Originally Posted by
MaineWannaBe
OK....we are getting ourselves all set to go on our first caching adventures in the MDI area. We've got a list of caches we want to try to find, and we're pretty well prepared in the getting there and finding it area.
Let me describe what we're thinking and then give me some feedback on whether or not I've got this part of the "deal" straight .......
We have made up some "business cards" with our name and home location on our printer, covered them in clear contact paper and were thinking that we could leave those once we actually find a cache. I also bought some poker chips and we've put our names and location on those to leave behind too. Am I on the right track? What is too much or too little to leave behind? Also, since this is our first experience, I'm thinking that taking anything that someone wants tracked (like a travel bug or whatever) would be a really BAD idea since we may not be able to move it and/or place it right away. So, in general, for the absolute novice......what is the most/least we should do?
I know that you all will help me out AGAIN! My thanks in advance!!
Sounds like you've got the fixings for some signature items. The only other thing I might suggest is picking up some trinkets for swapping as the rule is to swap tit for tat -- in other words equal trades. If your kids see something they want you'll want to make an equal trade and poker chips/business cards wouldn't really fit in that category. You don't have to go crazy and go out and buy $5 items . . . a trip to a dollar store or similar place is usually fine.
For example, I rarely take anything or make a swap (but then again I don't have kids), but I still bring along my Swag Bag full of my signature items (wooden ladders) which I drop into caches whenever I am moved and an assortment of trade items which include bouncy balls (wrapped in plastic), carabiners, mini frisbees, pencils with pencil eraser tops (which I place in baggies), small stuffed animals (again in plastic baggies to keep them clean and from getting damp/mildewy), etc. I also pack along a few "high end" items such as a pair of mini binoculars ($15-$20 value), Palm ($5-$15 value), mini Mag-lite ($5-$10 value), etc. in case I find something that is on the high value end that I would like to trade. However, I don't think I've found much out there that rates as a high end trade.
As I said I rarely make a trade, but when I started out I made a trade on just about every cache. I also have noticed that when I take my kid 16-year-old brother along he tends to like it when he finds cash in the cache (often $1 Where's George dollar bills . . . and yes I realize I just wrote out One dollar Where's George dollar bills) . . . which means I often end up making a trade so he can get "rich."
I have picked up a few things over the years that I have liked -- a glass cat for my wife, a metal frog for me, a keyring LED light which comes in handy since my beater car has no interior lights (including dashboard lights), AA batteries (very handy since I had no spares and my batteries in the GPSr died shortly after making this trade), etc.
So in answer to your question . . . the general rule is to make an equal trade . . . of course some people might think trading a McDonald's Happy Meal toy for a $10 bill is a fair trade, but a) I have yet to find a $10 bill in a cache (although I have placed some $10 gift certificates in some of my caches) and b) I believe most cachers realize that this would not be a fair trade.
Good luck. Have fun. Stay safe.
Oh yeah . . . before you go you might want to make sure you know how to use the GPSr and the all-important "go to" feature so you'll get where you want to go and be able to find the cache without doing what I did the first few times I attempted to geocache -- I kept going forwards and then sidewards and then backwards and then sidewards again as I tried to line up the N and W coordinates to match those on the print outs.
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."
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