talkmagic.co.uk

One of my favorite magic shop got shut down this week.The Reason online competition. what ever happen going to good old magic shop spending hours there deciding what you going to buy (i miss that) well now it time to jump in the bandwagon.What online magic stores do you shop @ and would consider the best ?

thanks

What happened you ask?

The same thing that happened to your local butcher or bakery when the supermarket giants leapt in.

The same thing that happened to your local library.

And your regional corner store. And your movie theater, and 12" vinyl music albums.

The same that happened when four cylinder engines took over from horse drawn carts, and the same thing that happened when a calculator replaced the abacus and brain power.

The same little thing which stopped infant mortality, and affected cancer survival rates.

And the same thing that happened which bought us down from trees to live in houses and watch TV.

It's called progress, evolution. And that's what happens.

It is evolution. Having said that, a fair few online magic retailers have gone under too. I think the real problem retailers face is competition on price, but also widened choice.

Back in the 70s and 80s, there were mail order shops, but it was a slow process. You had to rely on dealer descriptions, which were often misleading (a problem that's not entirely gone away). Payment was done by post, and shopping around was hard. If you had a local magic shop, you could go there and actually see products demonstrated.

Now, you can buy (almost) as easily from Essex as from Tyneside, and see the stuff demonstrated online half the time, and usually get to see a photo of the prop itself (obviously, seeing the cover of a book or DVD happens too, but is not exactly enlightening).

It's rather odd that London currently has only two magic shops, neither of which get particularly favourable write-ups. In one sense, there is arguably a market for a really good retailer, but I'm simply not convinced there's a financially viable opening.

I'd be happy to go to either shop more often, but it means an hour's journey, often to get less than stellar service. I could order from them online, but I find the shops I use carry 95% of what I'm after. The last time I went to Davenports (I think) was to buy a specific item I'd not found anywhere else.

The ones I use most frequently are:
Alakazam
World of Magic
Top Secret Magic
Cards 4 Magic/The Bond Agency
Magic Box

Incidentally, three of those have physical shops as well (I don't think the Bond Agency opens for trade, but I might be wrong.)

Where are you based, ballersunit?

If your in the states than a website with decent prices is penguinmagic.com, or hanklee.org.

seige wrote:The same that happened when four cylinder engines took over from horse drawn carts, and the same thing that happened when a calculator replaced the abacus and brain power.

And the same thing that happened which bought us down from trees to live in houses and watch TV.

Those Welsh catch up eventually.

Part-Timer wrote:(I don't think the Bond Agency opens for trade, but I might be wrong.)

The bond agency does have a physical shop - although I think the opening times can be a little erratic. They're just round the corner from Alakazam (in Ashford, a town whose only other feature is a large railway station taking people out of the town very quickly).

It's certainly worth a visit. My, what a lot of cards they have

I use the Bond Agency, or the Card Collection as the physical shop is called, regularly. The opening hours are 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. And there are so-o-o many cards it's astonishing. Of course they don't just do cards, but when you go in that's all you'll seem to see!!

The Card Collection are fantastic. The guys there are really helpful and their stock assortment is phenomenal. I've never seen a website with so much stock - and that's not even counting all those decks of cards.