For me disappointment of cache contents sunk in on my third find - a 2 mile hike that was very beautiful and ended with a jar with mainly business cards. I realized at that point that for me geocaching is really about the trip to the cache. Now I rarely even look in the container - usually other people with me do that and if they want something then I leave something. I think that wanting to replace junk in caches is a great idea, but you will end up replacing the contents of most caches you find, which I can imagine will become tiring fast. These are the personal rules I use: - always trade up - take nothing and put several things in particularly sorry looking caches - look at the scenery more than the GPS display :) If someone told me that one of my caches was mostly full of junk, then I would plan a quick trip to it to replace the contents. So I suggest if you find junk then let the cache owner know. I believe it is part of the maintenance. For example, I had a state quarter trading cache. Someone recorded in the log that they took a quarter and left an italian bank note. While I appriciate that they left some currency, it was "junk" as far as the theme of the cache was concerned. I hiked to the cache and removed it and left some more quarters. I understand however that kids are probably more interested in the cache contents. Andy -----Original Message----- From: az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com [mailto:az-geocaching-admin@listserv.azgeocaching.com]On Behalf Of Steven Stringham Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 6:52 AM To: listserv@azgeocaching.com Subject: [Az-Geocaching] Cache contents Rant I love the trading aspect of this game. I am really curious as to what others see as valid things to "trade" in a cache. While not all the things I put in a cache are really useful, at least they are not (in my humble opionion) pure junk. A marble in a micro, for example is fine. I also like to see personalized cards. Dollar stores are my friend. My kids have taken to collecting some of the items found in caches (my oldest daughter has started a keychain collection - and has found some interesting ones!) And, I try to make sure that I don't trade down. Some stuff is just cool (the navy lanyards from Team AZCOWilliams). I love these kind of trademark items. Or the Team sanddollar's token. Other stuff is great too. I have taken some items from caches and turned them into travel bugs. I love it. But, I have seen some really junky stuff in some caches. What the heck are some people thinking when they put a used movie ticket or a used gift card in a cache? Or broken parts of some old electronics? This is what I have found in caches recently. I really don't get it. Do they really think that somebody will want a used movie ticket to some third rate movie from months ago? I have seen logs of others that say they have "cleaned out a cache" and replenished it, because the contents were so under par. I should have done this on these, but I was low on cache stuff. So, I ended up TN/LN/SL. Are others surprised by these kind of items as well? Should I have at least cleaned out the junk, so that the next person didn't have to? StringCachers Steven Stringham ----------------------------------------- http://stringham-family.org/ ____________________________________________________________ Az-Geocaching mailing list listserv@azgeocaching.com To edit your setting, subscribe or unsubscribe visit: http://listserv.azgeocaching.com/mailman/listinfo/az-geocaching Arizona's Geocaching Resource http://www.azgeocaching.com