I only retire confirmed-by-me missing boxes, but I felt I needed to retire my popular Dora series. It survived 4 years and several logbooks. I didn't want new boxers to have a negative experience with a non-maintained box on their first outing. I used to check on it twice a year, but the terrain had changed dramatically in the past year that I felt it was time. I recycled the stamps on one LTC and they are part of my Carpetbag. Retired to me means I will not be recreating the same letterbox ever again.
I have retired a couple of boxes primarily because I didn't feel the stamps -- early efforts -- were worthy of finding. I suppose that could have been checked as "making room for other boxes", but since I didn't plant any other boxes and nobody else did either, that wasn't really true.
I consider each one of my boxes an invitation to come see the place and the stamp. If neither the place nor the stamp is really worth seeing, I'll retire the box and thereby withdraw the invitation. If just the place is worth seeing but the stamp isn't, I'll retire the box and plant a replacement box in a different hide nearby.
I only retire confirmed-by-me missing boxes, but I felt I needed to retire my popular Dora series. It survived 4 years and several logbooks. I didn't want new boxers to have a negative experience with a non-maintained box on their first outing. I used to check on it twice a year, but the terrain had changed dramatically in the past year that I felt it was time. I recycled the stamps on one LTC and they are part of my Carpetbag. Retired to me means I will not be recreating the same letterbox ever again.
I have retired a couple of boxes primarily because I didn't feel the stamps -- early efforts -- were worthy of finding. I suppose that could have been checked as "making room for other boxes", but since I didn't plant any other boxes and nobody else did either, that wasn't really true.
I consider each one of my boxes an invitation to come see the place and the stamp. If neither the place nor the stamp is really worth seeing, I'll retire the box and thereby withdraw the invitation. If just the place is worth seeing but the stamp isn't, I'll retire the box and plant a replacement box in a different hide nearby.