They do not end up in a shoe box never to be seen again (well, almost)! The initial steps depend on if the card is paper or electronic.

Electronic Cards
The eCard is saved to a hard drive, imported into a Word document, and sent to a color printer on 4"x6" 110-lb card stock.

Paper Cards
The card is scanned using a duplex scanner (getting both sides in one scan) and saved to a common directory with the eCards.

The Penultimate Step
If necessary, every card image is resized using Windows Paint to 800x509 (landscape) or 509x800 (portait) pixels. The files are then uploaded to a slide show photo frame where each image is displayed for 3 seconds in a continuous loop from 6AM to 11PM. It takes about 2 hours to go through all the images (as of 2026 January).

The "Shoe Box"
All of the cards, original paper or printed eCard, are stored in nice post card boxes, separated by state for the U.S., Canda, and - for now - all others.

Eternal Gratitude
It really means a lot to get a QSL card, paper or electronic. As my card says, "A QSL card is reminder of the joy of meeting new people." When I go to the mailbox and find cards, it makes my day (not getting bills is a plus). The same goes for eCards. So, please accept my many, many thanks if you sent a card and, if you haven't, please think about putting a smile on this old curmudgeon's face.

73 and Clear Skies,
Brian D. Warner
WB0NWZ