Upping The Ante

[+zygote2k]

tired of golf balls, foam paintbrushes, used McHappy meal toys, plastic army men, pez dispensers, lottery tickets, free advertising items, state quarters, loose change, buttons, dice, cereal toys, etc., etc., ad nauseum and so forth. How about upping the quality of merchandise or handcrafted items in your geocaches? What about leaving the cache a little richer than you found it? Have you ever brought a newbie to cache only to find it full of geo-trash? C'mon everyone, make a wholehearted effort to improve the quality of our hobby.

[+Snoogans]

The quality of the hobby is in the people and the places. It's not in the stuff. IMO.

 

Sn gans

[+Ltljon]

tired of golf balls, foam paintbrushes, used McHappy meal toys, plastic army men, pez dispensers, lottery tickets, free advertising items, state quarters, loose change, buttons, dice, cereal toys, etc., etc., ad nauseum and so forth. .

Ah...er...no, not really. If I want trinkets I'll go visit Wal-Mart. I don't rely on a cache to supply me with anything but a good time & hopefully a logbook.

[+zygote2k]

you are missing the point. Aside from the other pleasant aspects, the item quality should change for the better. For instance, my girlfriend(hayseed40) paints metal boxes, and puts them in caches. Poetry caches are nice too. It all boils down to originality and creativity. Is that too much to ask?

[+Ltljon]

you are missing the point. Aside from the other pleasant aspects, the item quality should change for the better. For instance, my girlfriend(hayseed40) paints metal boxes, and puts them in caches. Poetry caches are nice too. It all boils down to originality and creativity. Is that too much to ask?

Haven't missed your point at all, just a dead horse thats beat beyond recognition.

 

In a perfect world it would be great but there will always be those who feel a McToy is an even trade for one of her boxes. Never gonna change. Just don't let it spoil your caching.

 

(Take that you ol' swayback)

[+welch]

you are missing the point. Aside from the other pleasant aspects, the item quality should change for the better. For instance, my girlfriend(hayseed40) paints metal boxes, and puts them in caches. Poetry caches are nice too. It all boils down to originality and creativity. Is that too much to ask?

Yes. People are lazy, don't expect much and you won't be surprized (like when you find rocks, pocket change, rusty bottle caps).

[+SamLowrey]

Haven't missed your point at all, just a dead horse thats beat beyond recognition.

 

In a perfect world it would be great but there will always be those who feel a McToy is an even trade for one of her boxes. Never gonna change. Just don't let it spoil your caching.

 

(Take that you ol' swayback)

Well, in a perfect world, there would be no stealing of caches, either. This is not a perfect world, so why do people keep planting them?

 

I reject the notion that it has to be a perfect world before any improvement can be made.

 

I came close to making a sig item before, but it would be expensive to do it right. I just got a raise, so I am going to look into it again.

[+idratherbehiking]

If a cache doesn't have any trade items that I like I just don't trade anything. I'm not doing this for the goodies, just for the fun of it, the exercise, and the many challenges.

[+MoonHerb]

I'm looking into making some special 'signature' items, probably stained or painted glass (careful protected with bubble wrap). In my opinion, I wouldn't be worried if there was nothing in the cache "worth" swapping them for.

 

I hope that the person who removes the 'sig' item will be pleased and maybe even inspired to do something similar.

 

After all (IMHO) finding the cache, the scenery, the dogWalk etc. are the most important aspect of GeoCaching.

 

I do like to feel I'm putting something back into the GC Community, after all, why else would people place caches ??

 

Quick note to Sn gans - Are you going to plant a 'Quantum Leap' type cache any where else, maybe in the UK ?? (Here's hoping !!)

[+Shanediver]

I'll have to agree with you. I'm not in it for the goodies either. As long as I get to log my find, I am a happy man. Though it is nice to come across an assortment of thoughtfully placed items in a cache now and then. It's onnoying to open up a cache and just find rediculous items, though. It gets pretty bad -- I'm talking about things like condoms, cig's, open package of sunflower seeds... I know that's not what this thread is all about -- I just went off in a rant.

 

My four year old is a different story, though. She is ALL ABOUT the goodies. (Go figure...) When I take her I usually make sure she has a couple of pretty decent trade items, and I kinda hope there is something along the way that she'll really like.

[+Ox]

The joy for me is in finding the cache itself. I could go home after that without even opening the container. However, low expectations make for great surprises when you find that great signature item inside! Of course, thats usually the case when you didn't being any good geoswag.

[+JeepCachr]

C'mon everyone, make a wholehearted effort to improve the quality of our hobby.

Randomly checked your logs, seems like you TNLNSL often. Perhaps you should practice what you preach?

[+bigredmed]

In a perfect world a discussion of this issue could occur with out some forum hound immediately dismissing it and just saying "oh well there's no way to fix it, so you better just get used to it."

 

It would be cool to have a discussion on this area, where ONLY people who trade could post.

 

 

I happen to agree with the original post.

 

It seems that the quality of the items in geocaches goes up when there is a local group (at least here) and people know each other. No one can afford to leave a fancy item in every cache, but now that we all know each other more, we tend to leave better things, or atleast I seem to be finding better things. (Why? I don't know. Could be guilt about leaving junk for a friend to find, better focus on who is hunting in our area, or just a better idea of what other cachers think is cool before we go to the geoswag store.)

 

Talk at your local meetings about geoswag and travel bug larvae. You will get good ideas about what sources are in your area and what other people think is cool geoswag. This will help stretch your geoswag dollar and enable you to leave cooler items, without breaking the bank. Remember what smokey the bear said, "Only you can prevent crappy geocaches." (or something like that)

 

[+StarBrand]

I don't expect gold but I do expect fairly even trades. I spend $15 - $20 for 6 - 8 items when I stock a new cache and then I return 6 months later to find 3 or 4 McToys or rocks & twigs. Dollar stores abound with nice items in the 1 to 3 dollar range - make a quick visit. If you don't have an even swap - don't swap. Occasionally I find nicer items and I carry a goodie bag with nice trades (I in fact have a $30 Timex compass watch brand new just waiting for a $15+ item in a cache - been carrying it for 16 months now). Overall, I am in it for the fun, adventure and seeking of new places but the trades are either a wonderful bonus or a reason to diminish the fun. Your choice. Either way - I will just keep on caching and restocking my boxes when I find the junk.

[+Planet]

you are missing the point. Aside from the other pleasant aspects, the item quality should change for the better. For instance, my girlfriend(hayseed40) paints metal boxes, and puts them in caches. Poetry caches are nice too. It all boils down to originality and creativity. Is that too much to ask?

I tried placing this cache It's been out a while, so far so good. I'll trade if I like something, leave somehting anyway if I don't or not trade at all and just sign the log.

Do not dispair, check out Fisur's page of Geocreations from all regions and see that there are a few of us who do try harder to put something different into a cache. I don't leave one in every cache, because making them is something that takes time and thinking, something which I need for other things, a lot.

Your girlfriend should send a picture to FISUR to put on that page if she does makes a lot of them.

[+JMBella]

Jeez take it easy on the guy. He's not saying anything unreasonable. I still trade most of the time, for me it's part of the game. So, yea I like it when the there is decent swag and if a cache needs some help I usually add a few decent trade items. If I had time right now I'd offer a markwell so zygote could see how much this has been talked about. Better yet zygote, try a search. Nothing wrong with a little venting about swag but it's usually better to add to an old topic than start a new one.

[FISUR]

. . . my girlfriend(hayseed40) paints metal boxes, and puts them in caches. . . .

As Planet suggested, send us an image of your girlfriend's signature item for placement in the Geo-Creations section of our home page. And post an image here. Also check out the latest additions to our Geocoin Designs section. We've been extremely impressed with the latest geocoins out there. Evidentally, some people already are ''upping the ante''.

Edited April 3, 2004 by FISUR

[+Ltljon]

In a perfect world a discussion of this issue could occur with out some forum hound immediately dismissing it and just saying "oh well there's no way to fix it, so you better just get used to it."

 

Forum hound?? I'm not all that sharp but was that a compliment?

[+Cache Viking]

A good hike, a good hide, a log book. I can't ask for much more.

[bug and snake]

This subject came up not too long ago and there was a bit of interest in the concept of geo-cards. Simply, personally designed cards for each player/team. I am seriously considering going this way as an option to swag trading.

The way I see it is this. Leave two cards in each cache you visit. One as a trading item for anyone to take and one (inside a small ziploc bag or an Altoids container for example) for the cache owner.

Leaving swag as an extra in a cache likely to be visited by kids or simply coz you want to would be an extra but the cards would be the main item. I can imagine the cards becoming real collectors items if they are well designed and nicely printed. Perhaps a small change in card design each year to keep the interest up? Keep your collection in an album, interesting to go back through at a later time. Two possibilities as regards size could be standard business card size or baseball card size - either way, there are standard album pages available to keep your collection in what ever order you wish.

No swag - no blag!

 

Edit: I missed a point - Each cache could have a 'cache card' design for collectors too.

Edited April 3, 2004 by bug&snake

[+BeachBuddies]

Leave two cards in each cache you visit. One as a trading item for anyone to take and one (inside a small ziploc bag or an Altoids container for example) for the cache owner.

... Each cache could have a 'cache card' design for collectors too.

Very interesting Bug&Snake! Sort of like the letterboxing concept. If it could be done economically, I would be happy to participate. I've hidden 8 caches so far, and I'd love to make custom cards to put in each cache as a memento. You could even do special cards (such as holo or foil) for the FTF.

 

The hard part would be the design I suppose. I wonder how much a print run of only 100 or so cards would cost? There are *so* many collectible card games now, seems like we ought to be able to take advantage of all the production facilities....

[+geoguyver]

"Still In Production" on this item but hope to have completed before Easter.

 

I am not sure if anyone has dropped these into caches before but my multimedia CD will have 5 or 6 copyright free music tracks, a introduction movie with myself at one of the local parks with a cache in it, and some other free short movies I like. Maybe even some movie trailers.

 

The artwork is printed directly on the CD with a Bravo! CD creator.

Here is the artwork I have designed for it.

When the CD is done I will try to post an actual picture of the CD's.

[+Cool Librarian]

Now, I'm probably gonna get flamed for saying this, but when this topic comes up, I often see a dividing line between men and women (when I can tell the difference). Not ALL the time, but often. Perhaps this is because women are crafty, perhaps it's because we like "stuff," perhaps it's because caching can be like a trip to a nice outside trinket swap meet. AGAIN, these are GENERALIZATIONS, not hard and fast rules.

 

I love all of the aspects of caching, including trading. If I find a cache full o' junk, if I have my pack stocked, I trash out the crap and leave a few decent goodies. If I am poor that day, I leave one of my signature hand-stamped bookmarks (uh, again with the crafty) and leave it at that.

 

For me, the signature item aspect fills some indoor time just like the hiking fills some outdoor time. I like to rubber-stamp, and making sig bookmarks and finder's magnets gives me a reason to enjoy my stamping hobby more.

 

Good swag can run into money, and as a grad student, that's something I don't have a lot of. I hit my local awesome $ store for decent trades, especially for the kids (just got a great deal on water balloons and faucet fillers). My bookmarks, which always seem to get scooped fast, cost me about 10 cents each. My CL Instant Cache Kits (logbook, pen, mechanical pencil, and a sheet of stickers in a ziplock) cost about 50 cents each (see FISUR"S page for a pic). My finder's magnets (hand-stamped) cost about 25 cents each - so there are ways to do something people will like for not a lot of money.

 

Bottom line, I agree that sometimes people just aren't into the trade. But, I firmly believe it is better to TNLN than to leave junk behind in the name of "trading." And guys, some people DO like the trading part, so don't be so quick to just dimiss it as not being part of the game - for some people it is, and there is nothing wrong with wishing people were a bit more creative or worked a little harder at making the game fun for everyone - kids, crafty geo-chicks, and guy-traders alike.

Edited April 3, 2004 by cool_librarian

[fuzzybear]

tired of golf balls, foam paintbrushes, used McHappy meal toys, plastic army men, pez dispensers, lottery tickets, free advertising items, state quarters, loose change, buttons, dice, cereal toys, etc., etc., ad nauseum and so forth. How about upping the quality of merchandise or handcrafted items in your geocaches? What about leaving the cache a little richer than you found it? Have you ever brought a newbie to cache only to find it full of geo-trash? C'mon everyone, make a wholehearted effort to improve the quality of our hobby.

Who needs all that dollar store cr p anyway. The fun is the hike.

[mishapman]

Better yet zygote, try a search. Nothing wrong with a little venting about swag but it's usually better to add to an old topic than start a new one.

Funny thing is that while this topic has been beat to heck and back, it's obviously not dead yet, otherwise there wouldn't be a zillion responses

[bug and snake]

The hard part would be the design I suppose.

I was thinking more along the lines of producing them on a color printer using one of the many pieces of readily available software made for business card design. It is really easy to do and need not even be anything particularly artistic. If someone wanted something that they felt was beyond their own ability to create there are plenty forum users who would be willing to help out I am sure.

[Pipanella]

I LOVE the idea of geo-cards! You can get 250 printed fairly inexpensively at http://www.vistaprint.com. And if you watch, they have sales on the custom printed cards fairly often.

Edited April 3, 2004 by Pipanella

[+Ian5281]

I know my kids like to find goodies in the cache! I try to keep a backpack full of good trade items , so the kids can get treasure from the cache, and I can trade-up for them. Personally, I rarely find things in the cache that I want myself, but I try hard to improve the quality of swag in each cache I visit.

[+bigredmed]

I LOVE the idea of geo-cards! You can get 250 printed fairly inexpensively at http://www.vistaprint.com. And if you watch, they have sales on the custom printed cards fairly often.

Kinko's can do some cheap business cards with your choice of paper and ink. Once formated in Word, they can use the card's .doc file over and over. You can alter the .doc file to change words (ie: cache name for cards you leave in your cache versus a blank for those you trade into others.)

[+RPW]

I LOVE the idea of geo-cards! You can get 250 printed fairly inexpensively...

 

After having gotten back from a day of geocaching which featured damp caches with rotting geo-cards in them -- I threw away a couple of them -- I HATE the idea of inexpensive ones. At least encase them in plastic so that they stand up to cache abuse. Or find a more interesting and waterproof sig item.

[+WhipArtist]

If using geocards, you can get a very cheap laminating machine that will keep them from getting wet and rotting. The one I have is a Brother LX-570 with laminating cartridge. The base price was something like $35 plus the cost of the cartridge, but it requires almost no work. I use it for cache information sheets and tags.

 

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3638325 looks like a similar item at about half the price.

 

These are "cool" laminators-- they require no power. Basically, they have a cartridge that's two sheets of adhesive plastic, and when you put something through the machine the sheets are rolled together and over whatever is between them.

[+SamLowrey]

"Still In Production" on this item but hope to have completed before Easter.

 

I am not sure if anyone has dropped these into caches before but my multimedia CD will have 5 or 6 copyright free music tracks, a introduction movie with myself at one of the local parks with a cache in it, and some other free short movies I like. Maybe even some movie trailers.

 

The artwork is printed directly on the CD with a Bravo! CD creator.

Here is the artwork I have designed for it.

When the CD is done I will try to post an actual picture of the CD's.

I can't believe no one has commented on this yet. This is way cool!!!!

[+MoonHerb]

I like the idea of cache cards. They're not that difficult - I did it !! :-

 

 

Easy really, layout designed in Adobe Photoshop, transfered to MSWord, colour printed and laminated !

 

What made me feel good is that they've been featured on Fisur's site as a good Geo-Creation ! (I only made them as a stop-gap until I got 'round to making 'real' sig-items !)

[Pipanella]

I LOVE the idea of geo-cards! You can get 250 printed fairly inexpensively...

 

After having gotten back from a day of geocaching which featured damp caches with rotting geo-cards in them -- I threw away a couple of them -- I HATE the idea of inexpensive ones. At least encase them in plastic so that they stand up to cache abuse. Or find a more interesting and waterproof sig item.

Vista-Print cards themselves are high-quality, but you can laminate them if you want. Hopefully, when cards are left in a cache, they're put in a plastic bag like the rest of the cache, to insure that they don't get wet. I'd never leave anything like that just lying in the cache. I realize I haven't found that many caches, but every one that I found so far has had everything in a ziploc as well as being in a watertight container. I know not all are like that, but it doesn't take much effort to put everything in a ziploc inside the cache.

[+joefrog]

Haven't missed your point at all, just a dead horse thats beat beyond recognition.

Whoa... THAT thing was a HORSE once?

[+Trailwalker2]

Thats why when I placed my first cache it was a library cache, a book exchange.

 

-Jared

[+hikemeister]

I don't care about the items -- I just sign the log and leave a signature item. Don't take items out of the cache.

[+RPW]

Hopefully, when cards are left in a cache, they're put in a plastic bag like the rest of the cache, to insure that they don't get wet.

 

This simply does not work. If a container gets damp then it quite likely that the inside of any plastic bag and thus any unlaminated paper inside the bag will also be wet. The wet sig cards I pulled out of the damp cache this weekend were stuck in the same plastic bag as the log book. And the container was one of the more water tight ones (a decon box) however once a bit of water got in then all of the paper went down the tubes.

[Pipanella]

Then logs are useless, too, is that what you're saying?

[Warbones]

I have yet to find one cache (excluding micros and virtuals) so I am not sure where I stand in all of this. I agree it would be nice if everyone respected this hobby and placed something better in the cache then they took out. Realistically there would be a stopping point if everyone traded up. I also think it is a matter of opinion on what is treasure and what is junk. Some stuff mentioned would be ovious junk. That stuff should be ledt out of the caches(bottle caps, sunflower seeds, cig buts...ect). However who is to say the dice or pez dispensers is not a prize? Or even a polished rock. There are many unique and different people and we all have different tastes. I don't go geocaching to raid the cache of the treasure of my choice only to swap with a nicer one. I go to FIND(someday) the cache and read the history(stories) related to the log. I always take stuff with me to trade and have various hobbies such as stained glass and making jewelry and I will leave things that I make in there from time to time but it's not the kill it's the hunt.

My sig item will be a stained glass piece when the design is complete and my cache will have alot of those in it but I wouldn't mind finding silly stuff in there. When I was in high school I had 14 rats and they stayed in a cage in my room. I kept them loose as long as they continued to use the bathroom in the cage and not my room(they were trained). One thing they took to doing was they would take dogfood out of the dog's bowl and replace it with pennys and what not. I would often place random items around the room to see what they felt was worthy of a trade. I knew there wasn't going to be anything ever of any worth in the dogs bowl but it was always fun to go and check to see what was left.

[+2acres]

Amen.......

[+RPW]

Then logs are useless, too, is that what you're saying?

 

Log books in general are useless? No, that is not what I am saying. I think that log books can be very useful and I am a proponent of them. The can be fun to sign and fun to read.

 

That logs books can get wet and useless even in a plastic bag? Yes they can.

 

Of course your mileage will vary.

 

Dry climates obviously will not have moisture problems.

Wet climates especially after the winter freeze/thaw cycle and spring floods will tend to be damp -- I am battling a lot of this at the moment.

 

Small containers will tend to have problems because people keep cramming swag into them thus ripping holes in the plastic bags inside of them.

Larger containers generally do not have this problem.

 

Ye old generic tupperware tends to leak because poeple have to seal them in multiple places in order to get them watertight.

Ammo boxes and anything with a 'single snap' fitting tend not have this problem.

 

Containers on the ground tend to get damp.

Containers off the ground generally are not.

 

Log books made out of normal paper can get ruined.

Log books made out of 'rite-in-the-rain' paper (yes, expensive) generally are not effected by moisture.

 

Let us see. Last Sunday I went to a park and found 5 caches. The climate there should be comparable for all of the caches (e.g., wooded, by a small river, central Indiana so lots of weather lately)

 

1st cache was tupperware about 6 feet above the flood plain in the hollow of a tree. Contents were slightly damp; log book was usable.

 

2nd cache was tupperware, not in the flood plain but on the ground. Contents were damp. Log book (inside plastic bag) was moldy and unusable. Previous cache finder had put a new book in the cache which was still usable.

 

3rd cache was decon container (generally good) but on the ground in the flood plain (why?). Contents were damp; log book (in a plastic bag) was barely usable.

 

4th cache was ammo box. Out of the flood plain. On the ground. In good shape.

 

5th cache was an extra large ammo box. Out of the flood plain. On the ground. In excellent shape. The log book was Geocaching's yellow write-in-the-rain. I was able to read logs dating back from 2001.

Edited April 5, 2004 by RPW

[+Imajika]

[+Lazyboy & Mitey Mite]

tired of golf balls, foam paintbrushes, used McHappy meal toys, plastic army men, pez dispensers, lottery tickets, free advertising items, state quarters, loose change, buttons, dice, cereal toys, etc., etc., ad nauseum and so forth. How about upping the quality of merchandise or handcrafted items in your geocaches? What about leaving the cache a little richer than you found it? Have you ever brought a newbie to cache only to find it full of geo-trash? C'mon everyone, make a wholehearted effort to improve the quality of our hobby.

You equate quality with contents. Well then I suggest you visit this website.

 

Buy Your Own Stuff

Edited April 6, 2004 by Lazyboy & Mitey Mite

[Pipanella]

Anyone interested in cards.........VistaPrint is having one of their sales right now. 250 Premium cards are $3.99. I don't see an expiration date, my e-mail just said, "Limited Time Only."

 

VistaPrint Premium Business Cards 80% off

[+zygote2k]

vista-print?, dollar store?, pez dispensers?, Mc toys?, dead horses?. No- just a bunch of cheapskates! what ever happened to originality? You can afford a gps unit and the travel expenses for a hundred caches, and you want to use vista-print or visit the dollar store on the way to the cache? Don't be a McHuman. Be an original.

[Pipanella]

At Vista Print, you can do your own ORIGINAL design. Some people like the idea of signature cards.

[+fly46]

Don't be a McHuman

 

That's too good a quote! lol.

 

My question is, WHO CARES??????

I mean, do you really go caching in hopes that someone's left you a rolex? (and how do you trade up for that anyway)

 

No, we go caching to see how good we are at seeking. How good we can follow a little computerized arrow. I don't care about if I can get good bounty, I care about the hunt.

[+zygote2k]

muffy and I are leaving a rolex and a bottle of dom. p in our next cache. It is just dismaying to see the crap that people leave in caches. It just shows how the quality of our society and its' values are going down the drain. Just take a little time and show some care and originality for the person who follows you. people shouldn't be worried about trading up- thats not the point. and lets' have another plug for vista-print and the dollar store while were at it.

[+wray_clan]

You're not supposed to leave food in caches. I don't know what dom. p is, but it sounds like a food, as it comes in a bottle.