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I've been messing around with magic for about a year and am having a great time at the local boozer mainly with cards.
I have purchased all sorts of tricks on-line (I live in Australia) and have spent heaps. Only about 25% of all I buy do I end up using. They all sound so great in the write ups. Am I just naive or do others have this problem.

[Anonymously Posted by: 'duke']

This is a very common scenario duke.
I think that virtualy all budding magicians do the same.
It is best, once you've got it out of your system to ensure that you build a good relationship with your supplier, and ask his advice on what you need.
You will quickly see who you should deal with, as a poor retailer will try to encourage you to buy more gimmicks, when what most new magicians really need is learning material.
After all most of the gimmicks still require some slight of hand or handling skills.
It is a very good topic.
Maybe you could post here what books or tapes that you already have, and an idea of your skill level (what tricks that you currently perform).

Remember that learning all the sleights will not make you a good magician after all "A trick without good presentation is no more than a juggling act".
Try to develope your routine, seemlesly merging from one trick to another (making sure to pause to let the effect sink in).

There are many books and videos (even some DVD's) that will teach you all aspects of magic including sleights, routines, style, marketing yourself, history, philosophy etc.

My own personal experience was to buy all the "new" tricks that I could get my hands on spending hundreds of pounds, when there were no new tricks to buy I would feel somehow empty.
I then quickly realised that I needed to develope my skills and routines, I've been watching countless hours of magicians performances, and noting the effects and patter that I like and that suit my own style, I then go on a quest to learn the sleights required to perform the trick and develope my own patter (and sometimes my own variations of the sleights).
Doing this has brought all the fun back into showing magic to people.

If you need advice on which material to get just ask, but do let me know what "style" of magic you usualy perform ie. close-up, strolling, tabled, coins, cards, stage children etc.

I had this problem at first as well i would buy tricks that cost a lot of money but were cumbersome and awkward to carry on. So i decided to just concentrate on tricks done with a pack of cards. i learn as much slight of hand as possible and carry a pack of cards everywhere it's a superb social skill and a great icebreaker and you easily can find your self the center of a crowd of strangers. Plus u are always clean at the end of a trick performed with sleight of hand(well most any way) if card magic intrests you give me a buzz and i'll give you the name of some books videos and web sites that should keep you going for a while.

I to had this problem at first I was buying whole magic sets, such as the marvins magic deulux edition, and then I started to buy gimmiks half of which I haven't bothered to learn to the point where I can perform it without mistake. But now I have resulted to learning just card and coin magic from books and videos and although they can be expensive they mainly teach tricks thet can be done with just normal coins, cards and a bit of skill.
Don't get me wrong though I do occasionly buy some gimmicked tricks like Raven, which is a very versatile gimmick and it is important to have the right cards to perform all those card tricks (bicycle).