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What's your signature item?


Guest tnunnery

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Guest CWuestefeld

I had been doing this all along, but will now redouble my efforts: I'm leaving copies of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution in caches.

 

I hope that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, people will take and read these. Reflect on the freedoms the documents describe, and how we need to protect everything that our ancestors fought for and the we now have.

 

[This message has been edited by CWuestefeld (edited 17 September 2001).]

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Guest glenn95630

It appears that there are two types of items out there; signature items and markers.

 

Markers can be divided into two subgroups: personalized cards (or other personalized item) or an unpersonalized item. Markers are 'cache-grafetti', basically saying 'Kilroy Was Here'. Markers are not traded but added as a 'bonus' In my opinion, unpersonalized markers reduce the game for future cache finders... no one likes to open a cache and find a bunch of junk. For example, 'I leave a Coors bottle cap in each cache I visit because I'm from Golden CO'.

 

The personalized markers seem kinda cool. The cache owner should remove the markers every once and awhile to make room in the cache as a maintenance activity similar to replacing the log book when it gets full. Some cache owners could even scan/photograph the markers to put on a web page, etc. Markers should be small. Try to imagine if every cache finder left a marker.

 

My understanding is that signature items are of 'tradeable' value and are traded for an item in the cache. My only comment is that the cache owner sets the rules and if a theme is requested, finders should try to honor the request.

 

Glenn

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Guest martinp13

quote:
Originally posted by Iron Chef:

My signature item is a special UCSC engraved "Spoon of Great Justice." ;~)


 

UCSC? And is that related to "All Your Base"? icon_smile.gif

 

------------------

> Martin

Magellan 330 (1.56/WAAS enabled!)

Don't have time to program and record your shows while geocaching? Get a TiVo !

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Guest martinp13

quote:
Originally posted by Iron Chef:

My signature item is a special UCSC engraved "Spoon of Great Justice." ;~)


 

UCSC? And is that related to "All Your Base"? icon_smile.gif

 

------------------

> Martin

Magellan 330 (1.56/WAAS enabled!)

Don't have time to program and record your shows while geocaching? Get a TiVo !

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My signature item is a deck of playing cards.

 

They're easy to carry, not too expensive, and people can take them home and make good use of them for a long time. I like the idea that people might spend a few evenings playing cards with family and friends because they found a deck I left in a cache.

 

[This message has been edited by Julian (edited 17 September 2001).]

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Guest Cape Cod Cache

Patty-G helped me with a couple caches... Band-aids & Neosporin are the signature items. Crab Creek (2156) it's a must. dadgum fine cache, long pants and a bit of tennacity needed.

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Guest TresOkies

At first it was golf balls because that was all I had of value in my pickup the first day we went out. After I got into it a little, I started leaving stuff that neophytes might be able to use: carabiners, whistle, compass, insect repellent, batteries, multi-tool, etc.

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Being a Disaster Service worker with the Red Cross and consequently a First Aider I thought of something that can be used about anywhere for ALL types of geo-cachers. (Even on the family pet if it should run into some thorns or glass.) Cape Cod Cache and I have each used the little individually wrapped packages on ourselves and thought:

"These would be great in a cache" Voila ~ Our Signature Item *smile*

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quote:
Originally posted by Patty-G:

Being a Disaster Service worker with the Red Cross and consequently a First Aider I thought of something that can be used about anywhere for ALL types of geo-cachers. (Even on the family pet if it should run into some thorns or glass.) Cape Cod Cache and I have each used the little individually wrapped packages of Neosporin and Bandaids on ourselves and thought:

"These would be great in a cache" Voila ~ Our Signature Item *smile*


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Guest tnunnery

Well, I have been starting to leave Ranger beads (a pace counting device used to measure distance travelled) that I have been making. They seem to have been well-received and are interesting, functional, hand-made and can be useful for caching. I hope folks get good use out of them!

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Guest Moun10Bike

quote:
Originally posted by Ttepee:

These are meant to be enjoyed or traded and generally don't sit in a cache too long


 

VERY COOL! The best signature item I've seen yet!

 

I just received the first batch of my own signature items and will be placing them in caches I visit and hide soon. They aren't as cool and meaningful as Ttepee's, but I had a lot of fun designing them:

 

Moun10Bike_Coins_s.jpg

 

------------------

Jon (Moun10Bike)

31H/93F

N 47° 36.649', W 122° 3.616'

www.switchbacks.com/geocaching.html

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Moun10bike... Wow! No I think I'd have to say that's the coolest sig item I've seen so far. I see the # stamp ... does that mean you are going to backtrack and have the numbers correlate to your finds? Love your logo ... very unique piece... great work! icon_smile.gif

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Moun10bike... Wow! No I think I'd have to say that's the coolest sig item I've seen so far. I see the # stamp ... does that mean you are going to backtrack and have the numbers correlate to your finds? Love your logo ... very unique piece... great work! icon_smile.gif

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Guest Moun10Bike

quote:
Originally posted by Ttepee:

I see the # stamp ... does that mean you are going to backtrack and have the numbers correlate to your finds?


 

At the risk of giving away to much of my grand plan icon_biggrin.gif, I want to put the first one in my 100th find (I'm currently at 93) and then in each find and hide thereafter. As Jeremy has posted elsewhere in the forums, he has been working on a method to track items on geocaching.com, but until such time as that is finished, I'm going to do my best to track them manually on my Geocaching Travelers web page. Not that I necessarily want people to take them to other caches -- if they want to keep them, I'll just note that "#017 was collected by so-and-so" or what have you.

 

quote:
Love your logo ... very unique piece... great work! icon_smile.gif

 

Thank you icon_redface.gif <-- blush! Isn't it silly the things we do for love of the game? icon_biggrin.gif

 

------------------

Jon (Moun10Bike)

31H/93F

N 47° 36.649', W 122° 3.616'

www.switchbacks.com/geocaching.html

 

[This message has been edited by Moun10Bike (edited 18 September 2001).]

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Guest Moun10Bike

quote:
Originally posted by Ttepee:

I see the # stamp ... does that mean you are going to backtrack and have the numbers correlate to your finds?


 

At the risk of giving away to much of my grand plan icon_biggrin.gif, I want to put the first one in my 100th find (I'm currently at 93) and then in each find and hide thereafter. As Jeremy has posted elsewhere in the forums, he has been working on a method to track items on geocaching.com, but until such time as that is finished, I'm going to do my best to track them manually on my Geocaching Travelers web page. Not that I necessarily want people to take them to other caches -- if they want to keep them, I'll just note that "#017 was collected by so-and-so" or what have you.

 

quote:
Love your logo ... very unique piece... great work! icon_smile.gif

 

Thank you icon_redface.gif <-- blush! Isn't it silly the things we do for love of the game? icon_biggrin.gif

 

------------------

Jon (Moun10Bike)

31H/93F

N 47° 36.649', W 122° 3.616'

www.switchbacks.com/geocaching.html

 

[This message has been edited by Moun10Bike (edited 18 September 2001).]

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Guest Captain Leno

Being that I am an AVID metal detectorist..

I try to leave behind Coins that I recover from the past...

Most likely if you follow the Captain, you will find some SILVER !!!!

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Guest BKDotCom

quote:

Originally posted by Moun10Bike:

I just received the first batch of my own signature items and will be placing them in caches I visit and hide soon.


 

Those are awesome, could you maybe reveal where you had those made. Do they have a website? What are the dimensions? What was the process? - Did it involve more than just sending them a logo?

 

Sorry for the bigillion questions - I'm just impressed..

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Guest Moun10Bike

quote:
Originally posted by BKDotCom:

Those are awesome, could you maybe reveal where you had those made. Do they have a website? What are the dimensions? What was the process? - Did it involve more than just sending them a logo?

 

Sorry for the bigillion questions - I'm just impressed..


 

Thanks! The congratulations should go to D & R Military Specialties, who did all of the real work. All I had to do was send them the basic designs for each face. The reverse face (the colored side) is just an adaptation of the geocaching.com logo made to better fit a round surface, and I designed the mountain bike logo years ago for a batch of t-shirts I had made up for some mountain biking buddies.

 

If anyone else is interested in having coins made, you can use the same reverse that I used and it will save you the die fee on that face. Rick at D & R with whom I dealt says that they keep the dies forever, so that die will always be available, and future batches of coins will be cheaper.

 

As for the size question, the coins are about 1-5/8" in diameter -- somewhere between half-dollar and silver dollar size -- and about 1/8" thick.

 

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Jon (Moun10Bike)

31H/93F

N 47° 36.649', W 122° 3.616'

www.switchbacks.com/geocaching.html

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I like to leave a racing homing pigeon ID band, when I have extras.

 

bands.jpg

 

These are permanent and seamless and are placed on the young bird's leg when it is only about five days old.

 

They grow so quicky that after seven days, it becomes impossible to get the band on.

 

Scott

redd@interbug.com

http://interbug.com/pigeon

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Guest Choberiba

quote:
Originally posted by Moun10Bike:

Thanks! The congratulations should go to D & R Military Specialties,


 

I went to their site and it doesn't look like they list prices at all for this sort of thing. Not even a rough estimate.

 

I've been using the Geocaching.com keychain and a California lotto ticket. Are the coins under $4 each (if you order 100)?

 

I'm thinking that an answer in the forum will save the folks over at militaryspecialties.com substantial grief.

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Guest Moun10Bike

quote:
Originally posted by Choberiba:

Are the coins under $4 each (if you order 100)?


 

Yes, with an asterisk. The coins like mine (coloring on one side, same material, sequential numbering) are $3.70 each if you order 100. Without numbering, it is $3.20 each. The coloring is a lump charge of $70, so if you went without colors you could get it down to $2.50 a coin on a batch of 100. However, onto this you have to tack $70 shipping (heavy and they come from Korea) as well as the setup costs. The setup is a one-time fee of $70 for each die used (one for each face). If you use the same reverse that I did, then you can drop one-half of the setup fee.

 

------------------

Jon (Moun10Bike)

31H/93F

N 47° 36.649', W 122° 3.616'

www.switchbacks.com/geocaching.html

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Guest BKDotCom

After I posted my message yesterday I started searching around on the net and found several places that do this sort of thing (if you care to shop around)

 

http://www.atdesigns.com/

http://www.mwtrophy.com/awards/custom_medallns.html (detailed pricing)

http://www.nwtmint.com/ (more of a fancy shmancy mint)

 

I wasn't thinking of copying Moun10Bike's coin/Medallion idea verbatim. Instead his spiffy coins sort of open the world of possibilities.

 

Just think, instead of finding another golf ball in a cache you could find the cachers personalized logo golf ball! icon_smile.gif

 

See: Yahoo Listing of Promotion Item type companys

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Guest BKDotCom

After I posted my message yesterday I started searching around on the net and found several places that do this sort of thing (if you care to shop around)

 

http://www.atdesigns.com/

http://www.mwtrophy.com/awards/custom_medallns.html (detailed pricing)

http://www.nwtmint.com/ (more of a fancy shmancy mint)

 

I wasn't thinking of copying Moun10Bike's coin/Medallion idea verbatim. Instead his spiffy coins sort of open the world of possibilities.

 

Just think, instead of finding another golf ball in a cache you could find the cachers personalized logo golf ball! icon_smile.gif

 

See: Yahoo Listing of Promotion Item type companys

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Guest Robereno

quote:
Originally posted by Moun10Bike:

 

I just received the first batch of my own signature items and will be placing them in caches I visit and hide soon.

 


 

You?ve definitely ?raised the bar? in this endeavor! I?m still fiddling around with Avery window labels. I was even checking out a place to get one of those machines to make pin on buttons like you see in the presidential campaigns. They kind of pale in comparison to your personalized coins. That?s ok, as Dave Letterman says, ?This is just for fun, it?s not a competition. No wagering.? icon_wink.gif

 

Suppose I could make molds out of bottle caps and melt down my old fishing sinkers. Now that would be a customized signature item. icon_smile.gif

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Guest Robereno

quote:
Originally posted by Moun10Bike:

 

I just received the first batch of my own signature items and will be placing them in caches I visit and hide soon.

 


 

You?ve definitely ?raised the bar? in this endeavor! I?m still fiddling around with Avery window labels. I was even checking out a place to get one of those machines to make pin on buttons like you see in the presidential campaigns. They kind of pale in comparison to your personalized coins. That?s ok, as Dave Letterman says, ?This is just for fun, it?s not a competition. No wagering.? icon_wink.gif

 

Suppose I could make molds out of bottle caps and melt down my old fishing sinkers. Now that would be a customized signature item. icon_smile.gif

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Guest Moun10Bike

quote:
Originally posted by Robereno:

Suppose I could make molds out of bottle caps and melt down my old fishing sinkers. Now that would be a customized signature item. icon_smile.gif


 

Actually, I really like the homemade (and handmade) items. They have a special flair and personality that you can't get in the "mass produced" items. That's why I like Ttepee's totem stones and pouches so much.

 

------------------

Jon (Moun10Bike)

30H/93F

N 47° 36.649', W 122° 3.616'

www.switchbacks.com/geocaching.html

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Guest Moun10Bike

quote:
Originally posted by Robereno:

Suppose I could make molds out of bottle caps and melt down my old fishing sinkers. Now that would be a customized signature item. icon_smile.gif


 

Actually, I really like the homemade (and handmade) items. They have a special flair and personality that you can't get in the "mass produced" items. That's why I like Ttepee's totem stones and pouches so much.

 

------------------

Jon (Moun10Bike)

30H/93F

N 47° 36.649', W 122° 3.616'

www.switchbacks.com/geocaching.html

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Guest clan ferguson

Moun10Bike, I want to add my cudos to you on that coin design!!

 

Ttepee, why cool homemade item!!!

 

Here in the -Clan we didn't have a sig item when we started (of course we started under a differnt name too, but thats another story)

After my brother was brought into the fold of the game he introduced what became our sig item. we were on our way out when i relized we had forgotten our tradable. so my brother, a daycare worker who runs a costum enteriner business as a hobby, found some coin tricks he had left over. so we embelsied them with his MR.LOU sticker and so our item was born. later we added a home made sticker with the clan logo on it.

 

See our home made logo here

 

Now that we are planting caches we use another magic trick called the vanishing ball that we only leave in our planted caches.

 

-Clan Ferguson

 

[This message has been edited by clan ferguson (edited 21 September 2001).]

 

[This message has been edited by clan ferguson (edited 21 September 2001).]

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Guest teamhambone

We are in the process of creating our signature item. We are going to silk screen our name and logo onto bandannas.

 

Does anyone have an Illustrator or EPS file of the geocaching logo. I am trying to do it from the jpeg, but my skill is a little lacking. icon_frown.gif I was hoping someone might have a copy of the original .

 

Dusty

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Guest teamhambone

We are in the process of creating our signature item. We are going to silk screen our name and logo onto bandannas.

 

Does anyone have an Illustrator or EPS file of the geocaching logo. I am trying to do it from the jpeg, but my skill is a little lacking. icon_frown.gif I was hoping someone might have a copy of the original .

 

Dusty

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Guest mrgigabyte

quote:
Does anyone have an Illustrator or EPS file of the geocaching logo.

 

Yes, one is available. But you have to ask Jeremy for it directly, contact@geocaching.com. As this is a recognizable brand or mark, I believe he has to be careful about the logos intended use and possible alteration by other parties.

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I made up a signature item I call a Spider Deuce. It's a cheap plastic spider ring with a rolled $2 bill in the place of a finger, all inside a small baggie. The bag also includes a business card with an explanation of the item on one side, and a plug for GGA (Georgia Geocachers Association) on the other.

 

[This message has been edited by gpsfun (edited 21 September 2001).]

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Guest Choberiba

quote:
Originally posted by mrgigabyte:

I believe he has to be careful about the logos intended use and possible alteration by other parties.


 

Hmmm... Maybe I should check with Jeremy about my use of the logo.

 

I printed it out on high glossy photo paper and made little 2x2 cards that I hand to people when they ask what I'm doing, pacing around with my eTrex on some remote path.

 

I always say "I'm not affiliated, go to the website for all the details" so I don't think I'm giving cause for concern.

 

Jeremy, if you're reading this, I've only given two cards so far, should I cease?

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I just made up a bunch of these. Not very collectable but then again who knows. I have been putting a smilely sticker on my log book entries like I did while I was on the A.T. in my shelter register entries.

 

cachecard.gif

 

------------------

athiker

40.195466

-077.193928

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We have a couple. One is just a cheapy but very useful pencil sharpener. With freezes coming on, pens will be useless.

The other is a litle more special. We cut and paint some wooden mini-boomerangs from scrap wood used to make real 'rangs and stick a couple magnets to the back.

They kind of represent the getting back what you put into geocaching. I don't have a picture so you will just have to keep your eyes out for them. Signed on the back - Gazza&Girls

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Guest SecretSpy

I always leave a piece of Tungsten Carbide.

I've aquired a ton of these little lathe inserts that are about the size of a quarter but a 1/4" to 1/2" thick. They come in different shapes like triangles, circles, squares and diamonds. They are used for cutting threads on oilfield tubing in big industrial lathes. They have a very high density and are usually gold or black in color from the Titanium Nitrite coating or Black Oxide coating.

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Guest boatbubblles

i have been making and leaving an american flag pin made out of safty pins and beads

 

save a cow... drink milk

 

[This message has been edited by boatbubblles (edited 09 December 2001).]

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