They may be a thing of the past, but I still carry business cards. Heck, I’ve won a few lunches from the restaurants that have a weekly or monthly drawing for free food.
I was having breakfast with a 26 year old and he thought it was quite odd. I still think they have a purpose even in the smart phone age. I’m looking for a new job and I’ve written my personal email and/or phone number on mine while I’m at networking events.
I still have business cards, and use them frequently.
My 22-year old son just started work a few weeks ago at an engineering consulting firm, and they printed a whole box of business cards for him, too.
I think they are still useful. If I meet a person face-to-face in a business context, I don’t have time to record their contact info on my smartphone. I can shove their business card in my pocket, and enter it later. Once I enter the info electronically, I don’t actually need it anymore.
I’m on city council and I have a whole dang box of them. I totally forget to carry them around and hand them out. My fellow council member that I am usually out doing council stuff with (and is 30 years older than me) always has his and hands them out. I really need to do better.
I don’t have business cards for my business. I am not looking for more business.
Not only do I have business cards for myself as a professional (I don’t enter drawings, but I give them to teammates/consultants who come work one of my proposals and I also hand them out at networking events), I also have business cards for myself as a musician (to give out at jam sessions, or to people who compliment me at a gig [so they can go to my website and learn about future gigs], etc.).
I have a few hundred business cards that my firm printed for me and I think I’ve handed out 5 of them over three years.
Oddly enough, we were talking about this a few days ago. I retired 2 weeks ago after a 45 year career, and I’ve never had a job that required business cards. My wife and I were talking about how odd it is to get from high school to retired and never have business cards.
They are probably used less than ever, and, ironically, they are cheaper than ever to have professionally printed. Staples printed me up a box of 500 for $10, and they look as good as any you would have had printed at a real “print shop” in olden days.
There was a short push, about 10 years ago, to start using electronic vcards that you shared with people, as opposed to giving out physical business cards, but this never really took off.
When you meet with 3rd parties for business purposes, it is still very commonplace to exchange business cards. About every 2 weeks I gather most of the business cards I receive, give them to my assistant to scan them, and put the info into my contacts section of Outlook. The actual cards get thrown away.
I don’t have a business card for work.
My book store doesn’t have business cards, but I do put a bookmark in each order with the info on how to get to the store.
I have business cards and use them fairly often. Lately, I have had several people who take the card, take a picture of it and hand it back. I like the idea and have started doing the same thing.
I have work business cards. I think I’ve given out five of them at most, and that includes giving one to my parents since it has my direct line on it.
In my old job, I think I recycled something like 1495 of the 1500 business cards they gave me over the years. And it was never by any request of mine that they did it. More like “Management decided to change the logo again, so print everyone new cards.”
My industry still likes to give out and get business cards to customers, suppliers, etc. I have been here 35 years.
But if I had got a box of 500 (or whatever was standard in 1985) back then, I’d still have 480. And that was three phone numbers and another state ago.
People get along fine without me giving them my card. They still can find me.
They are useful, but they are in need of an innovation for the smart phone age.
They should print them with a QR code that you scan, and it automatically inserts the data into your phonebook.
My employer gave me a box of them about ten years ago. They are out of date in that the phone number and my title have both changed, but I use them on rare occasions. I’ll just scratch out the old number and hand-write my cell phone number. I think that comes off as more personable anyway.
I might have given out about 20-50 to job applicants or vendors in the first five years at this company (2003-2008). In 2008 I was promoted and got a new box. When I changed jobs in 2011 I realized I had never opened the box. I declined to order new ones. In the two job changes I’ve had since then, I haven’t either.
There are a few older employees who hand out cards. By older, I mean 60+. I’m 52.
Something like that…along with an NFC-based solution.
That’s my business.
mmm
yes i have a card.
Since I’m retired I don’t use them anymore, but until two years ago I would go through a box of a thousand in about a year and a half. And I rarely conducted any business outside my office - I attended only one or two trade shows per year. They were handed out to vendors and high-dollar customers(anything over a couple thousand dollars), not just by me but by my employees at the front counter. Our sales reps. went through many more than that.
A few also went into the ‘business card fishbowl’ at local restaurants in hopes of being drawn for a free meal. I got about two free lunches per year out of that. 
I do. I work at a printing plant. I hand out 3 or 4 yearly.