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What Would You Like To Find Inside Caches?


woody_k

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I have noticed that as caches age the items inside seem to deteriorate. I.E. Junk.

 

So I would like to know what would you liike to see in caches? I know gold bars, money, diamonds a new spouse etc....

 

But make it within reason, this ain't no fantasy question boys! LOL

 

I ask because I like to spruce up the contents when I find caches.

 

Ken

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Coins. Especially foreign ones.

Ditto. This is my favorite, and I used to see them a lot, but not anymore.

 

I am going to try my best to collect coins that have a good exchange rate when I go out of the country, so I can put them in caches.

 

Not only are foriegn coins (and paper money) cool, but they can even go in smaller caches.

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i'd like to find some practical things. i'm not really fond of "junk" such as cheap toys and such, though i know alot of people bring their kids, so i can't complain that much. but some neat items could include: mini flashlights, pocket knives (i know these are debatable), camping gear, etc.

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I am trying to be better at trading items in and out of caches. I don't need more "stuff" but have decided to try and trade items that other cachers want to find. Geocaching logo items such as buttons, magnets, or stickers are good. Tools are always a good trade item. I used a hammer today that I found in a cache last summer. Signature items are always interesting to find.

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I like signature items and cute toys (especially pokemon). Sometimes the thing that seems like junk to many is what I treasure. I have collected several mangled pom pom chickens from caches. The poor things looked like they needed a good home!

 

When stocking caches, I aim for a mix of nice little toys for the kids and things for the adults like basic tools, locks, camping stuff, batteries etc. I also like to put new books in caches that I get off the sale racks. I have found a ton of animal identification books that way. I also hit the gift shops at nature centers and such. Those often have animal toys and things for the kids that they might not normally come across everyday. Dragonfly and cicada gliders that I bought once seemed to be popular. I think I got them online at the Nature Store priced at around $2.

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Well, here's my list of things I have taken which I was excited about: 1. any new signature item I recognize and don't have. 2. a new magnifying glass for reading maps in the car. Other than that: I take something little and of little value.

I usually leave a sig. butterfly and one other item. Lately I have a bunch of Ty Beenies (McToys).

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:(

 

You know, I don't really care what you put in a cache as long as it is new, and usable. Cool techy items I like. I might not want many items, but I'm sure I can find something I like or I know my wife might like. Thinks I can use caching would really be cool. I am going to get some small mirrors for caches too. Learned that one just the other day - right here!

 

The last 4 or 5 caches I found - what I took out (except the TB) went into other caches. I did put a new deck of cards into one cool cache that I took a TB out of.

 

I just spent a too much money (enought for all the caches I'll find and make for the next year or so !! :D ). I got a lot of cool stuff - things I'd like to find like cool LED flashlights - carabiner compass and c/ flashlights - cool key chains - more carabiners, and the like. And There are very few that cost more than a dollar each - a few cool items for the kid cachers too

 

It's kinda hard for me too put a really nice item into a cache that is full of junk. Tho I usually try to trade up. But a 10x trade is a bit much.

Edited by CompuCash
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We left stamped, self addressed postcards inside a ziploc bag in some caches. Amazingly enough, they periodically show up in the maibox. We really enjoy hearing from the other cachers. Getting mail that is neither bill nor junk is fun for all.

 

In general, we've observed that paper left inside a cache without a ziploc gives mold a growth medium.

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We left stamped, self addressed postcards inside a ziploc bag in some caches.  Amazingly enough, they periodically show up in the maibox.  We really enjoy hearing from the other cachers.  Getting mail that is neither bill nor junk is fun for all.

 

In general, we've observed that paper left inside a cache without a ziploc gives mold a growth medium.

 

Now that post card idea is really nice. One of the first caches I found had some OLD post cards - but this gets you a nice reward a week or so later - that would really be neat when you are on vacation and pick up a cache or few.

 

:D:(:D

Edited by CompuCash
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Your correct. I found I was leaving toy cars, super balls, batteries and taking very little in exchange. Today I came across some Native American animal Spirit stones and picked up a bunch of them. They come signed on the stone and there is a card that goes along with them explaning the spirit. I am going to use them "when the spirit moves me". Today I placed a chikadee in a perfect cache setting. It just seem right.

 

Of the caches I have found most of the stuff does seem like stuff nobody really wanted.

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I've rehabbed a few caches but I think the real problem is that once a cache is placed, as long as no one says it ain't there any more they forget about it.

 

You are right compuCash. I think some of the owners do not take the resposibility to re-hab the cache if needed.

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I've started looking for lapel pins, with geographical, personal/signature, recreational or comic themes.

 

I also like quality signature items (but not inkjet printer paper cards) or handmade items. Recently found a hand-printed recipe card in a ziplock bag to keep it clean - that was nice!

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I've started looking for lapel pins, with geographical, personal/signature, recreational or comic themes.

 

I also like quality signature items (but not inkjet printer paper cards) or handmade items.  Recently found a hand-printed recipe card in a ziplock bag to keep it clean - that was nice!

 

this is a little off topic in a way - there have been threads on sig. items.

 

I made my own sig. tokens - took business card magnets - printed out my own avatar with my name and a place for the token number and date - 'laminate' the paper and stick it to the bus. card mag - cut 4 out of the magnet - came out pretty nice - don't know if anyone is taking them or not -

 

I have ordered some key chains that I think I can add my avatar too and be a cool sig item. :blink:

Edited by CompuCash
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I've been combining my involvement with bookcrossing.com with my rapidly burgeoning geocaching addiction. If the cache is large enough, I tend to leave bookcrossing.com labeled books well-wrapped in freezer-quality ziploc bags (I try to leave trade or mass market paperbacks in good condition by fairly popular authors like Dan Brown, Barbara Kingsolver, John Grisham, etc.) If the cache isn't very large, I'll leave labels or bookmarks that explain the bookcrossing concept (very similar wheresgeorge but tracks books instead.)

 

I'd love it if others in the Bay Area developed the dual interest as well, so that I'd have a chance to find a book once in awhile. :blink:

 

As for taking things from caches, I usually don't take anything except travel bugs. If I run across a particularly cute little toy, I'll take it and turn it in to a TB. Otherwise I only take stuff when I need to make room in a cache in order to drop a TB, which is how I ended up with a backpack full of an old golfball, a highlighter, and a broken cup handle this past weekend.

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I especially like finding hiking, camping, or hunting gear in caches. Just a while ago I got an awesome headlamp that probably wasn't incredibly much to buy, but it has LED and halogen lights in it, and it serves my purposes.

 

One thing that I'm possibly considering putting in caches around Pennsylvania, especially those in State parks is cheap, possibly disposable blaze orange hunting vests, which are required by law during most hunting seasons in alot of state owned land, and if they're not required, they're certainly a good idea...

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It's hard to say why something appeals to me in a cache. It's usually something quirky. Like a clothespin painted green, or a subway token from far away. At one cache, I grabbed a tiny green ceramic rooster. It really appealed to me for some reason, so I emailed the guy who left it and asked the story. Turns out it's part of a set of ceramic animals from Wade; they give one away in every box of Red Rose tea. Needless to say, I have a great deal of tea now (not that I have the collectors' bug or anything).

 

I suppose that's not helpful to know when choosing swag. It hasn't helped much, as I've looked around stores and wondered what to buy.

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I always go for the weird stuff. Some of my favorites have been a used, frayed fish stringer, a two-legged jade elephant, a spent bullet casing, and of course, the head of a stuffed turkey (I kid you not!) I often said I'd be the one to take the left arm of a Barbie doll if I found it. I'm really kinda disappointed nobody's left one for me yet!

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I found a nice piece of quartz in a cache in Arkansas (appropriate!), a Sacagawea dollar coin in one of our first cache finds, a signature item from a local cacher (a wooden dog-bone shaped piece with his name on it), a silver dragonfly charm, and a pretty tiger-eye marble. I liked all of those.

 

Other things that would thrill me........nice sig items with the cacher's name on it, something native to the cache area (like the Arkansas quartz), any kind of charm, cloisonne or enameled pins, a Geocaching.com window sticker, a commemorative stamp (well-protected by a ziploc or even laminated), foreign coins.

Edited by Pipanella
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I really like to find hiking/camping items. A decent compass, space blanket, rain poncho, cyalume sticks, etc. I found a digital pedometer in a cache long ago that I still use to this day. Sealed packs of AA batteries are always nice, as well.

 

My son and I are making a 12 mile trek in September in the San Jacinto Forest that will (hopefully) include 6 caches along the way. I've printed out a color Topo map with a "You are Here" dot for each of the cache sites, that I'm planning on leaving in the caches, whether I trade anything or not. Perhaps a future cacher will find them helpful.

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I once found a cache and realized I didn't have any "toy" with me :blink: , so I left a full Subway stamp card. I know the "no food" rule, but do people like free Subway/Fatburger/Taco Del Mar cards?

Wow, I think that would be a great thing to find! As long as it wasn't a "discount" card but a truly "free" item - I would love that! :lol:

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I once found a cache and realized I didn't have any "toy" with me  , so I

left a full Subway stamp card. I know the "no food" rule, but do people like free

Subway/Fatburger/Taco Del Mar cards?

 

A couple of weeks ago I used a subway card found in a cache to buy lunch! That

trade was appreciated! :blink:

It's not really a sig item of my own, but I made a couple of JOEFROG's

marshmellow guns and left them in some caches.

I like to find things that I can use or that are unique. Pocketknives are my favorite! :lol:

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Coins. Especially foreign ones.

Coins and sig items appear to be popular choices.

 

I've been using cleaned ancient coins of Greece and Rome as FTF prizes, varying in appraised value from about $10 to $30 apiece. Each one matches the cache's theme in my Olympian series, e.g. Apollo depicted on coin for the Apollo-themed cache, etc. Finders seem to like them.

 

I also use laminated cache signature/series bookmarks in each cache illustrating that cache's theme and with clue questions to the final series cache.

 

Are most of the foreign coins found in caches in current usage or no longer in circulation, perhaps due to the Euro?

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If I find a dry, good-sized cache...

 

For the kids, I always try to leave new, still in package Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars, mini Etch-a-Sketches, Silly Putty, or similar Dollar Store items. New/packaged items are always better as long as they easily fit the container. Unpackaged bubble toys, markers/crayons, and stickers can create a mess in a cache. If securely packaged, they might be fine.

 

Most any age seems to like geocaching-related items from Groundspeak or other sources (compasses, buttons, hats, etc.). Unfortunately, I did see a rusted geocaching button in a find yesterday, ruined by water leaking into the container. Otherwise, I'm fairly confident it would have been claimed--I know I would have wanted it.

Edited by Teach2Learn
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But make it within reason,  this ain't no fantasy question boys!  LOL

 

I ask because I like to spruce up the contents when I find caches.

 

If I found one of these in a cache, I'd leave the keys and title to my GeoJetta in trade.

 

IT COULD HAPPEN!!!!!

 

Back on topic:

 

Yesterday, I found a really cool cache near Albq., N.M. It was mostly junk inside, so I filled it with some decent trade items for the next finders. (So.....Why is this here?)

 

To answer your question; I like to find/leave new stuff and sig items. Anything hand made is a prize to me.

 

SNOOG3.jpg

Edited by Snoogans
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If I found one of these in a cache, I'd leave the keys and title to my GeoJetta in trade.

 

IT COULD HAPPEN!!!!!

 

Well if I found the keys to one of those in a cache I would ride right on down and get me the BMW650GS motorcycle I have been wanting for sooooo long.

 

So if any of you cachers are wealthy enough you can put one of those in my 1st cache and it's right in my front yard woodyk's 1st is what it's called.

 

Ken

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I'd like to find a cache where you can trade your GPSr!!

 

On the other hand...a cache like that would just fill up with Etrex Yellows, Gekos, and that crappy new line from Magellan. Eh...forget I even mentioned this. <_<

Edited by hwyman
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We always leave our trademark.. A "Little Yellow Rubber Ducky".. B) But we also will leave something we got from a previous cache.. (Kinda like Recycling) We keep a bag with all the goodies we have collected and just pass them around the Cachin' Circuit.. Also, when trading, we put into play where the cache is located & what we have in our bag.. (ie.. if we are caching at a beach, we wouldn't leave carabiners).. :mellow: Anyways, that just the way we cache...

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We try to leave the type of stuff we would enjoy finding. We bought a box of small flashlights, a box of flag pins which we attached to cards with our geocaching name on them, and some Lance Armstrong “live strong” wrist bands. We’ve also have left ponchos, and some backpacking items. Were looking into getting some wooden nickels in the next month or so and have them tracked on travelertags.com. The way I look at it the only way to get improvements in what is left in caches is to start leaving better stuff, we usually leave some thing even if we don’t take any thing. I think the biggest problem is that there are a lot of owners out there that don’t maintain their caches, if you’ve taken the time to place a cache take the time to maintain it, especially, if it is a theme cache. but there are no real rules or guide lines on maintaining caches, but there should be some pride in ownership.

Edited by Ray&Rose
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