Ultimate Bad Trade List

May 28, 2004

I am still a newbie, but have noticed some very questionable items left in caches. One of my recent hunts took me to a beutiful spot, but the cache contained a realtor's business card, book of mormon literature, a rusty bolt and nut, and a piece of plastic of unknown origin or purpose. It becomes tough to get the kids very interested when there is nothing but crap there.

I understand that many of us, myself included, enjoy the hunt regardless.

So, here is a question I have been wanting to ask to the geocaching public.

Would you be willing to pay a fee to go on an exclusive geocaching hunt with real substantial prizes, such as pay $10 with a GPS, Mapquest software, or some other prize exceeding $100 on the line and less than 20 total participants?

Would you feel any better if some of the proceeds were used to support geocaching organizations as well as leaving cash or prizes in geocaches for the general geocaching public?

It seems to me that it may be a means to provide an adventure to those willing to pay for it as well as provide some better free swag to the general geocaching public.

I have seen one website that has attempted to have a monthly subscription of $3 with most of the proceeds going into the cache.

Let me know what you think.

No. I like to get out and enjoy the hunt. Don't want to feel pressured to be the FTF so I can get the grand prize. Don't want to pay $10 and feel like if I don't get there first I've wasted my money. I love to trade, I love to add booty to the caches that need help. Though it makes me sad to see the poor quality of the some of the caches I find, I always leave them with more and in better shape than when I found them. That's what makes it fun for me. :lol:

May 28, 2004

I don`t know how many logs I`ve read that stated "forgot swag bag back at the car".HOW could you forget yer bag? It`s not like you have a shopping list or something....you`re CACHING!!! Only 1 thing to do here folks & thats TRADE!!! O.K. I `m done venting for today

That might be the reason for bottle caps,business cards,etc. Edited May 28, 2004 by habercacher

May 28, 2004

I don`t know how many logs I`ve read that stated "forgot swag bag back at the car".HOW could you forget yer bag? It`s not like you have a shopping list or something....you`re CACHING!!! Only 1 thing to do here folks & thats TRADE!!! O.K. I `m done venting for today That might be the reason for bottle caps,business cards,etc.

I've done this a few times, mainly on short hikes, when Jordan and I walk from the car to get to the cache, then one of us asks the other for the bag... Doh! Of course, that doesn't justify making someone else pay for your mistake, by leaving pocket lint as a trade item.

P.S. You know, I've heard that some people collect bottle caps, so they might think that good ones (whatever that means) are nifty trade items. I suppose there might also be a defense for lids that contain game pieces or confer prizes (e.g. free iTunes), provided that they aren't expired, and that they're not traded for anything of particular value. (Although I've never taken or left one.)

May 28, 2004

Actually, as a followup to my last post, I'll ask about this hypothetical. Last fall, Pepsi ran a promotion for free NFL hats, for which you needed to match two 20-oz. bottle lids with the same NFL team name printed on the otherside. Well, the University of Nebraska sells 20-oz. Pepsi products at home football games, and when 78,000+ people are done watching a football game on a hot day, it's a fairly simple matter to collect about a billion bottle caps walking through the stands. We collected a lot, and ended up with more matching caps than we could ever use.

So here's the question: had I put all of our extra matching caps into a Ziploc bag, and left it in a cache, would they have made for good trade items? It would have allowed the finder to take two of the matching bottle caps and send them in for a free hat.

I didn't do this, and I'm not planning to do anything similar--I'm just curious to see what people think of it.

May 28, 2004

Actually, as a followup to my last post, I'll ask about this hypothetical. Last fall, Pepsi ran a promotion for free NFL hats, for which you needed to match two 20-oz. bottle lids with the same NFL team name printed on the otherside. Well, the University of Nebraska sells 20-oz. Pepsi products at home football games, and when 78,000+ people are done watching a football game on a hot day, it's a fairly simple matter to collect about a billion bottle caps walking through the stands. We collected a lot, and ended up with more matching caps than we could ever use.

So here's the question: had I put all of our extra matching caps into a Ziploc bag, and left it in a cache, would they have made for good trade items? It would have allowed the finder to take two of the matching bottle caps and send them in for a free hat.

I didn't do this, and I'm not planning to do anything similar--I'm just curious to see what people think of it.

I suppose that might be OK since there`s a reason for it.I think if you were( hypothetically) trading a bag full of caps for something cool, then wouldn`t be right unless the cache was aimed at that particular idea.I would consider the caps as something additional to an item to be traded.Keep in mind the trade up,trade even idea.Somebody may enjoy the caps...others might be offended.

38.2k · May 28, 2004

So here's the question: had I put all of our extra matching caps into a Ziploc bag, and left it in a cache, would they have made for good trade items? It would have allowed the finder to take two of the matching bottle caps and send them in for a free hat.

I didn't do this, and I'm not planning to do anything similar--I'm just curious to see what people think of it.

I think that would be fine as long as you put a note inside explaining the point behind the caps.

2.4k · May 28, 2004

I have a $25 discount card to a New England-area pizzeria chain (Bertucci's). It's good for $5 off on each of 5 separate visits. I used to go there a lot, and when I did, I would have been happy to have this, but I rarely go there any more -- maybe once a year.

I had been planning to let it gather dust until it expires in 6 months, but now I'm wondering - would this be a reasonable trade item, or would it fall into the "crappy" category?

(I didn't pay anything for it; they gave it to me free when I bought some gift certificates.)

May 29, 2004

I saw a doozy in a log recently, it appeared that an experienced cacher took a $25 item from a subscriber-only cache and left an item that was likely worth $10 at most, and may have been worth as little as 50 cents. To be fair the $25 item may have been used, but still...

I constantly see wretched trade-downs, and it's made me cut back on what I leave and I think twice about where I leave items. I'm not sure I'll ever get over the shock of the garbage people leave though: snail shells, broken bits of electronics, matchbooks (good idea to leave those on a dry California hillside cache!) and my personal favorite, a nail someone had found in the parking lot.

Ah well, I keep reminding myself to concentrate on the positives.

August 16, 2004

I have one to add. Taking a brand new Where's George stamp ($9) AND a small waterproof dry box ($7) and leaving a travel bug.

August 16, 2004

I have one to add. Taking a brand new Where's George stamp ($9) AND a small waterproof dry box ($7) and leaving a travel bug.

Thats just sad. I don't understand how some folks seem to have no problem logging their bad or no trades. I have a few to mention on my own caches, but I'll keep the peace for now...

2.1k · August 16, 2004

how about the infamous TSLN SL

That's Took Something Left Nothing -

They LOGGED that they left something but it just wernt there!

Seen several logs like that - and I was the next person to find it.

August 16, 2004

Which is worse? Logging that you actually TS (of value) LN, or logging that you TSLS but in reality didn't LS. I'm not completely sure myself, although I lean toward the latter, since you at least have the nerve to be honest in the 1st case.

August 16, 2004

I may have left one or two bad trades.

This was before I got my swag items. Now the items themselves are definitely under $1. I would not trade any higher. ( I got them from Oriental trading)

Example from this weekend, I left a smiley face key chain and took and small koosh ball person. Seams fair.

I'm like some of the others on here. I do it for the hunt not really the items.

And I apologize to the person I left the old baseball cards for. (Took a key ring tape measure)

August 16, 2004

In a couple of caches I left a Subway card full of stamps, and it seemed to be allright by the cachers in my area, so I think the card is a good one. And I think that the trading caps would be a great idea for a cache. I know there were many times i had a couple of doubles and would loved to have a place to trade em for differant ones.

Niss

August 16, 2004

I've found rusty nail clippers on more than one occasion. Just have to take them out I guess.

Mardi Gras beads in South Carolina have little or no value. If you go to Myrtle Beach they're in abundance.

1.1k · August 16, 2004

Mardi Gras beads in South Carolina have little or no value. If you go to Myrtle Beach they're in abundance.

I've done my part to try and thin out the Mardi Gras beads in Myrtle Beach My son likes 'em for some reason so we normally trade for those if we trade at all.

Personally I've gotten to the point where unless something really jumps out at me (like the cheap plastic green alligator I found yesterday - now known as Geo-Gator) I'll just leave a mini-carabiner with our calling card attached to it and won't take anything from the cache.

Zack

August 16, 2004

These Girls Will Trade Beads To Show off their enourmous beautiful natrual...GPSrs

On Garmins Gone Wild!!!!

August 16, 2004

I have a $25 discount card to a New England-area pizzeria chain (Bertucci's). It's good for $5 off on each of 5 separate visits. I used to go there a lot, and when I did, I would have been happy to have this, but I rarely go there any more -- maybe once a year.

I had been planning to let it gather dust until it expires in 6 months, but now I'm wondering - would this be a reasonable trade item, or would it fall into the "crappy" category?

(I didn't pay anything for it; they gave it to me free when I bought some gift certificates.)

If I had it and wasn't likely to use it, I'd leave it for someone - with enough time before expiration that it could be used.

I left an HEB gift card last year, and someone has been leaving Hastings' shopping cards in some regional caches (about $5 or so).

WalMart shopping cards are sometimes found - one with lat/long and gas station hours to the 3 nearest supercenters.

Then there's the $5 winner lottery tickets...

August 16, 2004

I made my first finds yesterday (only one a "regular" cache) and was kinda dismayed at the items in the box - there were used golf balls, rocks, broken toys, religious literature, a paper printed off the internet about urinary tract infections...and other kinda weird stuff There was only one item that I thought was worth a trade...but by gosh I was trading SOMETHING since it was my first! lol I did CITO the rocks and trash.

I left a rain poncho (new in package!) because I had read on the forums those were popular items. I also left a YJTB since I had gotten one in the mail.

I hope this isn't the indication of what I'll find in local caches! I have a few hides planned - AFTER I have found a LOT more and I hope that since they will be cool theme ones that they won't degrade too fast. I'll keep an eye on them though.

It's sad to read about all these horrible trades on here - maybe it needs to be MUCH MORE PROMINENT on the beginning pages to "trade up, trade even or don't trade at all" - until I started reading the forums, I didn't understand the trading concepts really - so maybe people don't really understand the concept and it's not discussed enough on the general pages? Just a thought! lol

pam

August 16, 2004

Used golfballs

I like them because you can make wicked awesome micros with them.

6.5k · August 17, 2004

Just got this gem from my watch list. The cacher's name and exact cache will be edited to protect the innocent .

Location: Italy
Cacher X found A very popular Italian cache(Traditional Cache) at 8/9/2004

Log Date: 8/9/2004

Lots of people arround but it was in a place that allowed my young son to get it without being spotted.

We left our travel buf which we couldn't leave in the Baker's Tomb cache.

There were 3 bugs in the cache - never seen so many in one go. We took 2 of them and left one behind.

Took - bay blades

Left - rubbers

Huh! That's a good trade item? :huh: I thought this was a family activity. No wonder Italy has the lowest birth rate in Europe! :lol:

And imagine what this guy would have thought with the 400+ TB array at GW2?

Edited August 17, 2004 by wimseyguy

2.2k · August 17, 2004

Just got this gem from my watch list. The cacher's name and exact cache will be edited to protect the innocent .
Location: Italy
Cacher X found A very popular Italian cache(Traditional Cache) at 8/9/2004

Log Date: 8/9/2004

Lots of people arround but it was in a place that allowed my young son to get it without being spotted.

We left our travel buf which we couldn't leave in the Baker's Tomb cache.

There were 3 bugs in the cache - never seen so many in one go. We took 2 of them and left one behind.

Took - bay blades

Left - rubbers

Huh! That's a good trade item? I thought this was a family activity. No wonder Italy has the lowest birth rate in Europe!

And imagine what this guy would have thought with the 400+ TB array at GW2?

remember those black rubber things they used to put over shoes when it rained. those were called rubbers. there could be a different meaning for the word rubber in italy.

4k · August 17, 2004

Just got this gem from my watch list. The cacher's name and exact cache will be edited to protect the innocent .
Location: Italy
Cacher X found A very popular Italian cache(Traditional Cache) at 8/9/2004

Log Date: 8/9/2004

Lots of people arround but it was in a place that allowed my young son to get it without being spotted.

We left our travel buf which we couldn't leave in the Baker's Tomb cache.

There were 3 bugs in the cache - never seen so many in one go. We took 2 of them and left one behind.

Took - bay blades

Left - rubbers

Huh! That's a good trade item? I thought this was a family activity. No wonder Italy has the lowest birth rate in Europe!

And imagine what this guy would have thought with the 400+ TB array at GW2?

remember those black rubber things they used to put over shoes when it rained. those were called rubbers. there could be a different meaning for the word rubber in italy.

Exactly what I was thinking. I have been to caches where a pair of rubbers would have been a great find to trade for!

6.5k · August 17, 2004

Aaak does anyone still wear those? I have seen this container, they would be hard to fit it, it's about the size of a sandndwich tupperware. (oops may have just given away which busy Italian cache it was.) Sorry cacher X.

And yes, UP, I do remember those. I just get silly ouside of AS sometimes.

2.2k · August 17, 2004

Aaak does anyone still wear those? I have seen this container, they would be hard to fit it, it's about the size of a sandndwich tupperware. (oops may have just given away which busy Italian cache it was.) Sorry cacher X.
And yes, UP, I do remember those. I just get silly ouside of AS sometimes.

i figured if they could make ponchos in a package small enough, they might be able to do it with those too. different material of course.

6.5k · August 17, 2004

Hmm, might make a neat sig item. Could post 'Left -rubbers' in caches all across the world. :lol:

Yup, seen the ponchos. Just got a promo one from a vendor stuffed inside a race car wheel the size of a spray can top.

August 18, 2004

i have come across many moral dilemmas with trades in caches... so i just left the piano keys and never took anything.

2.4k · August 18, 2004

Just got this gem from my watch list. The cacher's name and exact cache will be edited to protect the innocent .
Location: Italy
Cacher X found A very popular Italian cache(Traditional Cache) at 8/9/2004

Log Date: 8/9/2004

Lots of people arround but it was in a place that allowed my young son to get it without being spotted.

We left our travel buf which we couldn't leave in the Baker's Tomb cache.

There were 3 bugs in the cache - never seen so many in one go. We took 2 of them and left one behind.

Took - bay blades

Left - rubbers

Huh! That's a good trade item? I thought this was a family activity. No wonder Italy has the lowest birth rate in Europe!

And imagine what this guy would have thought with the 400+ TB array at GW2?

Maybe they were erasers? In high school I had a teacher from Europe who referred to erasers (pencil erasers, not chalk erasers) as "rubbers".

Ultimate Bad Trade List

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