A metal business card is printed, etched or engraved onto thin metal (commonly stainless steel, aluminum or brass) instead of paper stock, giving it noticeably more weight and a distinct tactile impression.
They read as premium almost automatically, simply because the material itself is unusual — which makes them well-suited to luxury, executive or high-end service brands where a memorable physical impression matters more than cost efficiency.
The trade-offs are real: significantly higher per-card cost, longer production times, and less flexibility to update details cheaply once a batch is printed — reasonable for a founder's personal card, less practical for an entire sales team.