Greetings Al! I would say that goodie bags are just an added product/service a magician can provide to busy parents.

I offer my own customized kits because it gives me a chance to have every kid at the party take something home with my name and logo on it. I think having my own customized party favor magic kits with my logo makes me look more professional.

I've heard that others like David Copperfield and Lance Burton have done the same thing at their shows. But what do they know? Why just yesterday I was speaking with a gentlemen in our industry about a new design for my kits. He was telling me about a design he had recently done for another amateur by the name of Duane Laflin.

All kidding aside Al, I'm just baffled by your strong reaction to a rather benign idea. It goes without saying that kits or goodie bags should look professional, be a fair value for clients, and be offered to clients in a professional manner. It's just another form of BOR.

I am certainly not an "armchair" magician. I'm a full-time professional and have several full-time pro friends in the busieness who also offer kits or bags. Some of them would probably not take kindly to being called names by the likes of you. (I on the other hand am much more charitable and understanding about such things.)

Maybe you should reconsider your remarks. If you truly believe selling kits or bags is not right for your business, then fine. But it might not be a good idea to make blanket insults about everyone else in our industry who does.

To all of you reading this thread who are relatively new to the business please take much of what you read on these forums with a grain of salt. Especially when it comes to what constitutes ethical or professional business pratcices.

I've attached a couple of pics showing the front and back of my kits. I "huckster" them to poor unsuspecting parents for the exorbitant price of $3.00 each. My cost is about $1.70. For all you math challendged "knuckleheads" that's an obscene profit of...$1.30. Which is why I will be a proud member of the 1% in no time! BWAAAAHAAAAHAAAA!

Click here to view attached image.

Here's the back showing what's in it:

Click here to view attached image.

Great post Chris Capstone. The bag you offer looks very professional. I see some smart marketing by having your packaging refer them to your site for more magical items....very smart.

Thanks Michael, I guess it's smart but...when I designed the package I had the idea to have a shopping cart page that they could link to from my home page, but I haven't gotten around to getting it done. Every once in a while I get an email from somone wanting to buy tricks and I send them a reply with pics and prices.

In a way I'm kind of glad now that I didn't do the shopping cart page. I 've changed my mind on it. I now think it will be better to offer the additional tricks free as an incentive for doing something like writing a review or liking me on my facebook fan page. I haven't decided for sure yet. Maybe you have an idea?

I'm also considering making the kits part of the price of my birthday show. Maybe I'll include up to 20 kits and only charge for additional ones. What do you think? I'm not having a problem selling them now, I'm just thinking it will be more percieved value to include some in the price.

Chris

On the Bags
I think it's great to include them in your price. In addition to a great show, I feel it helps differentiate me from other guys around town. Of course, I adjusted my price to absorb this expense. However at times I talk with parents with a tight budget. I don't advertise this, but if the show seems to be at risk of being lost, I'll offer them my economy show. This is my standard show without the goodie bags, gift for the bday kid, etc. I only include 8 bags with my standard bday package. Generally there are more than 8 kids at a party and this influences the parent to buy some extra bags, or upgrade to a different bday show package that includes more bags.

On the additional tricks
I like Dean Hankey's mantra of building loyalty by giving away free stuff. With that said, I'd lean towards giving away a downloadable .pdf or video file that teaches a trick. This is a feature I plan to also implement at some point. I've been in the habit of sending a gift from the "$5 Below" store when clients sent back written feedback. With a download I could save that expense.

Wishing you the best....

Great ideas Michael, Thanks for contributing something positive to the discussion.

Hey guys, some very interesting and useful tips here for goody bags/ magic kits. Some really good advice indeed. I currently do offer "loot bags or magic kits" and have on and off for the last 15 years. In the last few years I did something that I will share with you all now. For me it has been a marketing winner 100%. It is an idea that I came up with about 4 years ago and will be discussed on one of my upcoming "birthday party magic" for children's dvd's but I thought I would share it with you here first.

When I receive an inquiry for a birthday show, I pitch my show accordingly to my game plan. Once that is over, I very casually mention that I also offer a magic kit/loot bag that is completely magic in theme and tell the parent the cost is $5.00 per bag. Like many of you, I also make the kit look as attractive as possible. Each kit includes 3 magic tricks that are age appropriate. I order all of my tricks in bulk from Loftus at http://www.loftus.com and also have some some of my custom original kids magic tricks made in overseas for very little cost in bulk. I also include my coloring sheet that rolls into a magic wand and it also has some additional impromptu magic trick instructions on the back and probably the most important piece, a fridge magnet with my colorful logo, website and contact info.

Here is the best part! On the fridge magnet is an almost exact replica of my website address. It differs only in the domain name slightly but when they go to the site it is almost a spitting image of my main site. The phone number is also different than my main phone number and is actually a "smart ring" phone line ($5.00 a month) When calls come in on that line, it is a double ring and I know instantly that they are inquiry calls from the fridge magnets that come from the loot bag.

Here is why I do this. When I get calls on that smart ring line, I know it is a birthday party inquiry from my fridge magnet or from the magic loot kit cover which also has my second website and smart ring number, I am able to track every single inquiry now from my loot bag give aways as opposed to calls from my normal contact magic hotline that may come from a google search, referrals, repeats and even yes, my yellow pages ad. Yup, I still use the YP ad but it is a simple line ad these days that costs very little.

It really just allows me to chat the parent up regarding my loot bags in my sales pitch because, you guessed it, she is already calling me from a number that was in the loot bag to begin with and that allows me to really up-sell it even more at that point. The mom has her child want me for their birthday party and I remind them about the loot bags in the sales pitch too.

It really makes a difference to me to know how I am acquiring my birthday bookings and I can tell you all that in my own personal experience, Loot bags or magic kits really do pay off and earn me a ton of work. You may wonder though why I would go through all this trouble when I could easily just have the loot bags and fridge magnet have my regular contact info and website. I do it because it simply started as a marketing experiment to see if would work. Nothing more than that. The second phone line costs very little as mentioned and the extra website is very inexpensive too at only $25 per year to renew it.

This is only my opinion of course but as a full time professional for the last 15 years and supporting my wife and too kids solely from magic, these little extra selling goodies really ad up every month. The cost for one magic kit/loot bag is about $1.27. I charge $5.00 per unit. In a party of 15 kids, that's an extra $55.00 per show. I devote one day every 3 or 4 months putting the kits together, along with my wife and we have it down to a fine science. We can make about 700 magic kits up in one day. Not everyone of course will buy them but it is a wonderful ad on and has made a difference for me in this recession time. I do not have the luxury of a spouse who works and brings in a second income. My wife and I have to raise both our children together as some of you may know, they both have autism and it really is a full time job just to raise two kids with special needs in our home. So I am left with either getting a day job (nothing wrong with that, did for many years) or trying to reinvent my income potential doing birthday parties.

Anyhoo, everyone has their own opinions on this subject and I will only comment on my own experience.

Chriscapstone - Awesome pics. Very sharp looking.

Michael Douglas - Really solid advice.

PS, my birthday show is bullet proof and I would never feel that I am cheapening my performance with an up sell for goody bags or trying to compensate for a weak performance. This is a business 100% for me and has been since I went full time professional around 1997 and I will do whatever it takes to make sure my mortgage,car payments tons of bills extra therapist costs are paid every month. I will do whatever it takes for my kids and family to never go without. If that means trying to sell a few goody bags whenever I can, I will do it till my very last children's show.

I will even dress in a in a lobster costume at a customer appreciation day at a yacht club for 5 hours doing roving magic in the sweltering Vancouver Summer heat if it earns me a good keep. Not saying I have ever done that of course or have I???

Tony, I Loooooove the fridge magnet idea. I've been in lots of homes where there's a variety of those things dotting the fridge. Also thanks for the Loftus link. I've not known of them until now. Lastly, I really admire your "whatever it takes" attitude to generate income for your family.

Oh...I almost forgot...ummmm "sweltering Vancouver summer heat"??? Yeah...right. I grew up in Portland, so I'm not falling for that one.

Al, you are a rude and arrogant man. After reading the above it shows that YOU are the rank amateur. Completely disrespectful to other people's opinions and so far up your own a**e you cannot see anything else except you own narrow minded thoughts.

Mark

Tony Chris,

Most impressive indeed!

Peter Cuddihy

Thanks Michael and Peter.

Yeah, I admit it, we only get a big wopping 2 whole weeks of summer heat. Then it is back to "raincouver"!

TC

Interesting, if a question comes up someone will say “research it on the Café it has been discussed many times throughout the years"; then when a member researches it and asks a question from an old thread, a post like this comes up; how can anyone win here?

My vote; Keep it up, the old posts are sometimes more informative than the new ones.

The very few times I give out a party bag the bag contains one item, a small flowering plant (pansy normally) in compost ready for planting out.
I buy them in bulk from a garden centre and children love getting them and parents think it is a great idea as they can plant them in the garden.
Not for everyone I know but it works for me.

Good one
Leave it to a juggler to come up with a green idea.

An interesting idea!

Given the thread is,5 years old. I thought I would ask the question again to see what been given as goody bags today as I have been asked to,provide them for a birthday party I am booked at .

I've been offering Goody Bags for 2 years now. They've become a popular add on to my birthday shows.

Everything in the bag cost me 1.25 in wholesale price.

2 magic trick toys. Usually small cup and balls, and coin base, sometimes a coin slide, and mystery dice.

1 novelty toy, either finger spies, nail through finger, squirt ring, or rattlesnake eggs.

Every bag gets a small wand and fortune teller fish.

I add two candies, pop fizz, and sucker.

I print all of my own bags. Each bag cost $5.00. My minimum order has been fourteen. My max so far was 28.