Magic Shop Archives

Merchant of Magic Problems – Top 10 Reasons Not to Use The Magic Shop

The Merchant of Magic shop has been growing steadily year after year since it opened it’s doors in the 1990’s. The magic shop team is proud and humbled by the amazing customer feedback from magicians that order close up magic tricks, or get advice about improving their magic. However, we understand that many magicians still want to use other magic shops for their magicians supplies and training. We thought we would give you 10 reasons why you shouldn’t use The Merchant of Magic, so when your talking with your Merchant of Magic loving friends, you can be armed with some Merchant of Magic problems and reasons why you would rather use a different magic shop.

1) There’s just too much to choose from.

2) I prefer to buy my magic from shop keepers, rather than a group of working magicians.

3) I don’t like receiving advice and performing tips, I just want to buy things, and be on my own.

4) I prefer to be pushed towards a shops own products. I don’t like impartial advice.

5) It annoys me when I’m offered a discount, I don’t need charity!

6) Telephones scare me. I don’t need instant advice and help, just email contact is the future!

7) Bricks and Mortar magic shops have no place on the internet, I only want to support website companies.

8) I prefer to ‘pay my money and take my chances’ it’s just not right having a 365 day return policy.

9) Learning magic is a competition between magicians. I don’t want to support a magic shop that wants to offer free advice to magicians.

10) Being a multi-millionaire, I’m worried what my friends would thing of me using a magic shops with a magic tricks price promise guarantee. It’s just cheap and tacky.

There you have it, 10 good reasons not to use The Merchant of Magic. These Merchant of Magic problems maybe had you nodding in agreement… We understand each of those reasons not to shop with us. However, we would love to have you as a customer, so consider giving us your business anyway, after all, as Micheal Coreleone said:

‘Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.’

🙂

How to Buy Magic Tricks – Common Problems and Mistakes – Advice from Alan Rorrison

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As magicians, we love to buy magic tricks as soon as they are released. Large super market style magic shops aim to offer the widest range of magic, as soon as it’s released.

Each day, the What’s New Section gets another batch of magic books, DVD’s and magic tricks to tempt you. How you react to that, is very important to your development as a magician.

We asked magician Alan Rorrison to give some advice to magicians that will help them improve their magic. Alan wanted to talk about buying magic tricks that you don’t need, and we think it’s very good advice:

Do you buy Magic tricks like Pokemon?

You don’t have to catch them all! It’s OK to collect magic, but that’s not going to make your magic better. Jumping from the latest new magic trick to the latest magic book, then over to the new Blackpool Magic Convention releases, just distracts you from serious practice.

Don’t buy magic tricks on impulse

When you decide to buy magic tricks, make it because they will fit your style and your act. Because it’s new, can be a terrible reason to choose any magic tricks. Be selective, and pick your magic tricks with care and put thought into it. If the only reason you are interested in buying a magic trick is to know it’s secret, it’s nothing more than a puzzle to you.

Buy magic tricks that are right for you

The best magic shops keep a huge back catalog. That’s not an easy thing for magic shops to do. Older tricks get forgotten and don’t sell in great numbers. Shop space is expensive, so small hobby dealers tend to only stock what’s new and ‘hot’ and clear their inventories once the hype is over.

6 ways to save a lot of money when you buy magic tricks:

1) Back Catalogs

Find a magic shop that keeps a large back catalogue. Magic shops that keep all the old tricks allow you to have it all to choose from.

2) Adverts hiding as magic product reviews

Seek out reviews that don’t have a sales agenda. It’s pretty easy to spot when a magic tricks review is really an advert or infomercial for the dealer selling it. Seek out reviews for older products that are tried and tested and not being reviewed just prior to an exclusive launch or after a magic dealer has bulk purchased stock.

3) Search in the right places.

Search magic shop websites by price, name or style, NOT by the date the magic tricks were added to the catalogue.

4) Two questions to ask yourself when you buy magic tricks:

Ask yourself: Is this the type of magic effect I would like to perform? If the answer is yes, ask yourself: Is this the best possible version that has ever been created?

5) What’s the magic shops priority?

Email or phone the magic shop to ask the dealers opinion before you buy magic tricks. They want a happy long term relationship with you as a customer much more than they want to make a one time sale. Good magic shops are staffed full time by professional working magicians and are told to give customers their real honest opinions of the tricks they stock.

6) Advice from outside the project

Seek out the opinion of magic dealers that don’t have a vested interest in the magic tricks they stock. There is nothing wrong with wanting to buy magic tricks from manufacturers, but make sure you get a second opinion. Creators of magic tricks love their work and are, quite rightly proud of it. You can get valuable advice from talking to magic creators, but also consult magicians that are not so close to the project, and can discuss the alternatives with you.

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How to Hold Bicycle Playing Cards Correctly – Video Podcast for Magicians

by Merchant of Magic 20 Comments

One of the Most common problems we see beginners face involves how they hold a deck of Bicycle Playing Cards whilst performing their magic tricks.

When magicians come to the magic shop for help or tuition, we tend to do an initial assessment. We ask them to perform a magic trick, and take note of what’s working we’ll for them, and what needs more work. This is some of what we say about holding your playing cards: Dominic Reyes talks about how to improve the way you hold your Bicycle Playing Cards:

How not to hold your Bicycle Playing Cards.
If you are a beginner, you may get nervous when you show people your magic tricks. Nerves make you tense. Being tense can lead to you hold the Bicycle playing cards very close to your body, at waist level. This is not a great position for several reasons:

1) A deck position that is low and close to the body means you have to look straight down at the playing cards, instead of making eye contact.

2) The background to the action is you groin. Not as appealing as a background with your smiling face in it instead!

3) Your arms are held close to your body, so you tend to cover up and block much of the action from your spectators.

4) You look nervous and as if you are trying to hard. That transfers to the attitude of the spectators as they focus on how you are feeling, rather than the magic trick.

5) It looks as if you are hiding something. Your body language is giving off signals that danger is present. On a subconscious level, you are telling the spectators they need to watch out for ‘moves’ even more closely.

How to hold Bicycle Playing Cards correctly.

1) Hold the deck of bicycle playing cards with a light touch.

2) Make sure your arms are forward and away from your body slightly.

3) Your hands should cover the front of the deck as little as possible.

4) Any fingers that aren’t doing something should be open slightly and out of the way, so as much of the playing cards are as visible as possible.

5) The deck should be above waist level.

6) Move the playing cards around gracefully with finesse as if you regard it as a precious item that you respect and want to display. Imagine a sales person showing you an expensive watch or antique.

Do This: Take a couple of hours and watch a shopping channel. Pick a show where they are selling expensive jewelry.

Notice how the presenter handles the items and displays them.Look at how you handle your playing cards and imagine they are on show in the same way. Be aware of how your hands handle your playing cards and if they cover the deck.

Related Posts:

How Bicycle Playing Cards are made

How to make your Bicycle Playing Cards Last Longer

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