talkmagic.co.uk

Thanks magicwabbit

We all strive to offer an excellent service to our customers. What people don’t realise is that on the first of every month before we put the key in the door to open up we need a certain amount of money just to cover costs. This equates to quite a few thousand pounds. Then on top of that we all spend a large amount of money on promoting our businesses and the products we sell.

I have to admit that even though we strive to offer a fast, efficient and trustworthy service, sometimes it doesn’t go to plan. A wrong order might be sent out or some other delay might occur. Its our great customers like yourself that help resolve issues quickly and help up offer a better service.

I am sure I say this on behalf of all the dealers you mentioned. Thanks for all you help and support to all our growing businesses.

Another thought is the following:
If we tried to all undercut each other and offer cheaper prices, would you see quality items on the market for you all to purchase that cost in excess of £10000 - £20000 to manufacture?

This can only happen if we run sufficient and sustainable businesses rather than treat magic as a hobbie.

funnily enough, in testament to worldmagicshop - i had a tiny problem the past week with an order - it was all sorted within 24hrs...nice and easy over a couple of emails...job done...

and their ESP stand is the cheapest around, by as much as a tenner..hats off to 'em...

anyway - i just realised, i forgot to add them to my list...

worldmagicshop.co.uk...

even ordering directly from Dave Forrest's site - i placed an order last monday afternoon - it was here Wednesday morning...

if i can, i buy direct from the creator - but i understand that they'd want to market themselves via shops that have a wider audience to "hit". People need to eat afterall.

I dont buy stuff from ebay, and the only thing i've ever bought from people, is via here, mr. farlsborough's silks...very nice they were too...

I dislike the "but I have bigger overheads" response... so what! don't tell me why you need more of my money... tell me what I get for it!

A good example, the PK rings. I bought mine from World Magic Shop. $5 more than "brand X". I ordered the wrong size, yet the WMS exchanged it without charge. I then wasn't happy with the style I ordered... I preferred the look and strength of the newer G2 ring. Once again, WMS exchanged it without charge. So what I got for the extra "fiver" was service that well and truely exceeded my reasonable expectations.

another thing to consider when buying using the internet is the product. I own 2 "scotch & soda" coin gimmicks, one was twice the price of the other one. Bottom line, the cheaper one is absolute c*** (not the best)!

final point, don't knock eBay, the dealer you buy from is either good or bad, NOT eBay. I have a couple I buy from regularly and have always been VERY happy with them, making some significant savings.

A few other points to throw in. I'll start with an example. 'Hang 'em High'
is an effect where you walk through a rope and was put out by a magic dealer in Washington. He walked into my shop when I had one and started laughing. I was selling the effect for about the same as his cost! The reason being as he sold the effect to a Jober in New York, Jobers pay lower then wholesale usually as they buy in huge bulk. We had items that we manufacture that the Jober wanted. The Jober and I ended up trading effects at the end of a magic convention. hence we were able to sell it cheaper.

Slush poweder, (this goes back years) You used to get a bottle of it for 17.00 in Canada. One day this person comes into the shop and purchased a bottle. He came back asking what we were paying for it and where we got it. Non of his business really until he told us that he is a manufacturer of other products and what we call slush powder he has as a by product. He was able to sell the stuff to us far cheaper then the magic supplier we were using. We started selling at 3.50 for the same bottle. Other dealers were upset for awhile and the major supplier was a little peeved but hey thats business we found a supplier, the magic community wisened up to what slush powder is and now it is quite affordable.

I knew one supplier who had rights to certain effects he just couldn't make them so we worked out a deal. We didn't wholesale the item but we made it and I was able to make as many as I wanted and sold them at a cheaper price point. The supplier then ordered from me at a greatly reduced rate and he would wholesale the item. In that way I was able to sell it cheaper then the average magic shop.

So there are all kinds of different situations that arise.

Also there are unscupulous magic shops that purchase an item once. Realize its just a few cards and an instruction sheet. Before you know it they are just copying the instructions throw a few cards into a ziplock bag sticking a price on it and wham its out the door.