Collector of Business Cards!.!.!.! Press Release

Collecting Business Cards
     KNOXVILLE, TN — Ever wonder how your business card stacks up against the competition in your business? You might want to ask Steve Patterson. He has a collection of over 154,500+** business cards from all over the world. Patterson has a few cards from the World Trade Center and even a business card from the Vienna Flight School in Florida — the school known for training the terrorists that flew into the World Trade Center.
     Some of Patterson's other famous business cards include Donald Trump, Pat Head Summit, Phil Fulmer, Jimmy Dean, John Ashcroft, and even the Mayor of the North Pole, AK. Patterson actually has two of Donald Trumps business card. Patterson was told by The Trump Orginization that it is a rare one, the other one is the newest one and it is autographed on the back. He also has business cards made from leather, wood, plastic and CD's. He doesn't have any made from glass, but has heard others having them made of glass. Another kind he doesn't have is ones made of chocolate. But, a few collectors in the hobby have one. They keep that in the freezer.
     Patterson, a graphic designer, has been collecting business cards since about 1996. He believes his passion for graphic design led to this hobby and has spent almost the last decade studying business cards as well as collecting them.
     "I enjoy each and every one I get," he said. "Good or bad I learn something new from almost every design I see," he said. His business cards are categorized in sheet protectors, inside of binders. His wife helps by putting material around his binders and making them look presentable. Patterson currently has 14 binders filled with cards and another six rubbermaid boxes that need to be sorted and cataloged. Patterson categorizes these cards based on the type of company.
     "It makes it easier to find a specific card if I sort them by subject or company," he said.
     Patterson says he's seen enough cards to know what works and doesn't work. He believes it is interesting to see what people have on their business cards and how they are designed. He started to collect business cards since college when he was a graphic design student. He has to save them and show what he liked and didn't like about them. Showing bad designs and good designs on them. He realized that he had accumulated a few thousand and did some researching on the Internet. That is where he found the International Business Card Collectors (IBCC) a club for those who collect business cards. Steve joined the club and his collection began to skyrocket.
     With more than 154,500+** cards and the collection growing daily Patterson believes he may one day have more than 1 million cards. He asks people to not throw away business cards they may have but, instead to give it to his collection. Patterson also enjoys writing letters to businesses, people, politicians and such to request their business card. Sometimes he wins and sometimes he loses. It's a 50/50 chance every time he sends out a request — something that's fun in and of itself!
     "I like to guess which people will send a card and which ones won't," he laughed. "It's really impossible to tell though. The ones you think will send a card don't and the ones you think won't sometimes send a couple different cards."
     By collecting business cards, Patterson can see history in the making, not only about a company, but how art and design has changed over the years. He also likes to see the different types of material business cards can be made of, like glass, metal, leather, plastic and CDs.
     Be careful of those urban legends out there. One involves business card collecting. It states about a young boy dieing of brain cancer. His name is Craig Shergold, but of course through different variations of the chain letter, his name changes somewhat. Anyways, this urban ledged goes back since 1980's. He originally wanted greeting cards, but later changed to business cards. The Make-A-Wish foundation had to close the location. All mail that goes to that address goes to be recycled. So do not pass this chain letter on any further. Want to know more about this urban ledge or others, check out www.snoops.com.
     If you would like to help Steve and build his collection of business cards, you can contact him below.

Steve Patterson
P.O. Box 27840
Knoxville, TN 37927

ON THE NET
http://www.cardeologist.com

Click on image for a high res version
Photo credit: Jeremy Z. Young
Photo caption: Steve Patterson shows off a portion of his business cards, including his 100,000th business card.

Special thanks to Becky Blanton for her help editing/rewriting some this press release.

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