Business cards are a waste of paper

Thumbs up. They are quicker to distribute and contain much more information than you can reasonably punch into a PDA or cell phone during a brief, chance meeting, say, in an elevator.

Thumbs up! ITA with Rhea.

I'm torn. I work in two hospital libraries and it's nice to pass out cards with my info to patients or their families but I know that the docs I give them to either lose them or throw them out.

Thumbs up! Storing all of your business contact information in digital media is a disaster waiting to happen - lose your cell phone/PDA and all contacts are gone! Now if you have an old-fashioned Rolodex filled with business cards as back up, you're breathing a sigh of relief...plus, a creative card (or lack of one) can tell you a lot about a person. OK, full disclosure: former graphic designer, designed many business cards in my life :)

They're more fun :D

Without business cards, what will I drop into the fishbowl at the corner deli to win a free lunch?

Actually, thumbs down. I have stacks of business cards from previous jobs. I give them to the kids to play with. Then again, I'm not really a networking kind of guy. My former boss was, though, and he bought a business card reader--a tiny scanner that digitized cards. Whenever he got a card--and he'd come back to the office after lunch with 10, 20 cards--he'd scan them all and then throw them away. He could have saved himself a step by just giving everyone his email address.

Lisa,
You're not an American citizen?

As to your post, yes, I couldn't agree more. As someone who lives in Japan, I would love to see an end of the "meishi koukan." I can't tell you how many times I've been out with my wife on a weekend and we run into someone she knows, only I don't have my business cards with me and she gives me that death stare, "what? you don't have any meishi with you?" I think I need to have a card holder surgically implanted.

I like cards. When I'm done with them / don't want them I recycle them. Or, for the people I don't like, I shred them and then recycle them. :)

Jeez, I was thinking that I should get some cards made up just for myself. Here in DC, "can I have your card?" is the new "Can I have your number?"

Thumbs up. I also completely agree with Rhea. Also, it's easier to ask for someone's business card than to ask for their email and phone number if you don't know them very well but still want their info.

malcolm, i'm a dual citizen. best perk: skipping airport immigration lines.

i have here two giant stacks of biz cards. true, i occasionally rifle thru them to jog a memory. but if i need to find someone, my go-to tool is google. there's got to be an art-school student somewhere in need of materials...

So what do you do if you're handed those mini-CD business cards? :)

Thumbs up! In my pre-business card days (about two years ago), people at conferences and such looked at me like I was a loser when they asked me for a card and I did'nt have one. Now people look at me with respect when I hand them one (because I'm now important enough to have them).

While I think business cards are still essential in todays marketplace since they are the quickest and easiest way to exchange information, I do agree on the notion that they are a huge waste of paper (and pocket space!)

I read a interesting related article earlier by a guy who upon receiving a business card, takes a picture of it with his phone, hands the card back, and then backs it up on his computer. I thought it was an interesting idea, find the link to the article below.

http://unclutterer.com/2008/05/07/business-cards/