Some artists keep their cards to show in exhibitions or markets… The point of this is to trade the cards. There is a huge community out there doing trade for fun, learning and sharing.
It is amazing to see the variety of artists involved in ATCs. There many place where trading is happening both online and in places like art conferences, retailers’ exhibitions, and craft fairs to name some.
Online, artists have websites or blogs inviting to trade one to one normally. Otherwise, there are forums where one can become a member, usually by invitation. Once this step is completed, a member can start participating in different swaps.
I am a member of ATCsForAll. I, particularly, think that this forum is great and very well organised. They also do other amazing events like contest, giveaways and even conferences.
Themed swaps are organised and hosted by older members, and one expresses the wish to participate by posting. Once accepted, the artist sent an agreed number of cards to the host following specific rules. Then the host gathers all swap players cards, mixed them, and send them back. When a member receives others members cards, he/she has to give points to the host and reputation points to the other players. This helps toward your status in the forum.
There are other group well known in the community such as: Yahoo ATC Group, Strahmore Artist Papers, ArtistTradingCards.Meetup and many more…
