Travel Bug recovery

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:46 pm

I've been having this problem and I need some help. Quite a few of my travel bugs have been picked up, logged, but never moved. I contact these people repeatedly. First e-mail is simple and to the point... please get my TB moving. After about three e-mails, I get desperate and start to bend the truth.
This travel bug was given to me by my grandmother on her death bed. Her final wish was to see this beanie baby placed in Tupperware in the woods.
Does anyone have any better ideas than mine? The Dead Grandmother thing never seems to work Shocked

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Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:20 pm

Nope; some people just suck rocks. I have written a couple of mine off at this point.

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:37 pm

You can try emailing them with the offer of sending them the postage it would cost to mail it back to you. OR better yet send them a self addressed mailer with the postage attached. I sure wouldn't give up. I hope these help.

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:09 pm

Tell them that your cousin Vinnie from the lower east side wants to make them a deal.

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:15 pm

I have to disagree with Benny - this is a hopeless situation. If one or two e-mails do not work, nothing will.

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:38 pm

I have tried repeatedly also with no results. Ticked me off with a cache down in Florida.. I put my BunnyFuFu TB I got from T&tb and the cache supposedly went missing which I relaly doubt, but the owner never went to check and if it were there I wanted the TB back. Short drive with the NUTZ wagon on that issue.

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:25 pm

My very first TB that I released was picked up by a cacher with one cache find. He was the third cacher to pick up the TB. He has not logged in since 01/04/07. So this guy decides to go to the cache that has my TB, take it and never look for another cache.

What a bummer. I had read stories about missing TB's and had second thoughts about releasing one. Certainly not a very good experience.

The TB has a whopping 17 miles on it and now it is gone. I have sent him two very nice e-mails about a month apart with no response. I have written this one off and think I will release a new one on the copy tag.

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:48 am

Fu, I'm sure you'd be more than ticked if your "other" TB went missing. Shocked

WGA Member Joined: 2004-09-19 Posts: 473

I've had several that people have picked up and never dropped again. One guy replied to an e-mail I sent him saying, he lost it somewhere and he didn't have time to look for it. Another guy is holding my Buzzy Bear TB hostage in Denmark for over a year and refuses to part with him. I also have one that was picked up by a young guy whom I actually met on the trails. He only found about 5 caches when he picked up my TB and hasn't placed it yet. This seems discouraging, but I have also had a TB turn up after being missing for a year. So, I have hope yet.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:02 am

There are so many missing or just being held that it might be easier to ask "Who has never had a TB lost or held captive?".

Confused

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:41 am

PCFrog wrote:

There are so many missing or just being held that it might be easier to ask "Who has never had a TB lost or held captive?".

Confused

I was informed just yesterday that another of mine has gone AWOL....it happens; write them off and move on.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:57 am

PCFrog wrote:

There are so many missing or just being held that it might be easier to ask "Who has never had a TB lost or held captive?".

Confused

I sent out one of my first coins in January and the first people to the cache (3 days later) said the coin wasn't in the cache! What a bummer. I have since sent out 7 or 8 coins and they are moving fine. That experience almost kept me from sending out more coins.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:59 am

PCFrog wrote:

There are so many missing or just being held that it might be easier to ask "Who has never had a TB lost or held captive?".

Confused

I Have all my TB's still traveling. Of course I only have 2 out there and I just released them this year.

Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:47 pm

I have had travelers - both TBs and coins - disappear into the hands of unscrupulous cachers, and also have had the bad luck of having them in caches when they are muggled. On the other hand, I have some - all coins BTW - that have traveled far more extensively than I have. Best example is a Caught Red Handed coin currently in Australia.

I try to track them down when they go missing. Usually (but not always) an email reply from the holder is a good sign that the bug will get moving again. And usually (but not always) no reply means you should probably write it off. But never lose hope - they occasionally can turn up again.