Contact Sports: 20 of the Best Business Card Cases

If those ubiquitous Vistaprint television commercials aren’t enough to convince you that exchanging printed-on-paper business cards is still important in this increasingly digital age, think about Japan for a minute. There, this longstanding professional tradition is so revered that there’s a name for it–meishi koukan–and there are strict ceremonial rules to know and follow to avoid insulting a new business contact by treating his card, which is considered an extension of his very self, with utmost respect. These include extending your card (with your name facing the recipient) with both hands and never EVER taking your colleague’s card and placing it into your pocket instead of a secure, old-fashioned card case.

Whether you travel to Tokyo often or your only contact with Japanese culture has been watching an old Godzilla rerun on a Saturday night, there’s something to be said for such formalities; pulling out a stack of your own cards that’s bound by a ratty rubber band, for instance, will look like bad form in both Kalamazoo and Kyoto.

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So get a card carrier, for heaven’s sake. It will not only make you look more polished and professional but help you organize all those new contacts before you transfer them to your smartphone or laptop.

Here are 20 neat business-card cases in a wide variety of materials and prices that are currently available. Many can even double as wafer-thin wallets that’ll hold credit, debit, ID and commuter cards–and even a bit of cash if you still ever still carry it. But whether you pay for them with paper or plastic doesn’t matter. These are indeed “investment pieces” that are truly worth the investment–large or small.