Used to happen, but then I started buying my picks by the gross and now I never have a problem finding one.

I couldn't use most of the stuff you listed. I like .38mm picks. Paper thin with just enough spring. Hard to find a substitute for it actually. It's got to be 20+ years since I've had to make my own pick to play. Cheap plastic containers will work in a pinch. Now where the hell are the scissors?

i have had to use name tags or even poker chips when i go camping ive even used a twig once before

name tags, pennies, credit cards (uncut of course). like xark, i buy my picks by volume. so i never come up short, unless i deplete my wallet supply and i'm visiting the music store. i like to keep about 3 picks in my wallet at all times

I keep some of those plastic nail tips in my bathroom cabinet (the ones for making the drag queen nails for Halloween), and those do the trick. They're thin enough for even the pick-iest player (HA!), but they hold up through a good jam session. Moral of the story...buy a package of Lee Press-On Nails to keep in your bag, just in case.

i think i may have you guys beat... and disgusted.....

i was at band practice once, and there was not a pick to be found, and as i tried different things, i bit off one of my fingernails, folded it in half, and used it for a song or two..... sick, i know... but when you have to rock, you have to rock....

Satan, you kick ass. Lets have babies.

LoL

it would be a sin for me to make children. armies would collide, meteors would hit, empires would fall, and after all of the dust settled, there wqould be my son or daughter, standing in the middle of the rubble with a childish grin on their face, and then, they would speek their first word.... "oopsy!"

I use spare change

Picks? Who needs picks? :P

Seriously now, I always have a pick in my front left pocket, and I always have a front left pocket. Should hell freeze and I get stuck without a pick, I still got my fingernails. If the ole fingerpicking style doesn't cut it, I can always use a fingernail as pick (without ripping it off of my finger, unlike SATAN)...
I also used to have a pick as pendant on my neck and I still and always have a pick attached on my keyring. So if I want a pick, I always have one.

At home every guitar has it's own pick(s) on its own holder and there are always some spare picks around that I don't like but can always turn to should my favourites all disappear.

I tried using a coin, card and other stuff and it just didn't do the trick.

JTC will appreciate this one, and i am posting this because at this very moment i amplaying my guitar with it.....

AN AAFES POG!!! i cut it into the shape of a pick! hahahaha!

if you know what that is then you completely understand, if not, dont bother to try...

Ha Ha!!! How long does it last? Can you even get thru one song?

You are absolutely right. I appreciated it. Luckily I brought plenty of picks so I won't need this tip. But that is certainly a viable field expediant if in need and the best use for a AAFES pog that I've ever seen.

I keep picks jammed everywhere... Car, pockets, guitar cases, gig bags, in the back of the amp, in the crown royal can on top of my microwave, wallet, wifes purse, on and on... But pick failure is what brought me to this practice...

My acoustic at home has probably 10 or 12 floating around in side of it. Sometimes I can shake one out when it's necessary.