We have several answers to that question.

...And others have their own answers which may well be totally different from yours. Not everyone has the same idea of fun. I get a big kick out of pawing through the trinkets in a geocache and finding the most stampable object.
Since I don't log or count any of my finds of any kind, the issue of how to count it never enters my mind.

Just this week we found a cache with a cheesy plastic dubloon in it. The embossed image on the coin was a treasure chest and it made a dandy impression in my logbook. Last summer I found a rubber froggy who stamped cute little green feet. I've cacheboxed with another boxer and we both have ended up with different images from the same cache, having chosen different goodies to ink up. It's all in fun and as long as I clean the ink off of whatever we've used, stamped into the geocache logbook and put everything back as it was found, I consider no harm done. It's just an amusing diversion on the trail. Fun is where you find it. Funhog

Perhaps we should start inking up the faces of benchmarks and getting images from them.

Ha! Actually, that's not a bad idea.

As far as "Other" "unlisted finds" go, if people want to list the number of cacheboxes, coke cans, coyotes, or aliens they find, what do I care? It's all in fun and doesn't count for anything. Let's face it, this is ALL a very silly hobby, no matter how we to choose to do it.

I just log my geocaches on geocaching.com, but I actually go out looking for them, so that's different from the boxer who occasionally stumbles upon one. I do log my National Park stamps as unlisted "other", and I know a few people here take it as a personal affront that someone has broken their version of the rules, but that's their problem.

if people want to list the number of cacheboxes, coke cans, coyotes, or aliens they find...

If you visit Airport Park in McMinnville, OR, you can add lots and lots of aliens to your find list. :)

Let's face it, this is ALL a very silly hobby, no matter how we to choose to do it.

Silly? SILLY? VERY SILLY!?!?

Why I oughta...

;-)

*S

list the number of cacheboxes, coke cans, coyotes, or aliens they find

Don't forget the venerable lizard count. I wonder whatever happened to Psychomommy?

On my count it would be SNAKES : 3

Are answers for why you enjoy letterboxing the only acceptable answers in the universe?

Certainly not. I'm just trying to find out what they are! Why would anyone log a cachebox find?

It is a nice surprise finding a geocache which includes an object that can be added to one's logbook.

Interesting. I guess maybe I'm just not getting the "stamping with an object" idea. I saw someone do it once, using a rubber snake in a geocache to stamp in, creating an interesting snake-belly image in a log book. Didn't understand that, either. Tell me, if you don't find a suitable trade item in the geocache for stamping in with, does that ruin the fun?

I get a big kick out of pawing through the trinkets in a geocache and finding the most stampable object.

Hah! Yeah, I guess I can see that. I still don't see why you'd log it as an unlisted find on AQ, though.

As far as "Other" "unlisted finds" go, if people want to list the number of cacheboxes, coke cans, coyotes, or aliens they find, what do I care? It's all in fun and doesn't count for anything.

Agreed. I just hoped someone would explain why anyone would find this fun.

Of course, if you find any aliens, I do hope you log the find. And perhaps post a photo.

Wow, what a discussion.

I never thought of stamping a trinket. My kids will love it.

Fun? Yeah, it's all about the fun.

We log caches on geocaching.com though.

I personally find letterboxing more challenging and rewarding than geocaching. At least for now anyway. And I'm just starting in both.

Just my 2 pennies.

Eleazar
Taekwondo Clan

Why would anyone log a cachebox find?

And again, why do people log anything? You can if you want, you don't if you don't. Simple enough. I don't understand why people want to log, e.g., virtuals. I don't care if or why they do though.

Tell me, if you don't find a suitable trade item in the geocache for stamping in with, does that ruin the fun?

I've never found anything no suitable. Found one that didn't have anything particularly interesting but then again, I've found letterboxes without a particularly interesting stamp.

I log my cache finds on geocaching.com. I consider it a "find" if I find it, whether I was intentionally hunting it or not (usually not). I also ink something up & stamp it in my logbook, the same way I would take the image of the stamp in a letterbox I found, as a visual record of the find. Commemorating the event, as it were. I carve "cacheboxing stamps" to leave as trade items--just small ones, like a geometric pattern or a doodle.

Sheba

I carve "cacheboxing stamps" to leave as trade items--just small ones, like a geometric pattern or a doodle.

Interesting. I'd be a bit worried about giving geocachers the impression that the stamps in letterboxes aren't worth finding, they're just small ones, like a geometric pattern or a doodle. OTOH, I certainly couldn't see carving a top-notch stamp just to leave in a geocache as a trade item.

Of course, I've never even come close to not having trade items for geocaches. I think I'm approaching 1000 geocache finds, and my collection of tradable items is larger than ever -- something like three grocery bags full.

I carve "cacheboxing stamps" to leave as trade items--just small ones, like a geometric pattern or a doodle.

Could that lead to more confusion when cachers find a real letterbox? "Gee, another stamp to trade, just like the cache I found last week!"

I carve "cacheboxing stamps" to leave as trade items--just small ones, like a geometric pattern or a doodle.

Could that lead to more confusion when cachers find a real letterbox? "Gee, another stamp to trade, just like the cache I found last week!"

You just hit the nail square on the head!

*S

I've never even come close to not having trade items for geocaches. I think I'm approaching 1000 geocache finds, and my collection of tradable items is larger than ever -- something like three grocery bags full.

Just a question here, would it not be considered kosher to only have one item for trading? ie: find one item and trade it for an item in cache #1, then leave the cache #1 item for and item in cache #2? or, is that discouraged in a similar way to how LBers encourage each other to hand-carve stamps instead of using store-bought?

Just wondering,
HPL

I'm not a geocacher.......that said, I think that some of these have a theme that your one trinket may not fit in with. Just my thoughts.......Y~K b

Just a question here, would it not be considered kosher to only have one item for trading? ie: find one item and trade it for an item in cache #1, then leave the cache #1 item for and item in cache #2?

You can do that, but there's rarely any reason to. You don't have to trade at all. If there's nothing in the cache that you'd like to have, just TNLNSL.

There are some few exceptions. I've found relatively new geocaches that are filled with dozens of the same trade item, like a toy duck or something. In these cases, it's nice to take one -- or a handful -- to leave off at other geocaches while dropping off several different trade items in this geocache. That's presuming, of course, that the placer isn't running a toy duck theme here.

We do find a surprising number of things we actually want, although to be honest that's largely because we've adopted the policy that if we can use the object at all, we take it. SWMBO likes those little bottles of hand sanitizer, so sometimes we'll take one of those.

We also sometimes take trade items because they don't really fit in the cache. Nothing worse than a trade item that prevents the lid from closing right, but yes, some geocachers do such things.

We also sometimes take trade items to fix them. Like toys that are serviceable but dirty, nobody would want them as is. We might trade for them, take them home, clean them up, put them in a baggie to keep them from getting dirty again, and drop them off in some other cache.

Finally, we also sometimes take items just to throw them out. Things that are left in poor taste, or are inappropriate for young finders, or are just too old and deteriorated for anyone to possibly want any more.

But it's relatively rare that I won't drop off a trade item, even if I don't take one. I just have so many, and they seem to multiply like rabbits.

Let's face it, this is ALL a very silly hobby, no matter how we to choose to do it.

You truly don't understand what we think of boxing!

It is a nice surprise finding a geocache which includes an object that can be added to one's logbook

Difference is your supposed to put something of greater or equal value back into the geo's box when you take something out.

Difference is your supposed to put something of greater or equal value back into the geo's box when you take something out.

From what I can tell by the caches I've found, that doesn't happen. Either that, or what was put in originally was even worse junk. I usually see pencils, couple of stuffed McD's toys (that smell of mold), and every now and then I find a travel bug. I was in the Target dollar section one day and overheard the following conversation:

Lady 1: Hey look at these glow bracelets!
Lady 2: I have enough glow bracelets.
Lady 1: Yea but they are 20 for a dollar! That would make a good geocache item right?
Lady 2: Oh, you're right! (goes to inspect the glow bracelets)

And that about sums up the trinkets in geocaches in our area, which is a big reason I don't do it.

And that about sums up the trinkets in geocaches in our area, which is a big reason I don't do it.

If you're even looking at the trinkets, you don't understand what geocaching is all about.

That said, I stumbled upon one area -- Gainesville, FL -- where it has somehow become SOP to enclose every trade item in its own baggie. The results are simply wonderful. First off, nothing gets musty and moldy in a cache; everything looks new, even items that aren't new. Even compared to unbaggied trade items in perfect condition, there's just something more acceptable and attractive about items that are carefully packaged.

But the bigger effect seems to be that if the item isn't worth a baggie (!) then it's not worth leaving in a geocache. Just throw it away if you don't feel like springing for the 2 cents it costs to put it in a baggie.

I tell ya, geocaching in that area gives one a whole new perspective. I thought it was so great that I posted a suggestion on the geocaching forums that the suggestion of putting every trade item in its own baggie be made worldwide -- and you woulda thought I had suggested that everyone start shooting at the Pope. I mean, irate responses ranging from wasting natural resources on plastic baggies to draining people's bank accounts to pay for all these baggies.

Still, I do it unilaterally. If I'm dropping off an item, it's almost always in its own baggie, and sometimes I'll trade items just to replace an unbaggied item with a baggied item.

From what I can tell by the caches I've found, that doesn't happen. ... And that about sums up the trinkets in geocaches in our area, which is a big reason I don't do it.

But I don't go for the trades. I'll occasionally find something I want to trade, and I trade up. I enjoy the fun of the hunt.