Like posted above I have made some great friends and sometimes we even still email about cards.
As for other stuff i have used cards for many many things including a German made Walther PPK, many vacations, all my weights and all the gear for it, vehicle repairs/upgrades, and a LOT of other stuff.
I bought/hoarded outrageous amounts of cards from the 80s until early 00s. The main thing I wish I would have done differently was buy tobacco cards back then. In my area you couldn't give them away and I could have bought a lot really cheap like I did the 50s-60s cards nobody wanted.