The Etiquette of Trading Business Cards

"For Expert Village.com this is Jason Freedman. In this clip we will be talking about trading with other business card collectors. There are some guides for etiquette when you trade cards that you should know about. The first and foremost you should know that you should send new cards, cards that are relatively in good condition that are mint, there are no cards, no pinholes, no writing, they are not worn out, they are not crunched up, they have not got staples or pinholes in them. People generally really appreciate those. The next thing you want to know is you should pack your cards up in an envelope and pack them for safety. The thing that I like to do is use the small coin envelopes. They are 3 inches x 2 inches, they each hold about 10 cards, quite snugly and securely. You can get them at any office supply store about 250 cards for 10 dollars. This is my preference of choice here to use these envelopes. Another thing that some folks do is they make paper strips and wrap them around the cards. This is a bit more time and labor intensive but it works quite nicely for holding onto your cards. You wrap the paper around your business cards and then you put a piece of tape onto the piece of paper and then hold your cards. You should not strap your cards together with rubber bands or paper clips. Also, you should not put them loosely in an envelope. Those both will probably result in damaging the cards and the person who gets the cards would not be too happy. I would like to include a little personal note to the person I am sending to. I just made up a letterhead using my computer; scratched a little note and send it off to the person you are sending cards to. Clearly address on envelope. I like to print mine on computer and you can also write by hand. When you mail cards through the US mail to another person domestically you can just use a first class stamp that will be enough for 20 cards. If you have up to 40 cards, that is the equivalent of first class postage plus a postcard rate and in 2006 today that total is 63 cents. There are cards stamps that equal amount as well. Finally, once you get going it’s pretty easy to get lost and who you have sent cards to and who owes you cards. A good idea is to keep track of your cards and trades by keeping a list. I do mine on my computer and I use a simple spreadsheet. You can also just use a pen and a paper, mark separate column for the other person’s name, their address, the date you sent them cards and the number of cards you sent them or the date that you got cards from them and the number that you owe them. That way you will be quickly and easily and rapidly increasing your business card collection."