So what really counts as a find? Is it finding the stamp, box or both? Typically you find the box and stamp which is easy to determine.

However what about the following scenarios:

Scenario A You find the empty box or with the dreaded GeoCache trinket.

Scenario B You find a box (can feel or see it and sure it is what you seek) but couldn't retrieve it from it's hiding place. Could be too far into a hole or has fallen farther into the tree opening etc... .

On both counts I definitely let the owner know but should it count as a find?

I like what dingus dufus has said about this question:

Pressing the image into your logbook and your trail stamp into the box logbook were originally meant to be conformation of a successful hunt.

https://www.atlasquest.com/boards/messages.php?startId=925472;authorId=4207;typeId=8

I would count both of your scenarios as attempted. I agree with the above comment.. stamp in book is mission accomplished. My stamp doesn't necessarily have to be in the box's logbook, but the box stamp has to be in mine.

What to do if stamp image on the letterbox logbook is completely different from the image on the stamp that now resides in the letterbox, as if the stamp has been swapped out? We ran into this situation at Walden Pond--counted it and notified owner but never heard back.

Weird. I wonder if someone left their sig stamp by mistake?

I guess I'd count that as a find!

What to do if stamp image on the letterbox logbook is completely different from the image on the stamp that now resides in the letterbox, as if the stamp has been swapped out? We ran into this situation at Walden Pond--counted it and notified owner but never heard back.

I've seen some replacement stamps that were completely unrelated store-bought stamps that a letterboxer obviously left in there without permission from the owner. In those cases, I didn't count it.

Scenario A You find the empty box or with the dreaded GeoCache trinket.

I don't count it.

Scenario B You find a box (can feel or see it and sure it is what you seek) but couldn't retrieve it from it's hiding place. Could be too far into a hole or has fallen farther into the tree opening etc... .

I don't count it. However, I once found a box with the stamp in it, but the stamp, which I could see, was encased in ice. I didn't want to harm the stamp by trying to remove the ice, but I did count that one!

I ran into this situation once. A stamp had been missing from a series and then I saw it was being recorded as a find. I went to check it out and someone and placed a stamp where there were clues indicated for the missing stamp but obviously it didn't fit the theme of the series. I counted it as a unlisted find.

Scenario A You find the empty box or with the dreaded GeoCache trinket.

I've heard tell of some who just ink up the geotrash they find in the box and stamp in with that--once I found a box with a pinecone in it and was sorely tempted.

Yes! I got mild revenge over a travel bug I found in one of my boxes by featuring it in is own box for an event. Everyone inked the harmonica trinket and stamped it. It looked like staves (sorta), so I added notes and called it Blow Me. Naturally.

I believe an innocent noxer got black lips doing just that. Fun all around.

disclaimer: No cachers were harmed in the making of this box. I cleaned it up and sent it w/ a cacher to be put out of my misery in a GC somewhere.

This has happened to us too! I only knew it was the wrong stamp because I had found the HH previously and stamped it! Contacted the owner and no response..... so send the wrong stamp in the HH or wait?!

So what really counts as a find? Is it finding the stamp, box or both?

I've always thought that it is finding (and exchanging) the stamp (image).

Remember the first letterbox had no stamp at all.
Still, I feel cheated when I find a letterbox without the stamp, although some of my best letterboxing experiences have ended up with no stamp to show for the effort.

Scenario A You find the empty box or with the dreaded GeoCache trinket.

I don't count it.

I once had a letterboxer tell me that he found one of my boxes that had clearly been geotrashed, stamp was gone and a whole collection of knickknacks left in its place. One of the knickknacks was a rubber snake. So he carefully inked up the belly of the rubber snake and stamped it into his log book. He was proud of this innovation.

I once found a box with its correct log book, but the stamp had been replaced by a piece of T-bone (yes, you heard that right). I inked it up and stamped it in my own log book.

So he carefully inked up the belly of the rubber snake and stamped it into his log book.

After hiking a long ways, and looking hard for a particular box, I found it with nothing inside but the logbook and a little plastic cow (wrapped in the inky felt that once protected a stamp). I was unwilling to leave without the find, so I inked that cow up, and stamped it in my logbook. And yes, I recorded the find.

I agree with pretty much everything that has been said so far—if you don’t find the stamp then it’s not a find. How about when you’re looking for a box that should have a container, logbook, and stamp, but some violent act occurred and all that’s left is the stamp? That’s a find in my book.

Many years ago we found a series where the covers had hand-carved stamps but the stamps in the boxes were store-bought. I sent the owner an email but never heard back about it. Several years later I met the planters and found out that they never carved stamps but instead purchased stamps. So my assumption now is that the boxes did originally have hand-carved stamps but a geocacher took those so the planter did the best they could by purchasing store-bought stamps that fit the theme of the series. About a year later I carved a stamp for them and they were very appreciative.

We actually crossed a "fire zone, do not enter" tape line to go after a 55 Steps box in New Zealand (it wasn't far and the are had started to recover from the fire).

Box was melted so we took the entire thing with an eye towards pulling the stamp out and replanting with a new box (assuming we could). Got the stamp out but it was partially melted (hard to see the image) but we did ink it up and count the find.

Tried to notify 55 steps but she hadn't been online since before the last earthquake down there. Wound up contacting an administrator because we:
1-could tell what image we should replace it with
2-had pulled it in an attempt to do maintenance.

Admins marked the box unavailable but we still haven't heard from 55 steps.....still praying she and her family are ok.

After hiking a long ways, and looking hard for a particular box, I found it with nothing inside but the logbook and a little plastic cow (wrapped in the inky felt that once protected a stamp). I was unwilling to leave without the find, so I inked that cow up, and stamped it in my logbook. And yes, I recorded the find.

Earned your trail name that day!

(Don't ask about ours)

I can see a box "found" only with the logbook if there is a clear image of the stamp in the logbook. With the wonderful use of technology; a cell phone that is, one can take a picture of the image stamped within the logbook. Then one can comfortably go home, print the photo, cut it out and glue it into ones logbook. Voila, counted as a find. Sounds like a lot of work but works if you like crafts! ;-)

I would count both of those as a find, I just wouldn’t log them as such on AQ.

Postals, LTCs, tabletop event boxes are all about collecting stamp images. Letterboxing is about solving clues. You solved the clues, you found the box. It’s called a “find”, not a “stamped”. It’s called boxing, not stamping.

As to other situations mentioned, if a stamp has been swapped out with a different stamp, I’m also not logging that on AQ. A find on AQ is public information that implies everything was as it should be as of that date. Different people play different ways, so I’m not going to mislead anyone’s expectations.

What’s in my physical logbooks is personal. My PFX count is a representation of what I feel I have done. AQ is not, and has never claimed to be, the rules. It is one resource in a larger hobby.

K

AQ is not, and has never claimed to be, the rules.

How could that be⸘ Letterboxing can only be played one way⸘

By the way, my personal logic goes the other way, too. I’ve found a few box-of-the-months, where I walked the same trail to the same box 12 times for 12 different stamps. I logged it on AQ every month, but I personally only counted it as one find.

K

I found a box a few years ago that had the stamp, but when I tried drying off the stamp due to it being wet, it crumbled and the image was no more. I could not stamp it and I never recorded it.

when I tried drying off the stamp due to it being wet, it crumbled and the image was no more.

I’ve had nightmares like that.

However one would like to play is fine with me, log it as a find or not. However, I would sincerely appreciate it if one would comment on the status of the box for all to see.