Unpopular opinion: the $29 client gift beats the $400 one every time

I was on a call with a print broker in Cincinnati last Tuesday and he said something that stuck with me. He said he used to send $400 holiday baskets to his top accounts every year, and nobody ever mentioned them. Then one year he switched to a $29 hand written note with a small local coffee card, and three clients actually called to say thanks. That seems backwards at first, but it makes sense the more I think about it. A big gift feels like a transaction, like you are buying their loyalty. A small, personal one feels like you actually know them. In my own case, I had a commercial account that barely talked to me for a year, so I started sending their office manager a short note every quarter about nothing in particular. Six months later they added a second location to my route, no pitch, no proposal. So now I am trying to figure out which of my other accounts would respond to something small instead of something expensive. Has anyone else seen a cheaper touch work better than a flashy one, or is this one of those things that only works once?