In my 50+ years as a magic creator, author, and dealer, I have lived through more than a couple of operational changes. When I started my magician’s service, freight and distribution were not a consideration, and our initial trade terms in this country were a minimum order of the then equivalent of 80 US cents, (Rs.25.00) post-free. We also sent a couple of parcels every day around the world, and our business grew over the years to a range of over 2000 items and over $1 million of sales (to the end customer) every year.
Things kept changing, with the freight galloping North, the “paper-work” and “red tape” and the logistics making it imperative to work only through distributors, who resold to dealers, who finally sold to the magician or end customer, and our items would finally retail for around five times or more the price we sold them for.
In recent times the Postal Service is no longer a viable option for international trade. Courier freight is now so high that it could cost anything from 50% to 500% of the cost of the item to deliver it to an international address. The physical side of the business requires a minimum order of $ 500.00 to just break even, and cover the cost of our paperwork and formalities, and not even the big dealers can afford that. We could charge more, but with the mark-ups at the different stages of distribution, the items would get priced completely out of their basic worth.
In my last two manuscripts (both available from Lybrary.com) I had experimented with a format, where the reader had to just print, cut and perform the effects. These were all packet “card” tricks, but in making up the tricks I was impressed with the very professional and commercial results one could easily achieve with just a color inkjet printer and some artboard. With the proliferation of PCs and color printers in almost every home, this seemed like a very viable distribution vehicle for some of my ideas.
And the biggest satisfaction of this business has always been the “ideas” to add to the overflowing cauldrons of “wonder workers”. If they had a coat-of-arms, it would surely say “What’s New?”
There is no delivery cost, or the cost of making, stocking, packaging and forwarding a physical product. No delays in transit, no missing and damaged parcels, and no cost escalation as the product passes through several hands.
This manuscript is an attempt at marketing some of my creations and some of the effects we market in our service in this DIY format. Something like the “punch out and make” books of our childhood, except that there is no physical book to make and mail.
This manuscript has items other than “Card Tricks”.
Age Cards Enhanced is a version of the classic effect, enhanced for audiences with double the life span of the original 63, but still using just 6 cards.
The Date Cards are a variation covering the years from 1901 to 2023, on 6 cards, which will enable you to divine the date of birth or any memorable date like the year of marriage or graduation of any spectator.
The Zodiac Cards will enable you to “read” the sun-sign of a spectator, or their spouses or siblings.
The Mail-order Brides effect enables you to “guess” the free selection of one of dozens of potential candidates by an eligible bachelor from a catalog of Mail-order Brides.
The Total Cards permit you to instantly give the total of 5 random numbers from a choice of 10, sight unseen. Different results permit an immediate repeat.
The Wonders of the Zoo enables you to predict the free choice of an animal or bird from a choice of 16, with nothing for you to figure or do. It works itself – you could have another spectator divine the choice.
Our policy has always been “value for money”, and I would have sold these ideas and props at about a Dollar each from our service, even if the end user paid a considerably higher price to get it from a store. So this book comes to you at the very modest price of a dollar a trick, and a few minutes work to print and put it in your act.
If it proves acceptable, I would be motivated to offer more of my ideas in this DIY format.
These are, of course, “Fold-flat, easy to carry, board Tricks”. But who knows, this may be the beginning of a whole new trend in marketing magic props. Perhaps at a date in the not-too-distant future one could supply the G-Code or STL for the more solid magic props which you could turn out on your 3-D printer, (when 3-D printers are as common as Inkjet printers today)
After all, the real bonus of this business has been the luxury to dream!
1st edition 2024, PDF 26 pages.
word count: 7225 which is equivalent to 28 standard pages of text
Download at : https://www.lybrary.com/ageless-artifices-p-926598.html?affid=16293