I am trying to perfect a note telling Trackable owners that they own that number and that they can redeploy the trackable. If you see something like a note for that let me know.
Here is an article I found on how to send out a trackable again to get it back into circulation:
From: eric elya
EELYA1 @ yahoo . com
(Caching name: EXMAN )
Date: Monday, April 30, 2012, 1:00 PM
One of the very first geocaches i found had a beautiful geocoin in it.
The coin's name was Cinco Di Mayo and it was very colorful.
This is what got me hooked on 'trackables'
.
Trackables include both the Geocoins and Travel Bugs, which are aluminum 'dog tags' to which most people attach little trinkets that we call 'travelers'. Both types of trackables have a unique tracking number on them which allows all activity to be followed on-line at geocache dot com.
It sounds kind of silly for an old, retired guy, but i'd come home from caching and say "look at the jewels i found." I started planning my caching days around finding caches that 'advertised' that they had 'trackables' in them, and when i say 'advertised' i mean that the cache's inventory listed that the cache contained trackables.. I was often disappointed that some or even all of the trackables that were advertised, were not actually there.
This issue took me to the forums.where i learned that trackables were often not logged properly and were sometimes lost or even STOLEN, and that maintaining the accuracy of the inventory lists is not delegated to anyone in particular. Trying to get things changed there is a bit like beating your head against a wall, so i kind of moved on to another issue.
Trackables seem to disappear way to often and way to quickly.
An estimate is that within 1 year of release 50% of Travel Bugs are missing, and for Geocoins it's even worse. 50% of geocoins are probably gone within 6 months.
Sometimes they'll re-surface after several months and on rare occasions even after several years, but it's generally accepted that after one year the chances of it showing up again are pretty slim. Most cachers eventually give up hope and consider their trackable DEAD.
Well i'm here to tell them that they ARE NOT dead.
When you purchase a Geocoin (approx. $10.00) or a Travel Bug dog tag (approx. $5.00), part of what you pay for is that unique tracking number, and once you buy it, it's yours for life.
Why buy another coin or travel bug when you can 'rerelease' those that are missing.
It's best to wait an entire year or longer, but all you need to do is put that tracking number on something, and place it in a cache. But for whatever reason most cachers are reluctant to do this. So i thought i might help them to act on it by offering to make them a new travel tag FOR FREE. WHAT ???? YEAH, TOTALLY FREE !!
EELYA1 @ yahoo . com (Caching name: EXMAN )