By Bob! I loved that book. Sad to say, the internet kinda killed that hobby, the fun stuff you’d get for a mere stamp.
I get free airline tickets and hotel nights through my job. I fly all the time to visit my friends all over the country.
Many years ago I posted a review for the book The Glory of Their Times. Several months later the author, Lawrence Ritter emailed me and asked if I would like an autographed first edition of the book. A couple of weeks later it arrived…
A friend of mine worked for RCA/BMG for years and she would get me tickets/all access passes for many country concerts. Not my genre of choice, but backstage is always fun and dates really like the front row/backstage thing.
I once did some emergency surgery on a dog who was owned by an outdoor columnist (hunting/fishing). When he learned that I liked to fish, he brought me a ton of rods/reels/lures/etc that had been given to him with hopes that he would give the products mention in his column.