What to do with high SWAG

[Jack_Dullahan]

I really have no idea how this works and I couldn't find anything about this.I was lurking and I've seen people have found some really cool stuff (like GPS systems and gift cards) say you find somthing like a $100 bill or a GPS system,how exactly do you trade for that?

(I know with trading for the most part you trade equal or greater value)I just have no idea what to do if you fin somthing so high valued

Edited July 22, 2014 by Jack_Dullahan

[+TriciaG]

You either trade something that's even higher valued, or you leave that expensive swag in the cache.

 

Or you steal it, I suppose. But I don't recommend that.

[+Touchstone]

Link for reference:

 

Are there rules?

[+The_Incredibles_]

Your chance of finding something like that is so low, you don't need to worry about it.

Mostly, you should expect to find swag of very low value, like little broken toy cars or business cards or rocks. On the rare chance that you found something worth $100+, you would need to trade equal or up. If you didn't have anything of equal value, then you would just leave it in the cache. Remember, trading is optional.

 

As for money, you might get a $10 gift card, say, for a FTF prize, but being that it's as prize, there would be no need to trade.

Edited July 22, 2014 by The_Incredibles_

[+Semper Questio]

sorry. wrong thread.

 

OK, now that I've read THIS thread.

 

If the better SWAG is labelled as a prize or gift and you qualify for it (FTF or whatever), take it. It's yours. Otherwise; trade even, trade up, or leave it be.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Semper Questio

[+niraD]

I once found a cache with a few truly valuable trade items (e.g., a cell phone complete with charger and accessory kit in the box). Since I never carry anything to trade for valuable items like that, I left it be.

[+kunarion]

(I know with trading for the most part you trade equal or greater value)I just have no idea what to do if you fin somthing so high valued

If finders were truly trading "up or even", caches would always have valuable stuff inside. As mentioned, this is almost never a "problem".

 

If you take anything, please log that you did so, regardless whether or not you fairly trade for it. In fact, if you take a $100 bill and place $100+ worth of nice things, it's best to not mention what you placed, to prevent the container form being immediately raided. For this reason, in the case of the $100 bill, there tends to be no log stating it was placed. I once placed a nice unactivated Geocoin, and no log was ever made that the coin was taken. I included a note in the coin flip to "pay it forward". So that's what you can do.

 

Try not to remove value from the game. If you take $100, place $100 worth of items in caches, not necessarily in just that one cache. You may own or you may buy things at a bargain, and the value could even increase. People have custom metal Swag coins made, and the coins cost less than a dollar to make, but they're extremely valuable to finders (you couldn't buy the coin from the finder for a dollar).

 

Many cache finders have the amazing ability to rationalize away the fact that they remove value from the game. Don't be those guys.

Edited July 22, 2014 by kunarion

[+Chief301]

For the most part you REALLY won't need to worry about finding $100 value items in most caches. It's mostly stuff that folks salvage from their junk drawers at home, used toys, or inexpensive trinkets from the dollar store. And of course, it's not required to trade anything....mostly kids enjoy the trading and "treasure" part of the game. It's OK to just sign the log and claim the find.

 

Of course, some folks also like to sweeten the cache with fresh, inexpensive swag without taking anything.

[Jack_Dullahan]

Ah thank you all for the help [].i realize the odds are low but I figure better safe than sorry that if I find it i want to know what to do,thank you all

[+GeoTrekker26]

Ah thank you all for the help [].i realize the odds are low but I figure better safe than sorry that if I find it i want to know what to do,thank you all

 

I see you are in NV. The odds of finding "high swag" are so low they make the Keno game seem like a sure winner.

[Jack_Dullahan]

Lol fair enough XD i figure better safe than sorry if I did sumpin

[+WarNinjas]

I am a strong believer of trading up or at least even! I often drop a bunch of swagg off and hardly ever take anything. However I doubt if someone left a item worth over $100 that there intention is for it to be traded for with something over $100. I would think it is more of they wanted to give it out. Probably a FTF prize or something. Or my crazy nephew who might do something like that and just want to see something cool written in the log.

I am in no way saying to take it and not leave something of equal value but I can't see it as what the person who left it is expecting. Otherwise they will probably be disappointed.

[+Pork King]

There used to be cacher around here (and I'm sure there are many like him) who thought that taking a $5 item and leaving $5.25 worth of 25 cent toys was trading up.

[+cheech gang]

There used to be cacher around here (and I'm sure there are many like him) who thought that taking a $5 item and leaving $5.25 worth of 25 cent toys was trading up.

 

I am baffled by this even being an issue.

[+briansnat]

It's unlikely that you will find such valuable items, but if you do I doubt anyone expects geocachers to be carrying around an exchange item worth $100 so feel free to trade for it. Just try to leave something decent in return, not junk.

 

I recall someone put an almost new GPS in one of my caches. He used it a few times and didn't like it. The thing sat there for through many finds and I guess everyone was afraid to take it and not leave a like valued item. I finally pleaded on the cache page for someone to take it and someone eventually did and left a very nice trade item in return, but not worth anywhere near what the GPS was worth. I was fine with that, the person who left the GPS was totally cool with it because he had no expectation of an even trade in that case.

[+briansnat]

As I mentioned it's rare, but I recall a small group of cacher hiders who operated under one account in the Washington and British Columbia area. They placed caches with either very high terrain or difficulty ratings and stocked them with new GPS units, digital cameras, hundreds of dollars of cash and other expensive items. Again there was no expectation of an even trade.

 

I wonder whatever happened to those guys.

[+TriciaG]

As I mentioned it's rare, but I recall a small group of cacher hiders who operated under one account in the Washington and British Columbia area. They placed caches with either very high terrain or difficulty ratings and stocked them with new GPS units, digital cameras, hundreds of dollars of cash and other expensive items. Again there was no expectation of an even trade.

 

I wonder whatever happened to those guys.

They went broke?

[+The_Incredibles_]

As I mentioned it's rare, but I recall a small group of cacher hiders who operated under one account in the Washington and British Columbia area. They placed caches with either very high terrain or difficulty ratings and stocked them with new GPS units, digital cameras, hundreds of dollars of cash and other expensive items. Again there was no expectation of an even trade.

 

I wonder whatever happened to those guys.

 

You're talking about "the Team" or "the eXtreme GPS Team". Some of their caches were difficult and time-consuming, however many were simple and easy to get to. They were wealthy (obviously) and were very generous with FTF prizes and swag. They actually *did* have an expectation of even trading (except for FTF prizes). One of the reasons they quit putting caches out was going to do maintenance checks and finding nothing but junk. The other reason they quit was because they had many creative things they wanted to do and felt restricted by the rules.

 

When they'd finished hiding caches, they left them out, completely unmaintained. It made a real mess in my area. Myself and others have gone out to retrieve archived containers because they never cleaned up after themselves. Finally, they archived all their caches, then Groundspeak made an exception and allowed us to adopt them, which we did. Some never got adopted and are still out there. I maintain have a bookmark list of these.

 

They continued doing contests, for years, based off of another website, doing the kinds of things they wanted, without the restrictions from Groundspeak. Yes, there was big $$$ to be made in these contests, although they often required traveling long distances and buying equipment like metal detectors. If you ask people who did them, they said even with the big prizes, they spent more than they made, in the end.

 

They stopped doing contests about 1 year ago, due to unspecified reasons. It seems to me the team CO had some health problems - issues with his spine. Maybe that was the reason or maybe they just got bored. The contests seemed to be funded by another wealthy guy, who apparently had money to burn and found the contests amusing.