Cards And Coins

[+fersman4]

Do people place their card/coin and take one of the items from the cache? If so, that sucks, because finding cool and fun stuff in a cache is a big part of the experience. I know I'm not going to take cards and coins out of caches and move them to other caches. If everyone did the card/coin thing only, then eventually caches would have nothing but cards and coins.

 

So what's the deal with cards and coins?

[+CO Admin]

Do people place their card/coin and take one of the items from the cache? If so, that sucks, because finding cool and fun stuff in a cache is a big part of the experience. I know I'm not going to take cards and coins out of caches and move them to other caches. If everyone did the card/coin thing only, then eventually caches would have nothing but cards and coins.

 

So what's the deal with cards and coins?

We like them

[+Square Bear]

Cards and coins are signature items and are not typically used for trades they are just left. If they are traded then they are usually trade for another signature item.

[+PC Painter]

I trade cards for cards.

 

If I take a nice item, then I leave one of my special sig items. It's one of my sig cards laminated and numbered, with one of my signature scarab pendants attached.

[+fersman4]

It seems to me that, taken to its natural conclusion, taking items and leaving cards will mean that caches will eventually be filled with only cards, and no little toys or trinkets. That seems boring to me.

[+PC Painter]

It seems to me that, taken to its natural conclusion, taking items and leaving cards will mean that caches will eventually be filled with only cards, and no little toys or trinkets. That seems boring to me.

What's boring to you, is exciting to others. What bores me, may make others very happy. It seems to me that you're looking at this with blinders on. It's not about just what you want. There are enough different people doing this, that many will do the sig item thing, and many will do the trinket thing.

 

Me? I do both. I have placed many matchbox cars for the kiddies, broach pins for the ladies, jumpin' bean thingies, and other assorted trinkets. I also have placed lots of my sig card/sig scarab pendants combos. People have responded well to those. Sometimes I just take a card, and leave a card. In that case, no trinkets are taken from the cache, so I left it as well as I found it. But yes, I have taken a trinket, and left my signature laminated card (each one is numbered) with my signature winged scarab pendant attached to it, as a trade for a trinket. Anyone is welcome to take that in trade for anything. The pendant is a trinket, just like anything else in the cache.

Edited December 12, 2004 by PC Painter

[+Square Bear]

Trust me finding a cache with signature items is a lot more exciting than finding a cache full of McDee toys. I agree that cards just by them self are rather boring, but a lot have some thing attached to them. Look through the forums and look at some of the signature items most have a lot of thought to them ranging from hand made wooden puzzles to a blow gun that shoots mini marshmallows.

[+fersman4]

Okay, looking through some of the signature cards and coins, I've seen some interesting ones, but most seemed fairly boring. I can recognize that some people like the card thing, and try not to complain about it. But I'd at least like to understand what it is they like about it. After all, you are just dropping off and picking up a piece of optionally laminated paper with someone's name and favorite quote on it, and you probably have no idea who this person is.

 

Please be patient with me, I'm not trying to be antagonistic. I'm still new to this, and I haven't hid my first cache yet. But I envision placing a bunch of cool things inside my first cache, and a month later coming back to find it full with nothing but boring cards. What's the attraction?

[+Square Bear]

Not to break out the switch to beat the dead horse, but what PC Painter said there all a lot of us that look forward to finding signature items after seeing far to many caches filled with what we would call junk (but to some of the kids that go caching are treasures). It may vary but the reason I place cache is not necessary the stuff that gets traded in them but to give back to the sport that I have had some much fun participating in. I haven’t had a cache out for very long yet, but my plan is as I go out to do maintains on them is to replace some of the stuff with better stuff. The unwritten rule is when you trade your suppose to trade even or trade up but unfortunately not every one does that. The major thrill I’ve found so far is to just find the cache and to attend events and meet the other cachers. You have to be able to get some thing out of it rather than just the stuff found in caches of you will get bored, and that is probably why this sport has such a high drop out rate.

[+briansnat]

Please be patient with me, I'm not trying to be antagonistic. I'm still new to this, and I haven't hid my first cache yet. But I envision placing a bunch of cool things inside my first cache, and a month later coming back to find it full with nothing but boring cards. What's the attraction?

 

Are you paying attention to people here? Nearly every person said that cards are traded for cards and separate from trade items.

 

 

Cards and coins are signature items and are not typically used for trades they are just left. If they are traded then they are usually trade for another signature item.

 

Me? I do both. I have placed many matchbox cars for the kiddies, broach pins for the ladies, jumpin' bean thingies, and other assorted trinkets. I also have placed lots of my sig card/sig scarab pendants combos. People have responded well to those. Sometimes I just take a card, and leave a card. In that case, no trinkets are taken from the cache, so I left it as well as I found it.

 

So placing a cache full of nice stuff and coming back later finding it full of nothing but boring cards probably won't happen. What will happen is that you fill it with nice stuff and come back and find it full of stuff like this (actual items that were in a cache that had been set out full of decent stuff):

[+Moose Mob]

Like many others, I have always looked at cards, coins, pins, and other sig items as "bonuses". I never use them as trade items unless I am trading my sig item for someone elses sig item.

 

I have also heard some folks as saying that sig items are for the cache owner. I have trouble with that since a prolific cache hider could collect 30-40 of the same sig item, or caches would get clogged up with sig items if the cache owner doesn't go out and get them. (I know owners are supposed to do maintenance, but that's a different topic).

[+BlueDeuce]

I'll take a simple sig card and leave some decent swag. So I ain't the one depleting trade items.

 

I doubt we'll every see any cache deteriorate so that are only sig items and no golfballs for trade.

[+PC Painter]

Okay, looking through some of the signature cards and coins, I've seen some interesting ones, but most seemed fairly boring. I can recognize that some people like the card thing, and try not to complain about it. But I'd at least like to understand what it is they like about it. After all, you are just dropping off and picking up a piece of optionally laminated paper with someone's name and favorite quote on it, and you probably have no idea who this person is.

 

Please be patient with me, I'm not trying to be antagonistic. I'm still new to this, and I haven't hid my first cache yet. But I envision placing a bunch of cool things inside my first cache, and a month later coming back to find it full with nothing but boring cards. What's the attraction?

I have no problem being patient with you. I can understand, as I am sort of new to this also. But it doesn't seem like you're really listening to the answers given. You're still overly concerned that your cache will turn into nothing but cards and sig items, when it's been explained that sig cards are usually traded for sig cards.

 

In fact, I have a little problem of my own. I posted pics of my sig card/sig item combos, and people REALLY seemed to love them, and said people would race to caches to get my items. The opposite is happening. Out of the 8 I have put in other people's caches, only 1 person has mentioned taking one. I actually think the opposite of your fears, is happening. People don't have a similar sig item to trade, and are afraid to take it, since everyone is always crying out "trade up!". Well, I want to scream..."Take it!....leave regular swag!". I didn't spend hours on end preparing these sig items, just to have them sit in the caches.

 

I have only found 22 caches, so far...but not one single cache has been full of nothing but cards and sig items. I HAVE, however, found caches full of almost nothing but little cheap trinkets that I have little to no interest in. But here's the thing....that's ok! The very next person (in this case, probably you) would find that cache and love it.

 

When I find a cache, I am generally just thrilled to have found it...you know...the thrill of the hunt. I like to take something, anything really, away from the cache, as a momento of the cache. If I don't take a card or sig item, I'll usually take some worthless trinket to put up on my geocaching shelf. Shoot, my first cache find, I was thrilled to find and take a McToy beanie baby.

 

Sorry, but if you're in this sport for the stuff you can get out of it, you're going to be dissapointed a fair amount of the time.

 

To me, it's like those "grab bags" you used to get off of the ice cream trucks, when I was a kid (granted, that was a long time ago). They were filled with little plastic trinkets, candy, and maybe a baseball card. The great thing about them, was not knowing what you were going to get, and discovering what was in them. I get that same thrill out of geocaching, PLUS the thrill of the hunt for it.

[+fersman4]

Thanks for the posts. It has FINALLY sunk in what you've all been trying to tell me. To be honest, since my cache count is so low (10) I've yet to be bored of seeing golf balls, McToys and other garbage in there. But I can see how this WILL be the case as I find more caches. Thanks for offering your different perspectives.

[+cudlecub]

When I started out I'd leave cool things in caches and take out some tacky little toy, but as time has gone on a TNLNSL became more typical for me.

 

I had an 8 find day yesterday to reach my 100th cache found. Of those 8 I took items from 2 of them and left various denominations of pesos in return. They take up little space and I think it's interesting to see foreign currency. One I wouldn't have taken but it was a travel bug that was too large to fit in the actual cache. It's bag was torn and it was getting wet. The TB was also clearly giving away the location of the cache. The other item I took was from my 100th cache found and it took a while to decide on a scooby doo zipper pull as being the least trashy of the trash to take as a memento of my 100th find. I figured I'd keep it and place it in my 200th find or maybe even release it as a TB.

 

But one person's trash is another person's treasure.

[+Camo-crazed]

some people leave cards to log their find so make sure that you are not effectively erasing their traces from the cache.