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Take an item, Leave Two items


Guest arffer

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Guest arffer

d read about at some caches. I've seen stuff that I can't imagine that the person who left it would ever actually consider taking themselves if they found it in a cache.

 

Eoghan made a nice comment that you don't have to take something when you leave something.

 

I for one, am going to start leaving two items for everyone I take, and will try and make sure they are at least halfway decent items that I myself would like to find in a cache.

 

While I always try and take a unique item from the caches I find for our collection, I will from now on also try and upgrade the quality of items in the cache with my take one, leave two policy.

 

For what its worth...

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Guest BryanG

I agree... I have 1 find under my belt so far. We, a group of 6, took nothing but left 8 items we had with us. There was nothing there anyone needed or wanted, so we left some cool things others might find interesting...

 

Someday I will find some thing that interests me. But it is not about the trinkets, it is all about the hunt!

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Guest Betty

If everybody took 1 and left 2, soon the box would burst! Sometimes a person leaves 2 whose aggregate value equals the 1 he took. But the next person wont know that and take both--unless they're packaged together somehow. Sometimes, if the box seems "low", you leave 2 to help it out a little. Bottom line is, to feel good about what you leave, leave a good item--but only one!

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Guest prv8eye

I for one, am going to start leaving two items for everyone I take, and will try and make sure they are at least halfway decent items that I myself would like to find in a cache.

 

I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately, there will always be people who let greed control their idea of a fair "trade".

On the other hand, it isn't fair just to assume a trade is unfair because we may think it is. One man's trash is another man's treasure. The value of an item to any one person can be affected by sentiment or his financial status.

My wife still keeps the Hershey bar wrapper of the first candy bar her step father ever bought her. She wouldn't sell that worthless wrapper for a hundred bucks.

 

Gus Morrow

Oceanside, CA

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Guest Betty

What should be the etiquette regarding a small group, perhaps a leader with a few kids, finding a cache together. Does each person take a trinket--or just one trinket for the whole group. The leader may be hard pressed to "replace" the value of a number of trinkets the kids may have made unequal exchanges for.

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Guest arffer

Repeat after me:

I am not a computer, I am human, I have a brain, I will use it...

 

If a cache is full of goodies, then of course I'm not going to burst it or build an addition on it just to add two items.

 

Nor am I telling everybody to do what I intend on doing. What, you think this is a conspiracy to burst all the geocaches in the world? I'd expect others that take up my intentions would likewise use their brains and only improve caches that could use it.

 

I also agree that's its not fair to assume a trade is unfair just because we think so. But that doesn't prevent us from having a spirit to improve the caches out there.

 

Consider a cache I came upon where a faded, wooden clothespin was left as a trade. I think most would agree with me that over time, the desirability of most caches' contents decline over time.

 

My intent is to try and stop this trend any time I find it by going the extra step.

 

Don&Betty,

The rule is take one, leave one, sign the log. Any member of the group that takes something really needs to leave something, or the cache will be wiped out. And they do need to be equitable trades.

 

And no, I would not be suggesting that each member of the group do a 2 for 1 trade. Remember my intent.

 

[This message has been edited by arffer (edited 07 August 2001).]

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Guest Havasu Desert Rat

This is hard to write, but I have to admit that I'm guilty. During my first geocaching trip, I went to the Vegas area for a weekend of cache bagging. I was brand new to the hobby/sport/activity and was too taken up in the chase and didn't pay enough attention to what I was trading. After I got home and started posting my logs, I began to realize how poorly I had traded at most of those caches. Reading some of the forums for the first time really pounded it home. I felt (and still feel) really bad about it. Next time I'm up there, I will re-visit all those caches where I made poor trades and make things right. In the meantime, I have made myself a promise to improve any cache that I can, and at the very least to leave it in as good a condition as when I found it.

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Guest WaylandersMA

HDR,

 

If we all think back to the first caches we visited we probably all went through the same experience. The first caches I visited I hadn't gone shopping for replacement items (because I was geo-clueless) so I was ransacking the truck and the junk drawer for sub-par stuff.

 

I then went to Sports Authority and bought a whole bag of stuff that I keep in the truck. you can be amazed at what cool stuff you can get for two to five dollar items when you find something really good that you want to trade for.

Carabiners, nylon snap key rings, keyring and jacket pull compasses, jacket pull thermometers. I got a bunch of nice stainless steel jack-knives, 9 bucks for two. just take a pair of scissors and two good treasures at $4.50 each.

 

Kids are easier, (although they like the keyring stuff too). One run to ToysRus and fill up at the front of the store and your ready for a year of geocaching.

 

I too have to revisit the first caches I found to upgrade them. Now if I could just remember to fill my pockets when I leave the truck.

 

Paul

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Guest EyezOfTheWorld

quote:
Originally posted by BryanG:

Someday I will find some thing that interests me. But it is not about the trinkets, it is all about the hunt!


 

What he said! I'm not looking for treasure or something to bring home. I'd actually much rather add an item and not even take one! I've started buying some kind of cheap but hopefully neat things that kids would want like Ty beanies for a buck 50 a piece and hopefully I'll find some good stuff that teens/adults might like like batteries, neosporin, used but in good shape popular paperbacks.

 

To get out and see somewhere new, have a nice walk, hike, good adventure and to sign the logbook is my treasure. I'll leave something without even taking anything as my thanks for bringing me there.

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Guest Growley

My family and I have 1 find under our belt and I must admit that the hunt and find for me was worth more than the trinkets inside, although the kids loved the trinkets. It was enjoyable leaving things for the next cachers. This is a wonderful hobby/sport/passtime that we all must manage with honesty and think about those who will follow in our GPS tracks.

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Guest arffer

I must admit, I really like the tone this thread has now taken. I especially like The Bees Pyramid Pack concept. For one thing, it shows how much thought they put into being fair traders.

 

I am firmly in the camp that the primary award is the hunt, not the treasure. However, there is a twist in our case. We are building up a collection of our trades, each labled with the cache name and date we found it, proudly on display in our office. Not only does it bring up good memories when we are stuck inside working, but its a Great conversation starter about geocaching.

40287_700.jpg

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Guest Squad51

We take one item and leave 3... But what kills me is the one person/group who visited one of our caches, took almost everything and left a partially used book of matches. But they did put the matches in one of the baggies they had emptied, and neatly folded all of the other empty baggies. Wasn't that thoughtful...

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Guest prv8eye

quote:
Originally posted by Don&Betty:

What should be the etiquette regarding a small group, perhaps a leader with a few kids, finding a cache together. Does each person take a trinket--or just one trinket for the whole group. The leader may be hard pressed to "replace" the value of a number of trinkets the kids may have made unequal exchanges for.


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Guest prv8eye

The leader may be hard pressed to "replace" the value of a number of trinkets the kids may have made unequal exchanges for. [/b]

 

Is this "leader" a responsible adult who teaches children to always do the right thing or is he one who is too weak to say no to children and allows them to cheat others because of his own weakness?

I honestly don't mean to sound cruel but the question seems whimpy.

If you take an item you REPLACE it with an item of similar or better value. That's the rule.

Neither the number of people in a search group, nor their age, is any excuse for stealing.

How can anyone so "hard pressed" afford a GPS in the first place?

It can be hard to resist the pleas of excited children. In such case I would, at least, put in a note of explanation and some cash. Not as good as another item but at least my conscience would be clear.

 

Gus Morrow

Oceanside, CA

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Guest Squad51

quote:
Originally posted by prv8eye:

Is this "leader" a responsible adult who teaches children to always do the right thing or is he one who is too weak to say no to children and allows them to cheat others because of his own weakness?

I honestly don't mean to sound cruel but the question seems whimpy.

If you take an item you REPLACE it with an item of similar or better value. That's the rule.

Neither the number of people in a search group, nor their age, is any excuse for stealing.

How can anyone so "hard pressed" afford a GPS in the first place?

 

Gus Morrow

Oceanside, CA

 


 

I agree...

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Guest hgmonaro

I thought about hanging on to our trades like what Arffer has done but stupidly went and traded our 1st trade with our 2nd find... duh! I need to go shopping specifically for trades! That display case is cool! Fancy trying to explain that to a non-geocacher! icon_smile.gif

 

[This message has been edited by hgmonaro (edited 07 August 2001).]

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Guest hgmonaro

I thought about hanging on to our trades like what Arffer has done but stupidly went and traded our 1st trade with our 2nd find... duh! I need to go shopping specifically for trades! That display case is cool! Fancy trying to explain that to a non-geocacher! icon_smile.gif

 

[This message has been edited by hgmonaro (edited 07 August 2001).]

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Guest Yawningdog

For a sad story about the inequity of trades that can be found when hunters let greed consume them, check out what happened at this "concept cache". icon_frown.gif

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=3504

 

Perhaps it is just not a good idea to place anything too valuable in a cache. This was my first cache and it depressed me, not just because the group who raided the container (and who logged at the cache, but not at the web site, for reasons which, I assume, included shame) made insulting trades, but more because they ruined what I had hoped would be a really neat theme.

 

On the bright side, it was really cool to see the cigar cutter that was an original item from my Sub-Urban cache hanging on arffer's wall in the post above! That really makes my day icon_wink.gif

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Guest Yawningdog

For a sad story about the inequity of trades that can be found when hunters let greed consume them, check out what happened at this "concept cache". icon_frown.gif

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=3504

 

Perhaps it is just not a good idea to place anything too valuable in a cache. This was my first cache and it depressed me, not just because the group who raided the container (and who logged at the cache, but not at the web site, for reasons which, I assume, included shame) made insulting trades, but more because they ruined what I had hoped would be a really neat theme.

 

On the bright side, it was really cool to see the cigar cutter that was an original item from my Sub-Urban cache hanging on arffer's wall in the post above! That really makes my day icon_wink.gif

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Guest arffer

Yawningdog,

 

Glad to have cheered you up! Your Collectables Cache was one that I had in mind when I started this thread, along with another in our mutual area that I felt had been abused.

 

Thanks for the post!

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