Rolodex Petite Covered Tray Card File with 2.25 x 4 Inch Cards and 9 Guides (67093)

It's a Rolodex. I don't know why it is so hard to find them these days. Ok, that's an overstatement. I do know why, but I'm old school and refuse to entrust technology as the sole guardian of my contacts (plus, I think it's silly to scroll through the phone trying to find them, especially if you are using said phone to actually make.. imagine that... a phone call). Imagine my surprise when the local Staples store said "We don't have them anymore, but we can order you one and have it by next week." Say whaaat? They didn't really have what I was looking for: a simple, plain, sturdy Rolodex that could hold all of my contacts without taking up much space. Voila. Here it is. This Rolodex Petite sits comfortably on top of my slimline desktop, and has plenty of room for all of my important contacts and then some. It seems solid enough, the hinge lid works smoothly, and the cards are a tight fit on the spindle - which means, if it is dropped a) it shouldn't shatter into bits and b) the cards won't fly all over the place and leave you trapped in some twisted game of 250 pick-up. Suffice to say, I like it well enough that I am going to buy another to keep at my other office.

I'm not sure why I waited so long to get a small Rolodex for my home office. I always had one at work, but now that I'm retired I was trying to get by with my cellphone and/or an address section of my paper planner system. I'm not one of those people who has my phone (or my planner) attached to my body at all times, so I was always running around the house trying to find my phone or my planner to get a phone number or address. Now, this is next to my answering machine and desktop computer, so I can easily jot down info or drop in a business card. The cover keeps the business cards secure (although they won't be attached to the Rolodex itself like one of the handwritten cards will be). And I don't care what anyone says, except for the people you call every day, it will always be faster to find contact info in a Rolodex than on a cell phone.

I purchased this product as a way to organize the business cards I've been collecting at a rapid pace from networking events, business contacts, etc. There don't seem to be any perfect alternatives. Business card books and sleeves tend to hold a very small number of cards, and not the hundreds or thousands that you'll accumulate in your business life; also, the books don't allow you to rearrange the cards easily into categories/custom ordering.I had thought that Rolodex would have a PERFECT solution, since this is their specialty. I have to say that this file is the best solution I've seen so far. By purchasing the Rolodex Business Card Tray Refill Sleeves, Holds 2 of 2.625 x 4 Inch Cards, White, 40 per Pack (67691) separately, you can slip each business card you have into its own sleeve, and file it however you'd like in the file. The lid opens and closes smoothly, and the sleeves with the cards are easy to take in and out, or flip through. The file looks clean and neat on my desk.Despite the pluses, I felt that Rolodex should have created a product with no significant minuses, so I only give this three stars. The biggest oversight: the A-Z divider cards do NOT rise above the business card sleeves, and there's no way to order ones that do. So I had to improvise and staple together some cards to use as dividers, and it doesn't look pretty or work perfectly. Also, the A-Z dividers provided are not really what I want for business card filing, even if they were visible above the sleeves. When I'm meeting dozens of business contacts a week, I generally don't remember the names of everyone, so I'd be unable to find the cards by A-Z last name; I want to be able to create dividers (by writing or printing on blank ones) that contain the names of my networking groups or business categories, and/or dates of meeting.I also feel that since this Rolodex is billed as a "business card file", it should come with the business card sleeves instead of the blank white cards. The white cards are too small to be able to paste or staple business cards to them. I guess it's possible that you could get a Rolodex One-Sheet Business Card 2-Hole Punch for 2.25 x 4 Inches Card Files, Plastic, Black (67699), but I decided against that because on some business cards it would destroy information. Also, the file seems a bit wide and tall for inserting the cards directly. In either case, why include 500 blank white cards that are useless for storing business cards if this is supposed to be a business card file?Last, I'm a bit miffed that Rolodex does not provide good information on amazon.com or even its own website about which cards/sleeves fit which files, which files are good for storing business cards, etc. In this day and age, that's a silly oversight.

I did not get this for an address directory, I got it to catalog my fountain pen inks and which pens are filled with each ink. So, I turned the cards backwards so only the lined face is in front. Fortunately, you can remove 10 to 20 cards at a time and you don't have to remove 250 individually. It works well, just as I expected. It comes with 250 blank cards and 24 alphabetic separators, the last one being XYZ. I had read the reviews and expected the cards to be thicker than they are, but they are just thick enough to do the job, just not a heavy paper stock like the better 3x5 file cards are. Unfortunately, if you need to replace the cards, apparently the replacements cards are only light paper stock and quite flimsy (from the most reviews on Amazon). Really too flimsy to easily insert and remove without bending the bottom of the card. Also too flimsy to flip each card. Sad, cheap quality permeates everything. The card paper is cheap paper, some inks bleed through. No problem for a ballpoint, but some gel and many fountain pen inks bleed through badly. You certainly aren't going to be able to use a felt tip pen at all. If you are thinking about getting the special hole punch made for this size Rolodex card, read the reviews. Totally plastic and does not work well and does not punch heavy business cards. Fortunately that is not going to apply to me at all. Otherwise, this card file does what I bought it for. The 4 star is for the cheaper card stock, that while it does work, is not high quality and will not stand up to a lot of insertion and removal. If it had been stocked with the flimsy replacement cards I would have sent this back and given it a one-star rating. Realize, these are 2-1/4 by 4 inch cards with a 1-inch spacing between the T-holes that fit the curved tracks.