Tsln

[+ibycus]

Why is a travel bug not a trade item?

Because the owner of the bug wants to see it move, and not hang out too long in one place. I would hate to think of someone passing over my travel bug in a cache just because they didn't have anything to trade for it. I get a little thrill every time I see one of my bugs moved closer to its destination. I generally try to trade *something* for a bug, but I'm not too picky about what it is.

[+Camo-crazed]

Of couse the first rule of geocaching remains:  "No matter how worthless the trade items, they will be replaced with something of lesser value."

I've got an idea, we can make a "worst cache in the world" which is full of stuff like rocks and dead bugs and stuff and prohibit trading up, and see how long it would take for the cache to become nothing but a pile of leaf litter

[+mortaine]

Well, I'll have to confess this time -- one cache in NYC this past month, I hit a cache with the intention of only signing the log. My wife & neice were waiting this one out at a bench around the corner, and my niece was very tired by now (poor little city girl, LOL). I had NOTHING to trade, and it was essentially a micro. There was an arrowhead in the cache that I knew would make her day, and all I could find in my pockets besides lint and my metrocard was a bicentennial quarter. I took the arrowhead and left the $.25/ Felt terrible about it... emailed the owner and confessed what I did on the cache page.

 

But... I was right, it DID make her day!

OK, here's the thing (I know, this is 6 months later... so what)....

 

If I'm geocaching, and I leave something cool like an arrowhead, I might want it to be traded for something valuable.

 

If you took it and left 25 cents in exchange and your log consisted of "took arrowhead, left 25 cents, signed log" then yeah, I think you're sneezy.

 

If you took it and left 25 cents in exchange and you signed the web log with "So, here's the story...." and went on for three paragraphs about your experience that day, about your niece and what she's like and what she means to you, and how she smiled when you gave her the arrowhead... well, I would say that you traded up, because you took something and, while the physical item you left behind was not much, the log you left was an experience shared.

 

Which is more valuable? I can tell you what I, and most other geocachers will value more.

[+mortaine]

Also, one way to get more people who understand about "leaving" is to make your caches premium-only, limiting them to premium subscribers of GC.com. This would mean that the people who can even see your listing are people who are already contributing to the site/game in some tangible way, and who are more likely to "get it."

[+slapshot52]

I have run in to this with my caches. I tried to get them started with some stuff I would like find. Nothing real expensive, but a good $20 worth stuff in a full size ammo can for initial caches. When I went back to do cache maintenance a month later, the pickings were pretty slim. I was a little peeved at first, but in the end, I added some new items to the cache and just let it go. I wanted to hide the cache, so I’ll take responsibility for keeping it stocked up. It might not be fair, but it is reality.

[+TwoOldBears]

"No matter how worthless the trade items, they will be replaced with something of lesser value."

 

Oh friend, how right you are!! We constantly strive to trade up and when we find a cache full of broken & damaged items, we "take" them all and "leave" better goods in their place. Sadly, we've had to do this type of exchange more often than expected, but we feel that the cachers who come along after us deserve better goods at the end of their hunt. Who wants to see the face of an excited little kid on their very first family cache hunt opening the coveted "treasure chest" only to find it full of trash instead of "treasures."

 

The WORST "trade item" we ever discovered in a cache was (are you ready for this one?) A DIRTY BABY'S BIB !!!!!!! Now that was a nasty piece of work.

 

Better to TNLN than to leave something like that for the next cacher...

[+Davispak]

CITO also refers to the cache itself. i will take TBs without trading items, but always trade items if I heve them with me. I very rarely write T/L in my log on the web. I will in the phisical log. I spend the web log on my experience of the cache rather than on what I traded.

 

On another note, I have taken to placing exploding dye packs in caches so that whoever takes it will remember the cache!

[+alexrudd]

I haven't yet seen people taking trade items without leaving something in return, but it does tick me off when people drop a TB and take a trade item (which is basically the same thing).

 

TB's are not regular trading items - it says so in bold letters on the TB info sheet, but some people just don't understand!