I used to use a stick that I would find on the ground to serve the purpose of holding my kite strings while I walk back to attach the kite. Failing to find a good stick sometimes, I upped my game to a dowel rod, which works pretty good except for when you had real hard ground.
I bought this stake the last time I bought a brand new kite just figuring that it would work better than a dowel rod.
I like that it has a colored flag on it so I can see where it's at after I take my straps off and fly my kite and I haven't misplaced it yet and I've used it several times.
I might just buy a couple more just so that I've got them with me and they're cheap enough.
I have not had the opportunity to use them in the sand yet we'll see soon.