$5 or less quirky tokens of affections

November 15, 2018 4:35 PM

I recently sent an age ham to my sister-in-law to wish her good luck as she starts college. What other unique, quirky little things can I send friends and family to let them know I'm thinking of them, for $5 or under?

I'm pretty much only looking for companies or products that I don't have to physically package in any way, because that probably won't happen. Stuff where I just type in a name and an address and send it off (hopefully with some way to let people know who it's from, too). I'm looking for inexpensive little ways to let someone know I'm thinking of them, but with some unique twist to it that moves beyond just a "miss you/thinking of you/have a good day" card. It doesn't have to be anything big, and it can be kind of random (the above company is, literally, just including a little rubber pig with their greeting card with a cute story about it being a good luck charm).

I'm looking for $5 and under and looking to build up a stock of these so I can send things off to people at times where I'm super busy and can't do the social interaction thing but want to let people know I'm still thinking of them. Things that are just plain cute would be good too, cute and quirky would be the best.

posted by brook horse to Shopping (10 answers total)

For $3.50/month, you can subscribe your sister to the cat sticker club. I anonymously subscribed a friend for a few months and she said the stickers were top notch.
posted by asphericalcow at 4:59 PM on November 15, 2018 [10 favorites]

Archie McPhee is perfect for this stuff. Here's their $5 or less category.
posted by Mizu at 5:06 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

Seconding Archie McPhee.
posted by Wild_Eep at 6:14 PM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Wow, I've gone down an internet rabbit hole with this wonderful question. Not a service, but Amazon Prime has 500 Googly Eyes for under $5 and I'm sending them to everyone I know right now.
posted by gideonfrog at 6:17 PM on November 15, 2018 [11 favorites]

I am a cat sticker club subscriber and it brings me genuine joy. They also have a sisterclub - feminist sticker of the month. Both are aces.
posted by itsamermaid at 6:32 PM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

So a big thank you for the age ham info—
It is the gift I never knew that I needed to send my sister!!!
posted by calgirl at 6:53 PM on November 15, 2018 [8 favorites]

https://yougoatmail.com Is a little out of your price range, but maybe for someone extra special?

And for someone extra “special,” try https://shipyourenemyglitter.com/
posted by juliapangolin at 7:03 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

American Science & Surplus is a trove, though I think you have to navigate by category ("novelties," "kits," "crafty," "sale," etc.) then sort by lowest price.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:47 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

It’s $12 but so cute - tiny letters
posted by OrangeVelour at 4:06 AM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]

Ok it's $12 but was worth every penny when I mailed my friend a potato. I did it anonymously to mess with them, but you can have them sign your name to it. It was genuinely one of the best gifts I've given in awhile.
posted by lilac girl at 2:28 PM on November 17, 2018 [1 favorite]