To Swag Or Not To Swag
I’m thinking of placing a series of caches on an ATV/snowmobile trail just outside town. I was thinking of using a bunch of small to medium size containers I have. The trail is a little wet at the start in a few spots but gets really good about a kilometer in. So it could be done later in the summer after everything dries up in the spring. And it would be good snowshoeing in the winter.
But here’s my question. Series like this do not get found often. Yes, if it was in town it would be a different story, I know. So is there really any need to place swag in the containers. With probably only a few finds a year and most of the finds by older cachers as opposed to young kids am I just wasting time and money by filling 15 to 20 containers with stuff that will just sit there.
I don’t trade as much as I used too. I am not sure about everyone else. And a series like this will just be a numbers run. So what’s your take on this. Besides travel bugs and coins moving does anyone really move anything else in a cache.
Swag or just a log sheet?
I did a series of 39 on Friday in Fredericton Junction area and they were all small lock n’ lock containers with just the log sheet in them.
I usually don’t trade anything unless I have my kids with me and if that is the case, we try and look for regular or large caches as there is likely to be swag in there for them to trade.
I nearly never trade. I may trade if I find something that would make a good Travel bug companion. That is about it. I wish I could afford to leave a little toy in every cache I visit as children seem to be the big traders. As far as I am concerned kids are welcome to take a present without leaving anything. Just my thoughts…
We rarely swag up caches anymore. Mostly because the trend on PEI is for smaller containers that are more hideable, but certainly dont leave room to place much more than just the logbook.
my own personal goal is to release larger containers in the coming year. I figure if they are more attractive to put stuff in (not just swag, but trackables too) then the caches will get visited more.
We always carry a lock-n-lock of dollar store toys, knick knacks, and sig items though, just in case we visit a cache that we see something in we may want.
More often then not we just leave an item or two in a cool cache and take nothing.
I actually always put swag in mine. I can’t count how many times I have gone to the dollar store on a swag run to pick up a bunch of stuff to put in my swag container I use for caches. In 5 years of caching I’ve probably spent $100-$150 on dollar store “junk” just to give the cache a more “full” look. I find it kind of depressing when I open up an ammo can send see all that empty space.
For me, if I hide regular containers, having just the log book and a pencil seems to little. I know that trading isn’t as popular as it was at one time but I know my son LOVES to look inside the cache to see what’s there (he’s five and always looks for cars) so when I think about putting out regular containers, I always think of him and other kids his age who might want a surprise from the cache.
Yes, I know a lot of that stuff will turn into geojunk eventually but I’d rather give the few kids who do find my caches something than it be completely empty with just a sheet of paper.
Zor, I couldn’t agree more. It is a bit of a downer to my 9 and 6 year old girls to find a micro or a an empty ammo can; even if they don’t trade anything, they like the option, and love to look through the treasures to see what is there. I try to fill up my loc n locs, and cram full the ammo cans I own, when I place regular hides. My feeling towards it is that these type of caches are geared towards families; what better way to encourage a younger generation of cachers than that reward for them at the end of the find?
Also, I’ve managed to avoid spending a lot of money at the dollar store by simply recycling some old, donated toys of the girls, mainly fast food restaurant giveaways. Sometimes, I supplement with rubber snakes, rubber balls, and small plastic animals for the boys, as they don’t typically like My Little Pony and Barbies.
I always like to leave something for the first to find and a couple of things for the kids that love to treasure hunt.
We’ve never done a trail or series of more than 3 caches so it’s never really been an issue. If we hide a cache large enough to hold swag we load it up. For us, it’s about making the cache as fun to find as possible, especially if it’s one that we know kids will find. But, if we ever did a large series we probably would be a bit less generous..
As for finding caches with no swag in them it doesn’t bother us either way, we don’t normally trade. If we know that it’s visited by kids we may add some swag if we have it with us but normally just sign the log and head for the next one.
We rarely trade but we will remove stuff from a full cntainer and place it in another cache. We also take every TB thst we see and move it along.
When we place a lone cache in town, we usually use a small container and place some swag since kids may come to the cache. Our Boo at the Zoo cache has swag for kids and they can take some without trading. We make regular trips to place small items in it
When we create a series on a trail or road, we usually have a mix of sizes including micros. We will put swag in the small containers, but the real reason for using that size is to accomodate trackables