Hank Lee's old shop with my Dad.

I quadruple thirds the seconds on Williams Magic in Tucson.

Truly an amazing magic shop and if you ever get a chance to check out their
traveling magic shop, do so. You won't believe how much stuff Mr. Williams
has packed into that wagon. He was here just the other day. Love it!

Jim

Traveling magic shop??? Can you give me details about that?
Thanks
-Jack

The Cuckoo's Nest
Pittsburgh, Pa
412-481-4411

Linda, Tom and the staff are great people.

Give 'em a call or find their website.

Shooz

On line my two favorite are MJM and Hocus Pocus.


Joe

Besides Home Depot it would be Browser's Den!

I'm a New Yorker, I visited Browser's when I went up for Magicana, and I (on a VERY tight budget) didn't end up getting anything (even though I wanted to). They were very friendly and conversational. Then I wanted to check out Morissey magic, and they gave me very clear directions, to their competition, WHAT?
Then when I came back for a private performance going on, when dealing with a customer they gave great attention to his needs, and when he was buying a magazine didn't upsell the guy(customer) or anything, just made he had got exactly what he came for!

If every business, magic or otherwise operated like that, much fewer would go out of business quickly! Which made me want to be something even more. And by the way they didn't seem upset at ALL when I didn't get anything. Keep it up guys.

My favorite shops are 52magic.com in China, magic-recipe.com in India, penguinmagic.com and mjmmagic.com!

I really, really, like Williams Magic Shop too! They're extremely nice and its a joy to browse around in there!

Yes I would also like some details! I did not know about this and its sound interesting!

I live in Australia on an Island state called Tasmania which doesn't have one magic shop. Hmm theres an idea for a business one day.

So Vanishing Inc and Dan and Dave online stores are my favourites

Fellow On-line shoppers,

Several years ago my local shop went out of business and I was forced to do the bulk of my shopping online. What I decided to do was always use a different site and find the best few then use them exclusively. Since there are so many it's going to take me a couple more years to get through them. The most important thing for me was to be fair to everyone. I was thinking I have to be careful not to let the purchases received reflect the store (when they are just the retailer). In other words, if I ended up loving the effect that shouldn't reflect the store but rather the author or creator. At first I also thought about places I visited in person not letting that bias my evaluation of their web store. An example would be Tannen's, I have some nostalgic feelings associated with that store and thought it might be unfair to another that I have never visited in person. I try to only order no more than 3 items to avoid that disappointing "backorder" notice.

Keeping with the spirit of this section of the Café, I will not use my personal list to hammer anyone. If I've had a bad experience (very, very few thankfully) I plan on not even mentioning them.

One thing that appeals to a cheap-skate such as myself is the discount coupons or discount codes. Everyone seems to offer them but some places make it hard to find them or I don't know what's available. On the flip side some email me every other day with sales and codes.

Threads like this one are great because they give me good ideas and have helped me find some good places. The idea of a secret shopper appeals to me and I hope to offer a nice list to everyone someday of the best of the best. Without revealing anything too soon I have found that when you buy items directly from people who have developed material (Vanishing Inc, Mr. Dean Dill, SFS, Viking etc) it really makes a difference. General retailers are more of a mixed bag.

Ease of use of the web site is something that hasn't been discussed, but is one of the biggest differences I have found so far.

Keep the ideas coming, I love it.

Respectfully,

Phil

You can see the Williams Magic Mobile shop on Youtube. Here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1uSVynJBNs

I have to say that's pretty interesting and something completely different huh? I like the idea and hopefully it continues to work well for them

Barry's Magic shop in Rockville Maryland http://www.barrysmagicshop.com (1400 miles from my house but worht the commute)

Stevens Magic in Wichita KS

Great shops with great owners.

Since I am up here in the city, as they say, I will plan to stop in to Misdirections today. Looking forward to it.

My faforate magik stoor is 3 milez far from the howz. I to try not bye magik from compewter.

That shop is new and also very cool. They have a full time shop in Tucson as well. Give them a call and chat.

Either directly from the producer or from penguin magic if possible

I 2nd the recommendation for Barry's in Rockville. A fantastic shop, and Barry is great (and so is his staff). A wide selection of effects and good prices, too.

Greetings...

Does William's post any kind of schedule for where their mobile shop will be?

Thanks,
Joe