So ive been licensed about eight months now and i keep seeing people talk about sending QSL cards and also uploading to LoTW and eQSL and honestly im a little confused about why you would do all three. Like isnt confirming the contact once enough? I asked a guy at my club and he kind of just said 'well some people prefer different things' which didnt really answer my question.

I do upload to LoTW because i want to eventually work toward DXCC and i know the ARRL only accepts LoTW or physical cards for that. But eQSL seems like its just kind of... there? And then actual paper cards, i get why theyre cool to hang on the wall but mailing them internationally seems like it costs a lot and takes forever.

Does anyone actually require all three for awards or is this more of a 'be nice and confirm whatever way the other guy wants' kind of thing? Just trying to figure out if im missing something here.

yeah basically you nailed it at the end there - it really is about what the other person wants. LoTW is the gold standard for ARRL awards like DXCC and WAS, nothing comes close for that. eQSL has its own awards program and some people genuinely prefer it, and there are a handful of other awards programs that accept eQSL confirmations so its not useless. paper cards are just... a tradition i guess, and some DX stations literally wont confirm any other way, especially older ops or rare entities where the operator might be some retired guy with no interest in learning the software.

i upload to both LoTW and eQSL automatically after every session now, takes about two minutes with my logging software. paper cards i only send if someone sends me one first or if its a really rare contact i want a physical memento of. Worked a station in Bouvet a few years back and yeah i sent a card for that one, worth every penny of the postage.

the eQSL thing trips a lot of new people up. its not affiliated with ARRL so it doesnt count for DXCC but it has its own Worked All States and other certs you can print out which is kinda neat actually. some people really like getting the little digital card images too, some of them are genuinely nice artwork.

for paper cards - yeah international postage hurts but you can include an IRC (international reply coupon) or just a couple US dollars in the envelope and most stations will send one back. i stopped doing it for most contacts but i still send cards to anyone who sends me one because it feels rude not to. got a whole box of incoming cards i really need to sort through one of these days, its a mess.