Client Gifts............

All year long we are bombarded by marketing companies wanting us to buy magnets, calendars, pens, key chains, playing cards, breath mints, magazines, and 2,879 other items to give to our clients. Now that the end of the year and the Holidays are fast approaching I am getting hit even harder.
I have ordered pens, key chains, calendars, magnets and a couple of other items in the last 7 years. I am so glad I placed an order 3 years ago with National Pen Company. Not that the order was super cheap or that the merchandise was truly outstanding. BUT, I have received all kinds of free gifts from them including, free calendars, pens with highliter on the other end, pens with laser beam on the other end, pens that light up, pens that clean my house, pens that pick up my dry cleaning..........etc.
The point is, I love getting this free stuff and it works on me, because in order to keep getting these Christmas- Like-Gifts all year long, I am positive I am going to place another order with them this year. I don't want to be cut off for not ordering, though I don't know at what year they would cut me off. I am NOT going to take the chance and will be receiving some calendars from them in a couple of months.
My question to all my fellow Realtors is this: Is there one particular item that has worked best for you over any other that you have ordered in the past? If you are like me, you have probably tried a whole menagerie of items. I have finally decided to put a basket on my desk filled with a variety of about 5 gifts that my customer or client can choose from when they are in my office.
I am sure I am going to get alot of answers that will cover the gamut of a gift magazine, but if something really stands out more than others, I am all for ordering it and giving it a shot. So please let me know your favorite and I will tell you mine right now. A SIMPLE DESK TOP CALENDAR.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you. Duane Hosek in the Black Hills of South Dakota