talkmagic.co.uk

Invisable deck and my can of RF, I never use it. I used to but then I was shown a way to do the same trick with one red and one blue deck and odd and even cards. The card they choose is the only red/blue card in a red/blue deck. Now instead of two decks I use one deck so I can bring it out and even show the faces before I ask the cards name and do a pass to change the deck colour. Same as the ID/brainwave . Ok you can't ribbon spread on a table, but you can show all the cards have the same colour backs in other more subtle ways.

I know this makes no sence to those who don't know it but it's such a simple trick any more and I'll expose.

Buying naff magic is something that happens to us all, but it's still annoying when you receive something that sounded superb and you're left with a dud.

Magic dealers have as many outs for selling rubbish effects as a metalist routine! It's the only area of the retail industry where the consumer has hardly any rights.

Some of the outs for complaining about a naff effect are:

1) It's above your ability. (Makes the customer look small and yourself superior, Double whammy!)
2) You're buying secrets - tough.
3) It doesn't suit your style. (Surely a decent effect or principle can be modified to suit anyones style?)
4) You don't understand it properly (See 1.)

The spoof ads in the back of Derren Brown's 'Pure Effect' were spot on.
There are some reputable dealers out there who care about their customers, but there are also people peddling rubbish who care more about your money than magic.

If you bought a cr*p quality telly which just about worked but the the picture was so bad it was unwatchable, surely you'd be entitled to an exchange/refund. With magic it's different and a lot of money can be wasted on the journey to finding those excellent, workable effects.

The reviews on forums like TM are a godsend and help navigating the minefield of magic shopping!

And its not a case of paying out mega bucks will get you a big fancy trick. You can spend £10 and get something you will always use. I think I know the trick Freddie has in mind though.

I love things that are usable. Also, cheap looking props annoy me if the effect is pricey.
I love Black Hart's stuff. Well-made and look great.

gilligan's prediction, mastermind (gaston armocida not criss angel) and fantasio lighter to fan cards

Since I've made most of my purchases based on recommendation from here, I'm pretty good all round. I suppose, if I had to choose the bottom of the pile, it would be my marked deck, which I never use and Ninja 1, which is just annoying. Other than that, I'm pretty solid.

In the main, forums like this are the best place to find out whether something is to your taste or as good as the adverts says as people who have paid good, honest money for something are going to be frank. Or earnest. Whatever their name is.

Some dealers sites, and I won't mention any names here, delete ALL negative reviews and just leave the praiseworthy ones one. Not all of them do this, but one in particular has a 5 star rating and ALL of the reviews on there are either four or five stars! Astonishing!

This dealer now refuses to speak to me because I gave one of his products a bad review. Control freak!

The reviews on here are great as they represent a wide range of opinions and you can make your own mind up regarding the pros and cons of a certain product and the writings of the folk on here have saved me some money and made me buy things that I had no idea were as good as they are.

Hoorah!

I did a lot of review work for technical books and absolutely slated one of them. Rather than just ignore my review, they took a sound bite from it and quoted it out of context on their website making it positive. Clearly my reputation as a reviewer was important

So, if any of you have any pre or post release work needs doing, I'm your man. I don't charge for the work, I just expect a full release copy of the work when published. I am harsh and will correct your use of English.

If any of you have P e r l Graphics Programming, I'm the Steve Marvell in:

Thanks to Steve Marvell in particular for his through and pointed critisism.

It's really shocking. If you release something for commercial sale,you
have to expect it to be reviewed. If you release something good then you have nothing to worry about, but if it's something poor and your ego gets hurt then just take it. If you sell tat you've got to expect it sometimes.

These people can edit things on their one-sided websites, but you can also review it elsewhere. Which is where they can't erase any trace of your opinions. I always believe in being honest about things.
There's enough hype and sycophancy in the world already.

My worst purchase was the vanishing flute. I planned on buying the one from Fantasio, their's are pro, but of course I wanted to save a couple bucks and went for the one by MAK magic. TERRIBLE and obvious. It wasn't the color that the description said it would be, when I got it, the mouth piece was broken, I never use it. The other one would have to be Norm Nielson's Bottle Thru Table. This one is the most awkward to perform ever. I performed it one time and they said it was cool. That was only because I had time to prepare everything and the way I presented the effect wasn't even close to the way you are supposed to. In a real situation, performing it would be near impossible. Angle sensitive too. It cost $32 and I was outraged at what you get. It wasn't worth 1/4 of that price. Complete rubbish.

card_shark_2006 wrote:My worst purchase was the vanishing flute. I planned on buying the one from Fantasio, their's are pro, but of course I wanted to save a couple bucks and went for the one by MAK magic. TERRIBLE and obvious. It wasn't the color that the description said it would be, when I got it, the mouth piece was broken, I never use it. The other one would have to be Norm Nielson's Bottle Thru Table. This one is the most awkward to perform ever. I performed it one time and they said it was cool. That was only because I had time to prepare everything and the way I presented the effect wasn't even close to the way you are supposed to. In a real situation, performing it would be near impossible. Angle sensitive too. It cost $32 and I was outraged at what you get. It wasn't worth 1/4 of that price. Complete rubbish.

Many years ago I bought the Fantasio Vanishing Flute, but have yet to use it.
Funnily enough, I had been rummaging through things recently to see which effects would work in my stage comedy act and this is one the ones I had a second look at.
It looks more like a recorder than a flute, but is playable and works like a dream. When I first recevied it (about 10 years ago) and saw what it consisted of I felt a touch disappointed as it was expensive for what you got (about £25 if I remember correctly) but is a nice little effect.

I remember a trick I bought from Supreme Magic in the early 1970's. It was called something like 'Flying Pig' and had an amazing description in the catalogue about a model pig which vanished magically under impossible conditions. When it arrived it was just a little plastic pig with a piece of black cotton tied to its leg and a weight on the other end. You can probably imagine what you were supposed to do with it. Despite hours of practice it was virtually impossible to perform the vanish even remotely convincingly... I sometimes wistfully say: "Those were the days", but there wasn't half a lot of rubbish about then!

I would say Gilligan's prediction, one of the biggest disappointments ever

The question is do we get any better at choosing things as we get older?

I think that I am (alightly!) more likely to buy things that suit my style now than I was when I was a kid, but I continue to get things that don't quite work.

That's one of the things about magic - one trick can look amazing when one person does it, and absolutely rubbish when someone else does.

I have definitely got better at choosing appropriate material over time.

The last really bad purchase I made was a few years ago. I was moving away from doing all sorts of magic, to concentrate on mentalism and mind magic. However, I was fascinated by 'Impossible Card to Bottle'. The description defied belief and I had to find out about it.

I bought the trick, read the instruction booklet and then realised that I'd had a bad case of CUPS. I never even opened the rest of the box. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the effect, or the method. It was just so completely removed from what I do in magic that it was useless.

I have bought things that cost more, and which I have yet to use. The difference is that I know that I might use those things, when I have an appropriate opportunity.