that there is just a different mindset in Europe with more dedicated cachers.  So disappointing with we created TBs with our granddaughter--they traveled to a few caches, then..... nothing.

We just release them with high hopes and enjoy them while they last!

[+cerberus1]

Our experience with trackables...

If they head to Europe, they end up kept or lost.   If they stay in America, they last a bit more.

Go figure...

[+4heberts]

LOL

[+CAPTAINVALPO96]

I suggest that you can keep it and bring it wherever you go caching and then log it’s mileage. Especially bring it to events for others to discover.

[+GermWalker]

I have tried a couple of ways to keep a trackable going. I've put it in a plastic baggie with a laminated card explaining the whole travel bug thing. I've put a hole right the thru the middle of something ugly attached to the trackable.  Seems to be no rhyme or reason to why some keep going and others are missing. I did have one that was "missing" for almost two years and then showed up! Cool surprise that was. The lastest trick was to attach a metal tag that I etched "Travel Bug" on one side and "Do Not Keep" on the other. Haven't launched that one yet so we'll have to see how that goes. I will never send a geocoin out - it would go missing in a heartbeat. My best trackable traveled over 14000 miles in three years before it went missing. I My worst one traveled 0 miles and went missing from the cache it was launched in. I keep sending them out (not very expensive ones tho) because you never know and it's fun to watch the ones that do travel.

[Darwin473]

19 hours ago, GermWalker said:

Seems to be no rhyme or reason to why some keep going and others are missing. 

 

I consider it my form of gambling on a lottery. Never know what's going to happen to the TB, the odds are more in favour of it just disappearing but if one travels far and gets lots of photos - awesome! (Not as awesome as winning a few million, but it's pretty close)

[+Rexlady]

I remember the thrill I got when I found my first trackable in a cache.  It was amazing!  It was an honor to help move it along and release it after a few weeks of traveling with it.  I want to give that same thrill to others . . .but cheaply, LOL.  So I only have a dozen or so released, but my secret is to attach the plain metal tags for the cheap ones to a happy meal toy with a hole drilled through it - so it's interesting, but not collectable or playable for a kid.  I use a steel cable keychain with a drop of superglue in the screw, to attach them.  For "high end" trackables, I definately use a proxy, and keep the original.  I also have shrinky dink paper to write the trackable number on, and attach to a happy meal toy or dollar store toy, and set it free.  I have some that have apparently stopped moving, but plan to wait for at least a year before releasing the second proxy for them.