Today I intended to get a letterbox while driving back from a business meeting. I pulled into the car park and the attendant appeared and asked for a FIVE POUNDS parking fee. Replying that I had only intended to stay for 30 minutes I immediately turned around and drove off. Planning to stop by another day when I had more time, find somewhere I could park for free and hike in.

It was only when I was nearly back at the office that I thought that the cost was maybe not too unreasonable after all. In the past I have driven a round trip of 100 miles to get two boxes. Allow 25p per mile as running expenses for the car (well that's what I can claim from work), plus £3 entry fee, works out as £14.00 (nearly $28) per letterbox. Makes £5 seem quite cheap!

So, what is the most anyone will admit to spending to find a box?

DM

So, what is the most anyone will admit to spending to find a box?

I spent nearly $1,000 to go to Dartmoor and get the Cranmere Pool letterbox. =)

-- Ryan

I spent nearly $1,000 to go to Dartmoor and get the Cranmere Pool letterbox. =) <?quote>


Well, that's hard to beat.

The most we've spent was the admission fee for 4 people to Dinosaur World in Ky.

We spent $1300 to go to Grand Cayman to find a box that was hurricaned away. :-( or gone by construction.

but I guess I have to admit, looking for the box wasnt the only reason we went on the trip.

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So, what is the most anyone will admit to spending to find a box?

Well.......We just took the family of four on a cruise to the Bahamas. Found and planted a box there.
That was the highlight of the trip for me! Total - (Round trip airfare MA-->FL + Cruise tickets + expenses) X 4 = OUCH!!! It was fun though! :o)

Next planned "expensive find/plant" - Bermuda next month! $$$$$
What could be better than fishing and letterboxing for our 20th Anniversary?
(Well, we have THAT planned too!)

The Merry Pranksters

We just took the family of four on a cruise to the Bahamas.

You know, I don't think trips where you happened to find letterboxes count as how much you spent to find a letterbox. If there were no letterboxes in the Bahamas, would you still have gone? If the answer is yes, you can't really include the travel expenses as part of finding the box. The actual cost is from your hotel (where you would have been anyhow) to the park with the letterbox. If you were going to travel anyhow, it's not part of the expenses in finding the box.

Granted, I threw out the cost of my trip to Dartmoor, but we went there specifically because of letterboxes, and the Cranmere Pool box in particular. Had letterboxing not started there, we would never have gone. I probably wouldn't have even heard of Dartmoor before. The number one reason for going to Dartmoor was to find that Cranmere Pool letterbox.

I signed up for the letterboxing cruise with Mark and Sue, but I wouldn't include that as the cost of finding a letterbox. I want to do the cruise because I think it'll be fun, I'll get to visit the Bahamas (which I've never been to before), and perhaps have a bunch of friends around to hang out with. =) I might find letterboxes on the trip, but that's just a bonus. I wouldn't include the cost of the trip as an expense to find the box.

-- Ryan

Um, Ryan, I think you're going to Bermuda, not the Bahamas.

DebBee

Um, Ryan, I think you're going to Bermuda, not the Bahamas.

Bermuda, Bahamas, what's the difference? I've never been to either of them before and they both sound like fun. =)

-- Ryan

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Bermuda, Bahamas, what's the difference?

Might as well throw Barbados in there, too, then. <g>

DebBee

Bermuda, Bahamas, what's the difference?

Anyone else's brain immediately go to a Beach Boys song there? :)

TG

$13.50 entry fee for five to a conservation area, plus an hour's worth of gas.

$34 for two hours and two canoes (since there are six of us!) down the Hillsborough River specifically to get a box.
Letterboxing is why we rented the canoes and we loved it so much and were so happy to find that all of our four children did so well that we plan on doing more canoeing, boxes or no boxes. There's something about having a box at the end of the road that has brought us to so many places we might have put off!! So the money was definitely worth it!!!

't'
dtandfambly

Sorry guys, my most expensive find is about $5.00. At the end of July I plan to have boxes planted in five states and one in Honduras (already planted). I was just introduced to letterboxing in January 2007. I just think its kinda fun to plant them where I'm going for other reasons anyhoo. Just call me Mr Cheapo ;-)

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I think you're going to Bermuda,

Is that really the best place to go letterboxing?
I mean, with that whole Burmuda Triangle thing and all.

We spent about $1000.00 going to Quebec but we were going there anyway, does that count??

Let me start off by saying that I realize this doesn't quite fit the "criteria", but...
I'd have to say that my first box was my most expensive find because that started an addiction that has caused me to spend all kinds of money on hiking boots, Lock n Locks, rubber, postage, fuel, a GPS and so forth. Granted, most of that is extras and not truly necessary to the hobby. But what a hobby! It would be cheap at twice the price.
Nitrocat

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I think you're going to Bermuda,

Is that really the best place to go letterboxing?
I mean, with that whole Burmuda Triangle thing and all.

Hmmmm ... is that where all those missing boxes go??!?

Oh, and the socks?? ;-)

Actually $1000 to find 3 boxes because my car was broken into in the parking lot (total to fix car and stuff lost inside).

Admittedly I did not spend it knowingly :-)

What about all the people who have trekked across the sea to find boxes ....

Well, I think the most (time and money) Atom and I have spent on boxes doesn't so much point to one box as it does to doing a series of boxes... People in the Great Lakes region know, but for those of you outside the GL area: The Dragon (with the help of other boxers in the region) organized a series of boxes based on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (MPHG) -- these boxes are listed on LbNA. The quest involves finding 40 boxes plus a HH, located all throughout the Great Lake states (OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, and MN). Each box has a portion of a code, so when you find all 40 boxes plus the HH, you can deceipher and have the clue to the location of THE HOLY GRAIL letterbox. Factoring in all the driving and several overnight stays, I'd say this series ranks pretty high on the time/money spent on letterboxing scale!

But it's loads of fun. :)
Coffee Beans

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I'd have to say that my first box was my most expensive find because that started an addiction that has caused me to spend all kinds of money on hiking boots, Lock n Locks, rubber, postage, fuel, a GPS and so forth. Granted, most of that is extras and not truly necessary to the hobby. But what a hobby! It would be cheap at twice the price.

Same here, I now have an extensive supply of plastic containers, I save every piece of cereal-box-type cardboard I use, I save anything that a letterbox POSSIBLY could be placed in (prescription containers, Yankee candle jars, etc), I make purchases based on containers (I ONLY buy Sucret's throat lozenges now :D), most of my paycheck goes to Stampeaz for PZ Kut..... I can't even total up how much I've spent since January when I started! :D

-gollygee

Me, too, Coffee Beans!

My mom and I have driven all over and we're just about ready to plan one last trip -- for the HOLY GRAIL! ;)

LG.

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$34 for two hours and two canoes (since there are six of us!) down the Hillsborough River specifically to get a box.

We should have gone back and done the two hours, we did one hour (as noted in the clues) and were just not speedy enough paddlers to get to the box, so money spent, fun had, awesome photographs of alligators, turtles and other wild life *the real FLORIDA* but no box, bummer? NOT at all!
Ruth
six stars