talkmagic.co.uk

I always see on TalkMagic how much people talk about different magic shops/websites and which they like the best e.t.c

So I thought I'd do a bit of work on them to save time for everyone else. (That's what happens when you have a day off, you can do stuff like this!)

I have tried not to review the products in the shop, just the shop itself. These are my opinions and I'm sure everyone will have theres.

I also included the price of a pack of bicycle cards so you can roughly work out price.

Davenports Magic
Website Address http://www.davenportsmagic.co.uk
Ammount of Products: Hundereds in store, not many online.
Telephone Number: 020 7836 0408
Price of Bicycle Deck: £2.50 (Instore)
Personal Experiences with them: I can't falter them much, great place to turn to for all things magical. One thing I would say is that they don't always have everything in stock, but this is understandable with the ammount of products they sell.

International Magic
Website Address http://internationalmagic.com/
Ammount of Products: A lot! A good ammount of stock online
Telephone Number: 020 7405 7324
Price of Bicycle Deck: £3.00 (Online, I presume cheaper in shop)
Personal Experiences with them:Mixed, I went in their once and felt like I was being treated like an idiot. I went in their again and they were really helpful. I don't normally go here, so I can't offer many views.

Magicshop.co.uk
Website Address http://magicshop.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: A very good ammount for an online store. I may be wrong here but could have the highest number of items in a uk magic website.
Telephone Number: 0870 1169915
Price of Bicycle Deck: £1.99 (Online)
Personal Experiences with them: Not very good. About 3 months ago they were offering a free item as long as you commented a code in the comments box when you purchase. I did this but recieved no item. I emailed magicshop.co.uk and got no response. But then again I have ordered from them 3 times and my orders have all come.

Magictricks.co.uk
Website Address http://magicstricks.co.uk
Ammount of Products: Quite a small ammount, but what you do have are high qualty items.
Telephone Number: 0870 758 0719
Price of Bicycle Deck: £1.99 (Online)
Personal Experiences with them: Very good. They used to be the main place I purchased off. If you sign up to their newsletter, which is also very good you can get a 10% discount off all your products. Quick delivery as well.

Nothing up my sleeve.co.uk
Website Address http://www.nothingupmysleeve.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Small to medium. But for what they do have, they have a lot for example 13 different types of flash products!
Telephone Number: Cannot find one, but there is a contact page here http://www.nothingupmysleeve.co.uk/marketplace/contact_us.php
Price of Bicycle Deck: £2.00 (Online)
Personal Experiences with them: Have not purchased off before. I like the traffic light system displaying how in stock a product is.

themagicgadget.co.uk
Website Address http://www.the%20magic%20gadget.co.uk
Ammount of Products: Medium
Telephone Number:01472317874
Price of Bicycle Deck: £3.50 (These are jumbo idex cards, can not find regular)
Personal Experiences with them: Have not purchased off before. They do have some quite good offers.

magicbox.uk.com
Website Address http://www.magicbox.uk.com/
Ammount of Products: Medium
Telephone Number:0191 2325335
Price of Bicycle Deck: £1.50
Personal Experiences with them: Have not purchased off before. They do have some quite good prices for playing cards. I purchased something off them at Blackpool and they seem very nice.

KernowMagic.co.uk
Website Address http://www.kernowmagic.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Medium
Telephone Number: 01326 211713
Price of Bicycle Deck: £2.00
Personal Experiences with them: Have not purchased off before. Looks like quite a good shop.

Alakazam.co.uk
Website Address http://www.alakazam.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Medium
Telephone Number: 01233 663636
Price of Bicycle Deck: £1.99
Personal Experiences with them: Have not purchased off before.

After a requst!
The Magic Attic
Website Address [url]http://www.themagicattic.co.uk/catalog/
[/url]
Ammount of Products: Medium to Large
Telephone Number: 023 9286 2222
Price of Bicycle Deck: £2.00
Personal Experiences with them: Have not purchased off before. Looks like a nice shop and an actual shop is always a bonus

Discount Magic
Website Address http://www.discountmagic.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Medium
Telephone Number: 0871 236 0740
Price of Bicycle Deck: £1.99
Personal Experiences: Very good. I believe they are a slightly more beginner website, but don't be fooled by the word discount, they do sell some quality products. Good postage rate.

Illusioncraft
Website Address: http://www.illusioncraft.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Small
Telephone Number: 01253 314868
Price of a Bicycle Deck: N/A
Personal Experiences: Have not purchased there before, they do a good range of flash products and they seemed very nice when I purchased a brainwave deck for £3 off them in Blackpool. Bargin!

Modus Magic
Website Address: http://www.modusmagic.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Medium
Contact Page:http://www.modusmagic.co.uk/cgi-bin/mf000001.pl?ACTION=SHOWFORM
Price of a Bicycle Deck: £1.90
Personal Experiences: Have not purchased there before. They are quite new and have a nice looking website, which still has a few glitches.

Burning Card Magic
Website Address: http://www.burningcardmagic.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Small
Contact Page:http://www.burningcardmagic.co.uk/index.php?main_page=contact_us
Price of a Bicycle Deck: N/A. Have Masters deck for £3.50
Personal Experiences: Have not purchased there before. They have clearly aimed the website at the young Ellusionist people, just look athe the background, and the name! Nice site however.

The Magic Cave
Website Address: http://www.magiccave.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Large
Telephone Number: 08450942584
Price of a Bicycle Deck: Unsure as only availiable in special section which I haven't joined yet.
Personal Experiences: Have not purchased there before. I have purchased from their market stall in Covent Garden, seemed quite nice. I like how their is a special section that only magicians can go in to, you have to do a simple magic quiz to get access.

MagicMagic.co.uk
Website Address:http://magicmagic.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Medium
Contact Page Here: http://magicmagic.co.uk/store/index.php?act=viewDoc&docId=13
Price of a Bicycle Deck: £1.75
Personal Experiences: Have not purchased there before. Lots of people here think very highly of them. They are relativley new and their site looks almost identical to Ellusionist's! But alot better!

WorldMagicShop.co.uk
Website Address:http://www.worldmagicshop.co.uk/
Ammount of Products: Large
Contact Page Here:http://www.worldmagicshop.co.uk/contact_us.php
Price of a Bicycle Deck: £2.15
Personal Experiences: Have not purchased there before. They have a large ammount of products and have a clever loyalty scheme system.

USA Shops

PenguinMagic.com
Website Address http://penguinmagic.com/
Ammount of Products: Very Large
Telephone Number:(I'm not sure the international code for america)
+? 1-800-717-2799
Price of Bicycle Deck: £1.31 (Current Exchange rate)
Personal Experiences with them: Top Class. I normally get postage in a week. Extremley large number of items, honest postage to the UK. Large ammount of items. Very cheap. Lots of videos to preview before buying. They also have instructional videos for some effects. These are always nice when your dieing to know what the secret is! Also once you purchase an effect, you get access to a forum for people who have purchased it. So you can talk about tricks without worrying about exposure.

Ellusionist.com
Website Address http://ellusionist.com/
Ammount of Products: Medium
Telephone Number:I can't find a telephone number, but they have a very good customer support area. http://esupport.elusionist.com/
Price of Bicycle Deck: £1.50 (Current Exchange rate, have to purchase as pack of 3)
Personal Experiences with them: Never purchased off them before purely because of shipping rates, they are out of this world! If I wanted to purchase an Ellusionist effect I would find somewhere in the UK that stocks it.

This concludes my Shop review. I'm suprised you got through it! I have only reviewed a small percentage of the ammount of Magic shops out there so if you like you can add your reviews on. Also, any shops that I don't have any personal experiences with please add that on aswell.

Nice writeup there!

I have had mixed experiences but in the main very good service,
The biggest amount of stock has to be www.world-of-magic.co.uk
I have found www.magictricks.co.uk to have a great regard for customer service and have replaced faulty items for me very quickly.
Alakazam's own products are superb and the service is excellent and quick. Very impressed with the things I have bought from them.
www.magicshop.co.uk have quite a range of products, but be careful what you buy. Their service is quick, but heaven forbid if you review something from them and didn't like it. They take it very personally.

Magicbox, I have ordered from and do good deals for Bikes. They do bricks for £20, but I think NUMS are even cheaper. They have a good range of stock and again, their exclusive items (from my experience) are of a high quality.

Added some new ones in there

Dont forget dudethatscoolmagic!

Great site, good range of stuff and cheap. Ordered some stuff yesterday and got some of the best customer service I've ever got from any company.

www.MAGICmagic.co.uk is lightning fast, excellent service too.

(i don't work for them)

TheLondonI,

Please email again or call the shop on 02392 25 22 20. I looked through our emails and can't find one from you about the missing free gift anywhere so may be a email server issue, Will be happy to correct this for you right away

BTW: The shop is also a bricks and mortar shop open to visitors (not mentioned in the review.)


Lord Freddie,
We love recieveing reviews but as we discussed with you, we ask that you do not expose the magic secret in the posting or we have to edit it. I know you did not like this, but its only fair on the creator, that we do not allow the secret of the trick to be published in a review

Dominic Reyes
Magicshop.co.uk

I find with Penguin though potentially the cheapest have long wait times as shipping is from the states.

You also run the risk of import duty and tax but they helpfully mark the packaging as demo stuff with nil or low value. I've yet to get caught out but so be it if I do the prices are usually cheaper than the UK.

I've also ordered from magicbox.uk and always had a great service, they price match any other online retailer if they have stock in (UK I guess) and do a next day courier service. Postage free on orders over £40 or about £2 flat rate first class post

NUMS also have great service, they messed up an order once by accident but replaced the item without question.

I'd go back to these three retailers anytime and do

not got time to flesh it out, but:

www.blackhart.co.uk - for bizarre and storytelling magic, tarot, runes etc...quick delivery, 90 day money back offer...

moremagictricks.co.uk - a bigger version of magictricks.co.uk, run by the same people, automated for the most part, delivery is usually within one week...


usa sites:

stevens magic emporium - www.stevensmagic.com - very quick delivery to UK, pick UPS from the settings, gets here 3-5 days...massive stock, and clearance items...

hank lee - www.hanklee.org - beware the p&p - but they do good deals, and again, vast array of stuff...usually about 1-2 weeks delivery by cheapest post option...

My top two sites are Magicshop and Magixbox.

Magic shop always deliver to me by next day. I have had trouble with replies to emails, never had a reply but then again, the service is spot on otherwise and lighning fast delivery and have a huge range of stock.

Magic box, the staff are very friendly and helpful. Twice now I have had the wrong product delivered or damaged goods but they are speedy top replace it for free. Again, speedy delivery, always nexy day and they are quick to give a courtesy call to let me know the products are in the post or if any problems arise.

Nums is a close third, always great service by our man Seige. Most items are reasonably priced. The delivery is a little slower and there is not as much by way of amount of products. ( but thats probably due to me having bought everything I want from there ). The service here is the reason I come back. Chris replies to every email and the service level is exceptional and quality of goods is exceptional, much care taken.

Dudethatscoolmagic. Normal delivery time, and reasonably priced. Only ordered once.

I have an oreder in with Mike Danatas Studio and Alakazam so will see how the service is with them

MagicShop wrote:Lord Freddie,
We love recieveing reviews but as we discussed with you, we ask that you do not expose the magic secret in the posting or we have to edit it. I know you did not like this, but its only fair on the creator, that we do not allow the secret of the trick to be published in a review

Dominic Reyes
Magicshop.co.uk

The secret was not published in the review. There is a review on this (and other forums) and neither contain the secret. I was just throughly disappointed with purchasing something I found unusable and makes me a bit wary.
I have never revealed the secret to this, or any, effect.

I.D wrote:I have an oreder in with Mike Danatas Studio and Alakazam so will see how the service is with them

I have nothing but good things to say about Alakazam, I ordered the Heirloom wallet from them last week and it arrived as quick as a flash.

Having spoken to them on the phone regarding effects I am interested in, I have found them to be really helpful. I'm interested in the Axtell Drawing Board, but being left handed, I need the LH version but don't fancy ordering from the US as import duties worry me. Alakazam said they can order one in specially.
Great service and their own exclusive range (though I believe others sell some of them now too) are of a very high quality and does exactly what it says. Their BIP book went straight into my show.

Lord Freddie,

I was refering to the one you posted in our reviews section that exposed the method of the effect Hypnotrick, which we had to remove and you took objection to. You remember, it was the one that started the long thread about it on this and other forums. Mandrake kindly locked it, as it was going around in circles.

Don't want to offend you or start off another chain of postings on the matter, just want to point out why we had to remove the 'review' due to exposure. From your first post on this thread you suggest that we don't like reviews. Nothing against them at all, but have to watch the content to protect against revealing secrets

Hope this helps

Dominic

Just posting an opinion from experience and warning others not to post negative reviews of your products as you take it personally.
Just being honest.

Well, thats totally incorrect my friend.

I only object to exposure of the secret being posted as a review. I think that is fair to expect.

You do write some great reviews on the forums, and I thinks that's really useful. The trick was not right for you, which is fair enough, but just posting a couple of lines which simply told everyone how the trick was done, is not really a review in my opinion. It would not be allowed on a forum like Talk Magic, so its only fair to expect that I would not want to publish that either.

Lets drop the discussion as its just starting up an argument between us, that has much more too it that your review, and was discussed to death in an old thread.

Certainly, not trying to start a debate, but merely stating my personal experience concerning the dealers I have purchased effects from. The majority of my reviews (see many of them on this forum) are favourable and sometimes you get an effect you dislike.
You are the only dealer to enter a debate over one of the few negative reviews I have posted so I am merely warning other would-be purchasers to excise some caution if they too, indeed, purchase something from yourselves that they may be unhappy with as you may be upset by it and it could spurn the birth of a rather unnnecessary, argumentative thread.

My experience of MoM's exclusive effects (though only the one) has made me incredibly wary of purchasing any more, whereas my experience of Alakazam's is the opposite. Others may be of a different opinion, but surely the objective of forums such as these is the collation of the experiences of the collective members and whether you regard their experiences as worth noting and listening to is up to the individual.