Worked for Joann’s Fabric, we did the same with our magazines, Publishers just wanted the covers mailed back to verify we didn’t sell them vs stolen. I’d let my employees take the rest of the magazines and any of the crafts included with them. Occasionally if I had a number of a few I’d donate boxes of them to a camp I use to work for. Have you ever started filling out a form for a quote on something (insurance website, or literally anything) and then changed your mind and said “Nah, I don’t want to give them my personal information”, and then abandoned the form before pressing “submit”?
If you think that stopped them from getting your personal information, it didn’t. Most companies looking to capture leads will capture your info in real-time as you enter it into a form. The submit button is just there to move you to the next step, not to actually send your information to the company. Yep. I filled out applications for jobs – and decided I didn’t want to finish/work there. Never hit next, never hit submit – although I clicked on a button on the previous page which sent me to the next page which was in a new window (and had my phone number, name, and address)