Collectors

My name is Georgia Rodriguez and I am 20 years old. I am a full-time student at California State University, Long Beach, currently studying to be an elementary school teacher, but I'm also planning to get a masters degree in library science because I'm also interested in becoming a librarian. Besides loving books, I also love music. I've played the flute since I was nine and am presently in my school's concert band. I started collecting business cards around the age of 13. I used to have a book called "1,001 Things To Do When There's Nothing To Do," and I believe one of the suggestions in it was to start a collection; one of the items listed was business cards, so that's how I got started. I accept any cards, but some of the ones I'm more interested in are non-standard sized cards, cards made out of materials other than paper, and cards having to do with clocks, books, or music. Some other things I collect are shot glasses, pressed pennies, and anything having to do with Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

You Collect WHAT??

by Georgia Rodriguez

Now, maybe it was the way I said it. I had decided that I would be proud as I announced my hobby, and that I would make it seem like something totally normal because I thought that if I presented it as something that seemed weird, it would be perceived as such. I don't know, maybe making it sound normal made it seem that much weirder. To be honest, my classmates' reaction really surprised me. I wasn't met with questions about it, which is what usually happens, nor were there intrigued or interested looks. Just laughter, and then it was on to the next person's interesting thing. I didn't know what to make of it.

I just couldn't stop mulling it over during the next few days, and as hard as I tried I couldn't seem to come up with a satisfactory explanation as to why they laughed. Was it because I seemed nerdy? I know I'm a nerd. In fact, I'm quite proud of it. But could I have overstepped the boundary when I started this business card thing? As I thought about it more and more I began to feel defiant until I decided No! Business card collecting IS cool, doggone it! And it is.

I started collecting when I was about thirteen. I don't really remember why, but I started getting into it more when I was bored one night last December and I typed "business card collectors" into the Google search engine. Interestingly enough, one of the results that came up was the IBCC website, the International Business Card Collectors. Intrigued, I visited the website, and I couldn't believe it when I found out there were other people who, like me, collected business cards! I joined the group and since then I have been even more convinced that business cards are indeed cool.

Up until I joined the IBCC earlier this year I had about eight hundred cards from places I'd been to over the years, mostly from places in California. Eight hundred cards and it took me seven years to get them all. After I joined, the welcome packs started pouring in. Every day for weeks my mailbox contained envelopes full of business cards from my new fellow collectors, simply to welcome me to the club! I was flabbergasted by their hospitality. They had never met me, yet we had the same bizarre hobby and I was now one of them. In a few short months my collection had more than doubled. Our "meeting place" is a Yahoo group on the internet, and one of my fellow IBCC members, Michael Seyfried expressed it perfectly: "I value the friendship of each one of you. In a world where people seem to forget about something like friendship, this hobby, business card collecting seems to bring back something which so many have forgotten about. Yes, a simple little thing as friendship."

Sure, upon initial thought, a business card is a business card. Why would you want so many? A lot of people complain that they have them in abundance. But I don't think you realize just how many different and creative ways people have thought to market themselves. For example, one of my business cards opens up like an oversized matchbook. Another one from the chamber of commerce in Palo Alto is small and cute, a mere two inches on each side. Still another one is a combination business card/CD-ROM disk for a computer. Some of my favorites, though, are a clear business card made of plastic like a credit card, a business card that has Braille on it, and even one that is a coin!

Collecting business cards is also pretty convenient for me, because it doesn't take up a lot of space. I've seen people's collections of other stuff featured on television, such as one woman's magnet collection on the Food Network, and those magnets covered more than just her fridge. They covered every single wall of her kitchen. It looked cool, but I don't have that kind of room where I live. All of my business cards fit nicely into a shoebox. I have them organized alphabetically by company name, and I keep them on a shelf in my closet. Even when it gets full, it won't take up much more room to add another shoebox to the shelf.

I have a smaller shoebox of duplicate cards for trading. Whenever I go out and grab a business card, I take as many extras as I can to trade with my fellow collectors. Trading is an easy way to add to the collection, and it's not pricey at all. Obtaining the business cards from stores is free, and it only costs me a thirty-seven cent stamp to send about twenty through the mail. In return, I get twenty new cards from whoever I'm trading with, and it's always fun to see what interesting cards they send me and where they've come from.

Aside from getting business cards myself, my family and friends help me too. My aunt and uncle, who have a video productions business, visit a convention in Las Vegas every spring, and every year they come back with about a hundred new cards for me from other video production companies that have attended. My parents, a couple of my other aunts, and some of my cousins get cards for me as well when they go out.

Another neat thing is that I get to see business cards from all over. I have some cards from Boguslaw Macal, a fellow collector who lives in Poland, and some from Ron Marvin in Canada. I don't have to worry about where to buy French chocolates if I ever go to France, who to call for limousine service if I ever visit Brownsville, Texas, and if I need a doctor, banker, real estate agent, or a good place to eat, there are several all over the country that I could choose from. I could even start planning for the future if I wanted to; I have lots of nice cards for photographers and florists, I could start thinking about which ones might be good for my wedding—never mind the fact that I don't have a boyfriend.

Okay, so collecting business cards might still sound a little funny. I guess it is, but maybe it's just one of those quirky things about me. Surely everyone has something about them that makes them stand out. Why can't business cards be mine? Who says you can't be cool and nerdy? Besides, I'm not the only one. I've got 255 other business card collectors from all over the world to back me up! And even if I tried, I just wouldn't be able to resist taking a crisp, clean card from a store counter. In fact, in the last week or so I've gotten six cards from FedEx Kinko's, three from Washington Mutual, and nine different ones from when my aunt was out and about that I haven't yet added to my shoebox. So if you'll excuse me, I have some business cards to go organize.