Geo Tracking Number

[+hawaiianphatboy]

I am new to this and had a lot of fun on our first adventure today with friends and family. I noticed in one cache that there was a tag with a geotracking number on it. I have my own business, and was wondering if there is a way to make my own trackables. I don't want to spend money to purchase items with numbers on them. I am not attempting to make this an advertising adventure, but would like to create some really cool things and place them in the cache's that we find as well as the ones that we plan on placing. I would love to see where they go, and if anyone has comments about the items I place. Thanks again for the information, and for participating in what possibly may be our new weekend activity.

 

Aloha

Edited April 4, 2016 by hawaiianphatboy

[+lee737]

As far as I know - you are purchasing the number as much as anything else, so you do need to buy the tags.... then you can use that number on whatever hand-crafted trackable you want. The benefit of a proper tag is, IMO that it stands out from the swag as a trackable (in theory anyway!)...

[+T.D.M.22]

You can purchase the numbers. But if you don't want to spend the $7 or whatever it is, you won't want to pay the the numbers.

 

First you need a minimum amount of numbers (doesn't matter if younuse them all or not). And you have to pay more for custom prefixes. Special trackable images. Etc. So before you even have anything physical, you've spent about $100-200 or more.

 

Then the design has to have some stuff on it - always required is the text "trackable on geocaching.com" and then the designs have to be approved. When you buy a geocoin, up to 1/3 of the price (depending on design amd desireablity) is just numbers and such, not the actual coin.

 

So ya, it's probably better to buy a few trackables. TBs or cachekins or whatever is on sale and either use that number, or just attach it to the object you want.

[+niraD]

For reference, see the Help Center article Tracking Code Policy.

[+hawaiianphatboy]

Thanks for all the input and knowledge. Yeah I don't think I want to spend the money on items only to not use those items. Maybe I will put some facebook or other site information and something on the tag to tell people to post a pic or location of where they found it and then maybe I can track it that way. Just using social media in another manner. It is too bad that people cant just generate their own trackable numbers that can be used on this site. I would pay a little more for a full years license is I had that ability to create numbers and link them to this site. Just my opinion...maybe I will try to write an add on app for that..... oh wait, I don't have that kind of knowledge. You think anyone on Shark Tank would by that idea? lol anyway Aloha for now. and thanks again.

[+Celticsun85]

QR bar-codes work well for printed going to a webpage/facebook?

[+Walts Hunting]

Thanks for all the input and knowledge. Yeah I don't think I want to spend the money on items only to not use those items. Maybe I will put some facebook or other site information and something on the tag to tell people to post a pic or location of where they found it and then maybe I can track it that way. Just using social media in another manner. It is too bad that people cant just generate their own trackable numbers that can be used on this site. I would pay a little more for a full years license is I had that ability to create numbers and link them to this site. Just my opinion...maybe I will try to write an add on app for that..... oh wait, I don't have that kind of knowledge. You think anyone on Shark Tank would by that idea? lol anyway Aloha for now. and thanks again.

 

First there would be the issue of duplication of numbers that GS would would have to write some code to make sure it didn't occur. Then you would want the GS site to track your made up number at no charge. It is nice you would pay more for it but then there would have to be another class of member to keep track of and what happens when your membership lapses do the trackables then disappear from the site?

 

You can try the alternate method but people who have tried that haven't had much success. Most cachers I know will just ignore those because they don't want to deal with a second site. Good Luck but $7 isn't that much to pay for the service.

[+noncentric]

Thanks for all the input and knowledge. Yeah I don't think I want to spend the money on items only to not use those items. Maybe I will put some facebook or other site information and something on the tag to tell people to post a pic or location of where they found it and then maybe I can track it that way. Just using social media in another manner. It is too bad that people cant just generate their own trackable numbers that can be used on this site. I would pay a little more for a full years license is I had that ability to create numbers and link them to this site. Just my opinion...maybe I will try to write an add on app for that..... oh wait, I don't have that kind of knowledge. You think anyone on Shark Tank would by that idea? lol anyway Aloha for now. and thanks again.

 

First there would be the issue of duplication of numbers that GS would would have to write some code to make sure it didn't occur. Then you would want the GS site to track your made up number at no charge. It is nice you would pay more for it but then there would have to be another class of member to keep track of and what happens when your membership lapses do the trackables then disappear from the site?

 

You can try the alternate method but people who have tried that haven't had much success. Most cachers I know will just ignore those because they don't want to deal with a second site. Good Luck but $7 isn't that much to pay for the service.

If all you want is a number, then you can get those for $3 here. Some of the tags from 'Geocaching Road Trip 15' are on sale for only $3, and you'll get free shipping on orders over $25.

 

Each of those tags will come with a number. If you don't want to use the tags, then just use the number on the tag and put that number on whatever item you want.

 

Tracking requires resources, so I think it's fair for Groundspeak to charge something for it. YMMV.