When I buy stock, will I get a stock certificate?

From FinancialPlanning

You can, but very few people do. Most investors hold stocks through a brokerage account rather than obtaining a stock certificate. The term you may see to describe this is holding the stock "in street name."

Stock certificates are inconvenient and can add costs:

• you need to store them in a safe deposit box or other secure place
• you'll need to sign and turn in your stock certificate when you sell or transfer any of the shares
• brokerage firms charge an additional fee for issuing a physical certificate
• if you lose the certificate it's a pain in the neck to replace it
• it complicates the settlement of your estate a bit, if only because the executor of your will needs to rummage through all your furniture to find all the stock certificates you hid there

Realistically, the current volume of trading on the US stock market would be impossible if people still used paper stock certificates. The system used today, where shares are accounted for electronically through the Depository Trust Corporation, was created to deal with the problems that were occurring when trading volume was much lower than it is today.