How Much Do You Spend On Your Bugs?

[+the hermit crabs]

Most of our TBs have been made from items we already owned, or something that we picked up in a cache, or something inexpensive we bought on a whim. But for quite a few of them, I've found myself coming up with an idea and convincing myself that I need a particular item for the bug, and have spent hours wandering from store to store, searching for just the right thing. I've also bought stuff on ebay when I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. So, we've had several bugs that cost more than $10 apiece (not to mention the time involved). (And that isn't even counting the TB tag price!)

 

Yesterday, for instance, we spent half a day looking in a bunch of stores for ... an ear. You'd think a human-looking life-sized plastic ear would be easy to find, but it wasn't. (We did find one eventually -- it probably would have been easier if I had thought of it before Halloween.)

 

Do you do this -- go out and buy something just to turn it into a bug? Or do you only make bugs out of "free" stuff you already own?

[+amytincan]

Most of our TBs have been made from items we already owned, or something that we picked up in a cache, or something inexpensive we bought on a whim. But for quite a few of them, I've found myself coming up with an idea and convincing myself that I need a particular item for the bug, and have spent hours wandering from store to store, searching for just the right thing. I've also bought stuff on ebay when I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. So, we've had several bugs that cost more than $10 apiece (not to mention the time involved). (And that isn't even counting the TB tag price!)

 

Yesterday, for instance, we spent half a day looking in a bunch of stores for ... an ear. You'd think a human-looking life-sized plastic ear would be easy to find, but it wasn't. (We did find one eventually -- it probably would have been easier if I had thought of it before Halloween.)

 

Do you do this -- go out and buy something just to turn it into a bug? Or do you only make bugs out of "free" stuff you already own?

I just finished my first one, a journal that cost 10.00. I wanted it to be less expensive but it was a very small book the ideal size so I bought it.

[+ZackJones]

I haven't spent more than $3 or $4 for any travel bugs. Most of mine are either things I've had here at the house or found in caches. On second thought I do have one "You Are Not Forgotten" that I paid about $6 for a POW/MIA challenge coin.

 

I tend to follow the "If I never see this again will it really matter" rule

 

Zack

[+dhenninger]

I have spent anywhere from $0 to about $8 on travel bug attachments (some found, some muggled from work , some bought). But if I saw something cool, I would spend more.

 

Dave

[+AuntieWeasel]

Nine bucks, and it's more than I like to spend. I wanted a really nice Egyptian Bast statue to commemorate a stray cat I found, but all the ones I ran across were too big, or really ugly. This one was the perfect size and heavy bronze. It's also very attractive, even if it was Franklin Mint

 

 

The Empress vanished for a little while, and I assumed the worst, but she turned up again a month later. Definitely my most-likely-to-be-nicked TB. Though I have a glass doorknob lost in Spain someplace.

 

My mother used to say never put any money in the stock market you can't afford to lose. I think that way about TB's: the moment I release it, I think of it as gone forever. It's like putting a paper boat in a stream and watching it go around the corner.

[+BlueDeuce]

Adding together the cost of the tag, a keyring, self laminating card, and the bug I'd say about 6 bucks on average.

 

I always check out the clearance section at a store for something durable and interesting, but not too cute. (Wow, I just describe myself! )

Edited November 15, 2004 by 11 After

[+Nero]

depends, some of my bugs were stuff i had lying around or things i found in caches which of course cost me nothing but the tag..

 

then theres some like the jog coins i ut out with tags on them cost me around $8-9 each including tags. or the usa geocoins which were $5-6 each (gold $5, silver and antique $6) plus shipping and for my fist few i bought the nice expensive airtite cases which they sell for another $2.50 and of course shipping. so as much as $9-10 each.

 

i also drop CA geocoins in some caches which cost me only a little more than $2 each and i put cheapy plastic cases on some of them which were $1 each. so around $3 each..

 

like others have said, i look at it this way. if they travel as intended, cool. if they disappear, oh well. once its dropped i have no control over what happens to it.

[+Harry Dolphin]

Okay. I'll admit it. Our first two travel bugs were theme oriented. Overlook of Charlotteburg Reservoir. The cache is named 'Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotteburg". A stuffed parakeeet seemed appropriate. That's when we realized that we'd gotten the wrong movie. The parakeet appeared in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" Didn;t stop us. Two stuffed parakeets from Stuffedark.com. About $15 each. So we put up a second cache named "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" We left the second parakeet there. Both want to go to Hollywood. One is stuck for the winter about 20 miles away. The other is headed for either Georgia or California!

What to do next? Therein lies the quandry. My brother in Seattle has a collection of stuffed birds that he calls Funny Nose. He gets them from Goodwill. I want to get a lot of them, buy them dogtags, and send them en masse, to Seattle! I've checked a few Goodwills, and haven't found any of them. Oh, well. I'll keep looking.

Maybe I'll send a dolphin bottle opener to my sister in Maine.

[Mystery user]

It's takeing weeks to add the tag to the huge praying mantis.

[rescue557]

Do you do this -- go out and buy something just to turn it into a bug? Or do you only make bugs out of "free" stuff you already own?

I do a little bit of both scenereos. My most recent creation is a TB made from an old hand-carved wooden Paramedic statue that has been in my posession since 1998.

 

Traveling Rescue Medic 557

 

I just hope that someone responsible finds it each time and it doesn't come up missing. It's not expensive or anything, it's just something that I've had for a long time and would hate to see it get lost.

[+PC Painter]

I think I might have spent around $10 on my bug that I'm trying to get to the troops in Iraq. That's not too much, IMO...since I won't send many out.

 

My first cache that I put out, though....considerably more.

[+fly46]

I've not spent more than a dollar on any TB attatchment.

[+wesleykey]

I received free trackable tags from traveltags.com, so the paper, lamination, and keychains were not much. Then I bought an 88 cent pack of rubber frogs, lizards, and snakes to make into bugs.

 

[rescue557]

This travel bug has set me back around $50, if you consider the cost of the phone, the modifications and filling it with Touch-And-Foam to make it waterproof.

 

 

I hope to have it out traveling soon.