by Farlsborough » Jun 19th, '07, 16:38
Surely the pen is only that price if you buy a "special replacement" from a magic store?!
At risk of repeating myself, this "effect" is not really created by anyone, or rather, it is created by the scientists at the pen laboratory. In my humble opinion Mathieu Bich struck lucky by being the first person business minded enough to bother finding out whether anyone else had marketed an effect with this pen, which is known about by many magicians and mentalists. Jot a few quick ideas down, make the rest of the product as cheap to produce as possible, et voila, "Sympathetink by Mathieu Bich".
I can't begrudge him it too much - many other magicians have got products out there that rely on revealing a magic property of something. And hey, I'm not proud - I'll gladly admit that given the same opportunity, I'd have done the same. But it does feel a bit like hawking a product to make some cash on the basis that elastic bands are stretchy, or whisky is flammable. Shh, don't tell anyone.