I went by a print shop in Oakland, but they didn't do cards, so I logged onto a business card web site, opened an account, uploaded my design in an Adobe Illustrator file and pressed "purchase". One thousand four color business cards, $59 plus $14.50 for two day shipping. I'm curious how long it takes and what they will look like. A simple enough card, I'll see what the reaction is when I give it to someone who asks me why I'm shooting their picture. I'm shooting for thee and me, but mostly for me, he! he!, and this - ta! ta! - is my card.

They also do postcards. One thousand postcards, four color one side, black on the other for $129. What image and message might I put on 1000 postcards? My father was a ham radio operator and ham radio operators sent out cards when asked with their call letters printed on them to the people they "work" over the radio. They serve as proof you'd "worked" a particular location, the idea being to "work" as many people in different countries as you could. He'd spend his evenings talking, sometimes voice, sometime in Morse code, with people all over the world. It has a certain merit badge aspect to it, the card thing, you get various certificates from Ham Radio Central based on the number of countries and "zones" (no, I don't remember what a zone is either) you've "worked". He "worked" a lot of them.

So what does that have to do with postcards? I have no idea. Journalers who send out personal postcards to people who have read them? I can't think why anyone might want to do that, but the idea of being able to buy custom cards so cheaply stirs thoughts of, well, what? Maybe that's why the local printer doesn't do business cards. Too cheap and easy to order them over the web. Another local industry lost into the mist of ecommerce history.

Note: I received the cards on August 6th. Good quality stock with an image that looks exactly like the image above. I recommend them.