Travel Bugs

[Obie15]

I read the travel bug mannual or whatever you want to call it and it refered to "grabbing" a travel bug. What does this mean and how is it different from just taking one out of a cache?

[+Stunod]

You "grab" a TB from another cacher or from a cache other than the one the system thinks it's in. This is common if someone forgets to log it into a cache.

Edited August 14, 2004 by Stunod

[+globalgirl]

Good question Obie15, I've been wondering that myself.

 

And sorry Stunod, but your answer doesn't quite expain it. I mean...

 

You "grab" a TB from another cacher...

Just HOW is it that you grab it from another cacher - HOW do you do it? Can you just grab it from ANYBODY? Don't you need the number?

 

...or from a cache other than the one the system thinks it's in...

From a cache other than the one the system thinks it's in? What do you mean? Could you give us an example?

 

...This is common if someone forgets to log it into a cache.

Now this begins to shed some light, but I still don't understand how it all works. So say you know someone who found a TB in a cache, but hasn't yet logged it in on the TB's page (I presume the only way you'd know this, is if you happened to be out with said cacher when he/she grabbed it, else... hear him/her boasting about it in a bar or some such, and then what - rush to the keyboard???)

 

Still... how then do you somehow "grab" the TB? Are you saying that if you happen to somehow know the TB's # - you log it in as yours somehow?

 

For example, I'm sitting here now with 2 TBs that I got from caches. I've logged both in on their respective TB pages. Are you saying that somebody can "grab" them from me before I put them in new caches? And/or... Are you saying that if I hadn't yet logged them in to their pages - they could somehow be grabbed from me?

 

Sorry if I seem dense Stunod. But I too (like OBie15) have scoured the entire gc site, and often find that things like this are glossed over. The TB page is a good example. It keeps tossing out "or if you grab it", etc. but never seems to explain just what that means.

 

Now I HAVE learned that you need to clone out the number in any pics you post of a TB (and have done just that in the 2 that I posted). And I've also read here in the forums about - something about a "TB Table" at gc events, and how some folks take pics of them - presumably to snag the numbers and then what? "grab" them as their find when the next get to a keyboard?

 

All very confusing, and no doubt NOT. Surely there must be a simple explanation for all this, yes?

[n0wae]

If you have the tracking number you have the power to grab the bug from anyone. Use your power wisely... Always wait at least a week before grabbing a bug. Cachers that are on vacation might not be able to log the bug into the cache until a later date. If you grab it the bug its millage won't be recorded into the cache that you found it. The grab feature is meant for use when the system fails so the bug can continue on its journey... Just don't be too quick on the trigger. Its also a handy feature for giving a bug to a friend if you don't have time to place it.

Edited August 15, 2004 by n0wae

[+globalgirl]

Ah, so what you're saying n0wae, is that "grabbing" for grabbing's sake isn't condoned. I mean, it's not appropriate as some sort of competitive, mean-spirited thing (e.g. like that photgrapher at the TB table at events I mentioned earlier).

 

But handy for when you happen to know the TB# and know that somebody is sitting on a TB and not moving it. But then... you'd have to also have the TB itself - to physically move it on, no?

 

Guess it's only done with the agreement of whoever last grabbed it from a cache - he/she gives you both the # and the physical TB. Then the "grabbing" is just a matter of you taking it virtually through the gc site in order to fully complete both the electronic and the physical transfer.

 

Sorry to babble on, it's been a long day - my brain is mush...

[+LordSaw]

globalgirl,

 

Maybe I can explain a different way. Say you go to a cache and there’s a TB there. You like it and want to help it on its way, so you take it home and log the cache find, but don’t see the listed as being in the cache.

Now, you go to the TB page at GC.com and enter the number on the tag into the TB Lookup field and click GO. Up pops the page for this TB and lo and behold it’s listed as in another cache nowhere near where you found it. So, you wait a week or so to see if someone logs it (Put the TB on your watch list so you get an email if someone logs it) into the cache where you found it. When nobody does log it, you grab it so you can continue to help it on its way.

 

Now, there are other reasons to log it as a grab. Say, if your friend and fellow cacher finds a bug and then discovers he/she can’t help it on its way for a while, but you can, you take it physically from them and Log it as a grab, so it’s now in you inventory and you can again help it on its way.

 

There is a third reason, and probably more, check out this O.C.B.

I and a bunch of other cachers, did a grab on this historic artifact yesterday. It's the only thing allowed.

 

Hope this helps.

Cache Well

[+E = Mc2]

Ah, so what you're saying n0wae, is that "grabbing" for grabbing's sake isn't condoned.

 

Correct.

 

But handy for when you happen to know the TB# and know that somebody is sitting on a TB and not moving it.

 

Not exactly. The reasons for "Grabbing" a TB are:

 

1) You've found it in a cache that it was never logged into. I've made the mistake, myself, of logging a bug into the wrong cache and not realizing it until later. By the time I realized it, I no longer had the bug number. The next person to find the bug "Grabbed" it. This put it in their possesion, and removed it from the cache I'd logged (versus placed) it into.

 

2) You received it from another cacher. Say someone picks it up and then for whatever reason, can't move it on. They hand it to you and you "Grab" it from them.

 

3) It's a new travel bug that hasn't been released into the wild yet, and you receive it at an event (as a prize) or from another cacher who wants it to start out far from their home...

 

Then the "grabbing" is just a matter of you taking it virtually through the gc site in order to fully complete both the electronic and the physical transfer.

 

BINGO! "Grabbing a TB puts it into your possesion on the site so it can be tracked correctly.

Edited August 15, 2004 by E = Mc2

[+globalgirl]

Thanks folks, for taking the time to spell it out for me. The several examples you so kindly provided make it all clear.

 

And goodness Lord Saw - that O.B.C. is surely remarkable. Suspended magnetically in plexiglass fergoodnesssake - more precious than the crown jewels!

[+Boo & Kitty]

What's with the "grabbing" anyway? That sounds like something a hot blooded youth does on a date. Why not "siezed", "took", "captured", "snatched", "looted", "plundered", "stole", "filched", "pilfered", "purloined", "appropriated", "pinched", "boosted", "lifted" or "yanked"?

[+DelMarNorth]

You forgot "Liberated"

[+Semper Questio]

Just another example of what "granning" is for.

 

I found a TB in Texas that was never supposed to leave the UK. As it turned out, the sister of a co-worker (all of us cachers) was going to London in a few months. I contacted the TB's owner and asked if he wanted us to hold it and return it to the UK and he said he did. So I passed it to the the sister via the co-worker. She then "grabbed" it from me, taking the bug from my inventory and putting it in hers. When she got to London she put it in a cache, logged it accordingly, and it is now back in it's homeland all safe and sound.

 

Hope this helps illustarte a real-world use of "grabbibg" a bug.

 

KC

[+Boo & Kitty]

You forgot "Liberated"

That's what you do when you retrieve one from a TB prison^H^H^H^H^Hhotel.

[Neos2]

And what, if anything, can be done if a TB that you had placed in a cache-- but not logged yet-- has been grabbed by someone? I picked up a nice little TB that had a mission to travel, especially riding in cars. It went for a ride in a semi and we took it with us to drop my daughter off at college and on two day-long caching adventures. Then I dropped it off in a cache and planned to come home and log it in and out of a few of the places it had been along with pictures of the adventure. All in all it would probably have added 500-600 miles to the TB....but the person who picked it up "grabbed" it from the cache before I could log it into the cache.

Can I 'back-log" the travels it made with me still, or will its mileage be off if I do that?

PS I met the person who grabbed it on his way into the cache site--He is a very nice, very young cacher, and I am sure that he would not have adversely affected the bug's travels for anything in the world.

Edited August 17, 2004 by Neos2

[+planetrobert]

I must say this...

 

if you grab a bug from a cache that is is not logged into YOU SHOULD then log it into the cache then grab it back out so that its milage is correct.