Should you let yourself be interviewed by your local newspaper?

[Sandman]

Everyone wants to be reconized and have praise heaped on them. Being interviewed by the local newspaper brings attention to yourself and not all of it good. It is nice to put the hobby in a good light and tell why we like to return class rings and such to the owners that lost them. But you are letting everyone and their slime ball brother know that you find gold. If they don't knock down your door, they can follow you waiting for their chance to take your goodies and detector too.

What do you think?

 

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[Casull]

I think I agree. For the reason you cited, but even more so because I don't trust the press.

 

[ivan salis]

---getting "press" is dual edged sword ---I have long been trying to put a positive spin on the hobby to fight the idea that we are all just "greedy grubbers"---and "history wreckers"---that is often put out by anti treasure hunting types and many archie types in the press---by showing some of the "good works" we do ---how the public "views" us could be very important to the future of our "hobby"---Ivan

 

[SomeGuy]

Speaking as a privacy freak, just give me the fortune, you can keep the fame.

 

[ivan salis]

very hard to keep fortune and fame apart if the "find" has any size to it--big finds sadly often require "offical" paperwork to "harvest" them--once the papers are "filed" the press is all over it and you---they will hound you night and day----"big money finds" draws the "attention" of the press like it or not folks love to hear about "money"--- frankly on a "big" find I'd love no press but that not the way things work these days---Ivan

 

[EDDE]

HOLY CRAP
SANDMAN
I'm struggling with this same issue as i type this
I've been thinking about it for a month and the interview is Friday
im so telling the truth for real,are you in the same boat

 

[jeff of pa]

After returning a class ring once, the woman contacted the Newspaper & TV Station.
when she called me & told me about the newspaper wanting
to contact me for the story, I declined, saying
I would prefer not. so the story ran saying I wanted to stay
anonymous.
later the next day a reporter turned up at the lake I was searching
and asking questions about what we were finding,
and another detectorist pointed to me and told her what I found & Did,
and she came over. not wanting to be rude I told her, and it was mentioned in another article in the same paper but buried on an inside page.

about a day or 2 later the TV staion showed up,
& stuck the camera in my face so I had to talk or look
rude, but as soon as they wonderd off to another detectorist,
I packed it in & left till they did.

I didn't have any negative things happen after,
but I was uncomfortable seeing myself.

 

[Boobydoo]

Using a pen name is gives you a bit of protection.

I used a pen name when I was published in Western & Eastern Treasure magazine this Febuary for the same reasons you cite Sandman.

I guess if someone is going to follow you around and home, there's not a lot we can do to about that except maybe put all our goodies in a safe deposite box in a bank somewhere.

I have had my treasures stolen once, a home break in that cleaned me out, and it wasn't a good feeling. It's unfortunate that there are opportunistic people in this world that prey on others to benefit themselves.

All the best to you Sandman!

Smiles!
BDoo

 

[jeff of pa]

one thing I have going for me is

I live in a town called Joliett.

The post office is closed years ago &
Now it is in Tremont

almost all detectorists I know met me at a lake
in Pine Grove.

So most of the articles say I'm from Tremont,
but a couple said Pine Grove.

Makes it harder to narrow me down

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Press or anyone else is welcome to come
on down to Shermanville, anytime

all have a good un......
SHERMANVILLE

 

[Rob in KS]

I like to stay low key too, but my interview comes out this week. I had to think about it for a while. Its a REALLY small town paper, so I'm only getting local publicity. You would have to think carefully about your situation, size of the paper,etc.

My reasoning is that it will give me some credibility, and an "pre" introduction to local landowners. I kept the conversation to meteorites, relic and coin hunting. I purposely didn't mention treasure hunting. Its mainly about my big detector and that I built it to find meteorites and how it ends up being a great relic machine. I took a 5 gal bucket of rusty iron to the interview.

I'll bet I'm the topic of conversation at the cafe and the hardware store for a while.

I can hand the landowner a copy when I talk to him. I think it helps give the impression that even though I might be nuts, I'm not a thief casing their place. It also tells them that I'm a local guy. I think these things will help open some doors.

I'm not too worried about some stealing my pile of scrap iron

I got a plug in at the end of the article for T-Net. I'll post it when it comes out.

 

[EDDE]

My reasoning is that it will give me some credibility, and an "pre" introduction to local landowners. I kept the conversation to meteorites, relic and coin hunting.

I can hand the landowner a copy when I talk to him. I think it helps give the impression that even though I might be nuts, I'm not a thief casing their place. It also tells them that I'm a local guy. I think these things will help open some doors.

thats part of my reasoning
but in the back of my mind
i can see some low life thinking that i have 1000s of dollars of stuff laying around

 

[EDDE]

My reasoning is that it will give me some credibility, and an "pre" introduction to local landowners. I kept the conversation to meteorites, relic and coin hunting.

I can hand the landowner a copy when I talk to him. I think it helps give the impression that even though I might be nuts, I'm not a thief casing their place. It also tells them that I'm a local guy. I think these things will help open some doors.

thats part of my reasoning

Go for it! Throw in a plug for TreasureNet while you're at it

maybe if i get a charter membership tossed my way

 

[mastereagle22]

We had a local that was interviewed about all the stuff he had found over the years.

One night, while he was away on vacation, someone broke in, stole all his stuff his machines and everything.

No thank you on the interviews!

 

[treasuredog]

I found a ladies class ring after 26 years. I got hold of her through a fellow class mate on classmates.com. She called one of the local tv stations and I agreed to a interview. They came to my house and then we all met at the park where she lost the ring. They did a nice story and there was no bad feedback from it. I enjoyed seeing myself on tv and to see that get her ring back was all worth it. She took me and my wife out for dinner. It was a very pleasant experience all the way around!!

 

[lucky1777]

Wow, seems like a lot of paranoia on here. How hard would it be to say "I finally found a ring and had the opportunity to return it". "This is a very rare find and I hope to one day to be able to do it again." Or, "I don't really find anything of value, but I have removed sharp pieces of metal and other bad things from some parks." Don't go on bragging about your finds or how much your detector costs. I constantly read on this site how someone is putting this hobby in a bad light. Now given the opportunity to show the good things we do, we would rather run and hide. We cant have it both ways, I would say go for it.

 

[SomeGuy]

Yeah, well we know you're an exibitionist!

 

[urbss]

Wow, seems like a lot of paranoia on here. How hard would it be to say "I finally found a ring and had the opportunity to return it". "This is a very rare find and I hope to one day to be able to do it again." Or, "I don't really find anything of value, but I have removed sharp pieces of metal and other bad things from some parks." Don't go on bragging about your finds or how much your detector costs. I constantly read on this site how someone is putting this hobby in a bad light. Now given the opportunity to show the good things we do, we would rather run and hide. We cant have it both ways, I would say go for it.

I agree with the above!!

Besides, there was a post on here not that long ago about getting business cards made up, that too is advertising yourself (although maybe not to as large of an audience).

I would think that doing an interview might actually open up doors that might otherwise never have opened.

Just my two cents.

 

[zlathim]

Wow, seems like a lot of paranoia on here. How hard would it be to say "I finally found a ring and had the opportunity to return it". "This is a very rare find and I hope to one day to be able to do it again." Or, "I don't really find anything of value, but I have removed sharp pieces of metal and other bad things from some parks." Don't go on bragging about your finds or how much your detector costs. I constantly read on this site how someone is putting this hobby in a bad light. Now given the opportunity to show the good things we do, we would rather run and hide. We cant have it both ways, I would say go for it.

Well stated!!