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FTF caches; quality and dollars?


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Im just about to place my first geocaches and Im thinking about making them to FTF-caches (first to find). Is there anything special I need to think about when placing something in the cache? Does it have to be something special, what amount of money should it be worth, what quality should it have? Is it ok if it is just a simple very small painted figure looking like a human? 

/Bychowiec

Edited by Bychowiec
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28 minutes ago, Smitherington said:

For most avid FTFers just being first is enough but I like to include something and it could be a 2 dollar bill, an Eisenhower dollar, or a trinket. It could fit in with the theme of the cache or just be something you crafted.  Your choice. 

The OPer is from Sweden and this response is geared toward US folks.

 

$2 bill are produced by the government but are rarely used as cash registers don't have a spot for them. So they are a novelty and its fun to get them every once in awhile.

 

The Eisenhower dollar. Is also equally rare as Americans for some reason dislike using coins and prefer the dollar bill even though the coin lasts for 30 years and the bill last a year or two. You don't see them much either. True story in the last year went to a drive through with my bag of change and paid $5 in dollar coins the young lady had to ask her manager if it was real money. Sometimes you just shake your head. :wacko:

 

I also agree for me the reward is the blank log not the money. Though I'll definitely take it if it is there. Unactivated trackable are also  sometimes used. I like those more than money but they also cost more than $2. I have never given anything but a shout out in the description for the first finder.

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1 hour ago, Bychowiec said:

Im just about to place my first geocaches and Im thinking about making them to FTF-caches (first to find). Is there anything special I need to think about when placing something in the cache? Does it have to be something special, what amount of money should it be worth, what quality should it have? Is it ok if it is just a simple very small painted figure looking like a human? 

When we started there were few caches and Cachers.   Announced "Prizes" were an incentive just to get people a little more interested in heading for it.   It's possible that 'prizes" is what created the FTF monster in the other 2/3rds...

We received everything from lottery scratch offs, to $100.+ worth of "stuff" in a NJ small park (feeling guilty, we shared with others), to receiving an older model GPSr in the same state. 

We've put scratch offs n Sacajawea dollars in most, but higher terrain we've placed leatherman multitools, small binoculars, Black Diamond carabiners, etc.

These days there's way-more Cachers and caches, and folks running out at midnight in their PJs (I feel) shows the competition is the draw, with no need for FTF 'prizes' anymore.

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I do different prizes every time. It could be $1, a signature coin, a novelty coin, a FTF sticker, an unactivated trackable, a scratcher lottery ticket, or if the cache has a lot of swag I might just say FTF can take their choice of swag without having to trade. Sometimes I do no prize if it's an urban micro or if I'm hiding several small or mediums in succession to each other.

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In my early hides I put a FTF certificate, using a template I found online, until on one cache the FTF didn't take the certificate, making the 2TF wonder what was going on as the certificate was there but there was already a name in the logbook. Since then I generally just acknowledge the FTF on the cache page.

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