[Az-Geocaching] Cache contents Rant

[Andrew Ayre]

For me disappointment of cache contents sunk in on my third find - a 2 mile
hike that was very beautiful and ended with a jar with mainly business
cards. I realized at that point that for me geocaching is really about the
trip to the cache. Now I rarely even look in the container - usually other
people with me do that and if they want something then I leave something. I
think that wanting to replace junk in caches is a great idea, but you will
end up replacing the contents of most caches you find, which I can imagine
will become tiring fast. These are the personal rules I use:

  - always trade up
  - take nothing and put several things in particularly sorry looking caches
  - look at the scenery more than the GPS display :)

If someone told me that one of my caches was mostly full of junk, then I
would plan a quick trip to it to replace the contents. So I suggest if you
find junk then let the cache owner know. I believe it is part of the
maintenance. For example, I had a state quarter trading cache. Someone
recorded in the log that they took a quarter and left an italian bank note.
While I appriciate that they left some currency, it was "junk" as far as the
theme of the cache was concerned. I hiked to the cache and removed it and
left some more quarters.

I understand however that kids are probably more interested in the cache
contents.

Andy


-----Original Message-----
From: az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com
[mailto:az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com]On Behalf Of
Steven Stringham
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 6:52 AM
To: listserv@azgeocaching.com
Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Cache contents Rant


I love the trading aspect of this game.

I am really curious as to what others see as valid things to "trade" in a
cache. While not all the things I put in a cache are really useful, at
least they are not (in my humble opionion) pure junk.

A marble in a micro,  for example is fine. I also like to see personalized
cards. Dollar stores are my friend.

My kids have taken to collecting some of the items found in caches (my
oldest daughter has started a keychain collection - and has found some
interesting ones!)  And, I try to make sure that I don't trade down. Some
stuff is just cool (the navy lanyards from Team AZCOWilliams). I love
these kind of trademark items. Or the Team sanddollar's token.  Other
stuff is great too. I have taken some items from caches and turned them
into travel bugs. I love it.

But, I have seen some really junky stuff in some caches. What the heck are
some people thinking when they put a used movie ticket or a used gift card
in a cache?  Or broken parts of some old electronics?  This is what I have
found in caches recently. I really don't get it. Do they really think that
somebody will want a used movie ticket to some third rate movie from
months ago? I have seen logs of others that say they have "cleaned out a
cache" and replenished it, because the contents were so under par. I
should have done this on these, but I was low on cache stuff. So, I ended
up TN/LN/SL.

Are others surprised by these kind of items as well? Should I have at
least cleaned out the junk, so that the next person didn't have to?

StringCachers
Steven Stringham



-----------------------------------------
http://stringham-family.org/
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