Who Needs Business Cards When You Have Model Airplanes?

I still collect them. I got so many of them that my wife had to stop me as we ran out of space to display them. To get them cheap there is no other place than Asia. I got lots of 1:200/250 scale 747s of different airlines in Taiwan for about NT$650 (~$25USD). They are made of plastics though. But for the price and for displaying purposes, you can't beat that price. I also bought lots of Schubak planes at 1:400 scale, ranging from 747, A380, A330 and 787. I bought them cheap in Japan for about 700-900 yen, that's like $7-9. It's metallic and very good quality. The best one I have is a 1:130 China Airline's 747-400 with the plum blossom livery. I got it as a gift during a promotion of 2 year subscription of "Airways" magazine. It is still sitting in my bedroom.

@Marc You can buy model airplanes at hobby stores. Some of them specialize only in airplane models. Airlines may also sell them online through their websites. Airbus and Boeing both have online shops that you can purchase models from. Herpa and Gemini Jets are my two favorite brands. Gemini Jets has a store in Las Vegas with a great selection. For really large scale models (1:100 and above) you really only want Pacmin.

Also, there is a standing joke that you can tell how serious the sales/marketing teams for the various manufacturers are by the type of model plane they gift you when they make their sales/marketing visits. If it's a generic house livery die cast model (eg. a 1:500 Herpa), then they are going through the motions. If it's anything 1:100 or better in a custom livery, you are on their preferred "serious customer" list. After my first three 1:500 plastic A380 models in house livery from Airbus, I told our account manager that I'd be perfectly happy with a cap or a T-shirt instead. Another manufacturer, whose products we actually operated, gave us a nice custom livery 1:100 model though.

Back when I was running the national airline of Ghana, we shied away from the usual made-in-china plastic airplane models due to their cliched role in the industry. Instead, we went with locally hand carved wooden airplanes painted in our livery as giveaways. Turned out that these were extremely popular and always wound up with pride of place in displays of model aircraft. Ironically, they were cheaper than the Chinese made plastic stuff as well!

You are correct, Lucky - airline executives all have model planes in their offices, some more than others. A good rule of thumb is the bigger the office, the bigger (i.e. more expensive) the model. I have a few basic models, but it pales in comparison to other cubes/offices...