Diana, I agree with most everything you said. Case in point, this weekend I was at a conference and a person gave me a card. I flipped it over to write something on the back (a reminder on the conversation) and saw the for free by Vistaprint. Even though I know for a fact this person is successful and has a important position within a specific company, it did make a somewhat negative impression to me. Now, if I had NOT known for a fact of the person's status, the impression wouldn't have only been somewhat negative.
As an example of a positive impression... last year at this same conference, I was given a card by someone. It was a great card and gave me a great impression. When I saw him again at this years conference, I actually remembered who he was because of the great card. This year he had a different card, but again a great design and quality. A friend I was with also remarked on how nice his card was. Again, he left a great impression.
Luckily, this time I was smart enough to get the name of his designer
.
I also would recommend the book on designing effective cards and using them for effective networking. It was a great and simple read with a lot of good ideas. No worries Lynn, the link above to Amazon is not my affiliate link
.