I love it when I get find notices on my old LTCs from out of the blue, but I'm always curious to know how the recipient got the card. Maybe it's just someone getting caught up, maybe they inherited someone's collection, or traded 'cause they had a duplicate--so many possibilities. So if you think about it, just a quick note in the comments would be appreciated. I know I could just ask, but sometimes I feel that might be taken wrong and put the person on the spot. "So and so didn't like it and they were just going to throw it away." Ouch!

"So and so didn't like it and they were just going to throw it away." Ouch!

That would NEVER happen with your cards!!! At least not in my opinion! Your cards are amazing. I bet someone was just logging cards from a while ago or someone was clearing out their collection. I have been giving some cards from long ago that someone offered up on the facebook group. When I got them, it was a little odd logging them but Im pretty sure I remember mentioning in the comments how I got them. :-)

I agree i don't think anyone would want to throw those cards away! I'm the worst at logging late though! ;-)

If anyone gets a random log from me it's because I am a slacker logging from my "to be logged" container.

I know I have passed most of the LTCs given to me along to folks who can appreciate them again. While I love getting them - I just don't have the space to store them and I don't want them just hiding away in a drawer... so I share them with others... I used to make more... but now I only make LTCs when the mood/stamp/time moves/allows me to do so. I'd rather my LTCs - old and new get passed around - for whatever reason. When I get a notice of an older one my thoughts are generally "Oh, I forgot about that one."

Yeah, I am often curious when I get find notices out of the blue, but I never ask. One time I logged a card that I received in a re-trade, and the person asked me how I got it and I was all paranoid that they were offended. I think I'll just assume the best when it happens to me so as not to do the same thing to someone else.

I too do not keep all the LTCs that come through my hands. Being Letterbox TRADING cards, I trade cards, send them along to another LTC admirer, and any other option that keeps the cards moving and being appreciated. Having a few thousand cards now, I wouldn't be able to revisit them all as often as they deserve. I'd never destroy them and I don't want them to collect dust either. I know that the subject of trading, swapping, keeping etc. re-emerges on the boards now and then. I don't think there will ever be a consensus on this. As I write this, I'm thinking I might add to the back of my cards, "Feel free to swap, trade or give this card away when the time comes." This is my position on the topic. Or maybe I'll add, "Please do not trade or swap this card beyond the original tracker trade." My position could change. ;) Is there a standard within the Artist Trading Card community? Sports Trading Card community?

I have one of those containers too! Do you have the "to be foldered" container for cards you have logged and need to put in the binders or whatever organizational system you use?

:-( that was me. Omg. So embarrassed. I was behind.

Sometimes when I send random cards to miscellaneous swaps I just pull them out of my extras box and they might be really old cards. Then I forget that I sent them off and get a random find notice and wonder how they got it. So that's part of it too.

I felt like I was sitting in a mountain of cards this morning. Some of them literally were just falling out of thin air. I got them logged and put them in my book. And then I had to kind of organize a little bit to get them in order. I felt very accomplished. And then I just sat back and keep looking through my book and I was so happy :-)

I agree. I have about 1000 cards rigut now that I need to put in a book. It's just not going to happen. I will probably bag 800 of them up and bring them to the LTC retreat to retrade. I love looking at the cards, and do so intensely when I first get them. I'm just lazy about organizing them. So I'll go through and keep.some for future inspiration, and keep all the ones of the swaps I hosted, and send off the rest.

I've heard some people get offended if their cards are re-traded, and I personally don't really understand that. Would it be nice if everyone who gets one of my cards thinks it's a special little masterpiece that they can't part with? Sure. But that's just not realistic. Even if they can appreciate how I made the card, that doesn't mean they're jazzed by the subject, or the colours or the texture or... anything else that is subjective and might turn a person off. I have some cards that are really well-executed, and yet I am sure I'll eventually trade them away. Usually because the subject matter is just something I'm not interested in collecting. That's not my fault, and it's not the fault of the artist. Nobody can like everything, no matter how well-done it is. I'd rather have my cards find their way to someone who will really love them, even if it takes a few trades for it to happen. At the same time, I'm not going to trade something just because I don't think it's a good card. My philosophy is that if it's not good enough to keep, it's not good enough to trade.

That is, by far, the best perspective on trading that I've heard, and changes how I've been thinking about it. Thanks, Penfeather!!!

I agree. I love recieved someone ELSE's card when I was brand brand brand new. It was a gift. The reply I got was a :-( .
I never understood what that meant. And then later I realize that the person had not been too happy that I got their card. It just made me sad. They are trading cards. Or maybe that's just the name that Ryan came up with. Or someone else. I don't know. I say "trade away!" :-)
I make my cards for the therapeutic dose of the art :-) getting to trade with others is just a really nice bonus :-)

Yeah... being sad when someone gets your card and says something nice about it makes no sense to me at all. OK, someone traded it. BUT! Someone liked it! And the person who sent it thought it was good enough to send to a newbie, to welcome them to the hobby and give them ideas. If you want to encourage someone to get into LTCs, are you going to send crap cards to them? No! You're going to send them something good. When I first started and had no idea what to do, a few people here were kind enough to send me an assortment of cards, some of their own and some by other people. THAT was a welcome. A frownie face doesn't welcome anybody.

As for the name, they're a variant on Artist Trading Cards. I have no idea about the etiquette of trading ATCs, but if the people who conceived of this hobby didn't intend people to trade them, they should have given the cards a different name so I'm guessing re-trades are OK in that community too.

What?! No! You have to keep the cards I've made and love them forever!!!!!!

Nah, a retreat huh? Sounds fun. ^_^

I'm always curious when I get a log for an older card but it's not very difficult, if I'm curious enough, to go into the tracker to see if that person was involved in it. If their name is not in there then I figure they received it as a trade and oh well, at least they like it enough to leave a nice comment. ^_^

http://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.html?eventId=3607

There's a little bit of info. I don't think that everybody that is going signed up on the events page - most of our conversations are on our Facebook page. Message me if you have questions.