I just purchased this wallet, and I'm quite pleased with it. First, please note that it is not cheap. But then again, I've paid money for wallets that are junk, and received zero return on that small investment. The wallet is a worker's wallet, due to price and the fact that it is a Kaps style inner breast pocket wallet. If you perform informally, you'll probably want to go with a hip style wallet.

First of all, the wallet is slim. This is not the bulky "pocket organizer" type wallet. It is considerably slimmer than the BKM, for instance.

Second, it looks like a real wallet. I have been looking to make my own wallet from the instructions in Pat Page's excellent card-to-wallet video, so I have been in the habit of looking at every wallet I can find whenever I enter a store. Although it is a breast pocket wallet (not the common billfold style), you could carry it anytime you wear a suit and it wouldn't look out of the ordinary.

Third, it is very high quality, genuine leather. It looks and feels like a fine wallet.

Last, Mr. Wakeman includes several excellent routines. At first I dismissed the slim booklet that came with the wallet, disappointed that it wasn't illustrated. Once I started reading the routines, though, I was impressed by how clever and solid they are. The ambitious card routine ends with card to wallet; it is a solid workhorse of a routine that would be a gig-getting, money-earning feature of anyone who learns it. It includes a bit for the routine contributed by John Bannon that is sheer genius. There is a no-palm card to wallet, and a routine that gets two cards to the wallet with only a single palm. This routine builds nicely, each phase becoming more impossible than the last.

You can buy several cheap wallets that won't serve you as well as this one, or if you're serious, you can make a solid investment in Wakeman's Expert Card to Wallet.

Excellent review, Darrin! I have been looking at this wallet for a long time, and after your review, I think I am going to get it.

Take it from a worker who has loaded thousands of cards in his day (and expects to load tens of thousands more), the Wakeman wallet has no peer. I give it the highest recommendation!

Andrew

I wanted to include some tips concerning Wakeman's Expert Card to Wallet.

I trimmed the square corners of the polycarbonate guide for smoothness of operation, and to avoid gouging the interior of the wallet.

I also put tape over the spot where the credit card meets the guide, to prevent a card from hanging up.

The key is practice. At first it felt awkward loading a palmed card (the BKM I owned was no different), but with practice it gets smoother all the time. To practice I load cards one right after another, loading a card, removing the wallet, putting the wallet back, loading another card, until the wallet is full. I leave the compartment unzipped to save time, and to avoid wear on the zipper.

I originally bought this wallet believing some of the hype on one of the magic websites with testamonials saying how it can be examined by the audience. Sure, from a distance! But you can't hand it out to spectators (there are few wallets in which you can).

However, I really like the wallet, and it is my favorite accessory when I am wearing something other than T-shirt and jeans. It has a very clean look, and has no problem passing for one's actual wallet.

If only the credit cards I placed in the walled worked as well as the walled does.

Bill

This is a beautiful wallet, but I think it's best to go with a Mullica type. I love showing my hand empty as I go for the wallet.

I just purchased and am waiting for Paul Wilson's Predator wallet, which is the ultimate thought of card to wallet. I think I'll just add a double backer in in it for card to wallet.

Chris

Billgussen, No one should be making claims as to the examinability of a card-to-wallet prop. No one should be inspecting your wallet, anyway. The point is that as far as casual inspection goes, from all angles the wallet looks sound.

Wakeman's includes no-palm methods, but the gaff allows both palm and palmless methods. Alain Nu also published a no-palm card to wallet idea in the Linking Ring, I believe.

Darrin,

Right on, Who would hand out their wallet with their money and credit cards to a stranger to examine, anyway. And if you did, all it would signal is that it's a trick with a wallet, not a magical happening.

Steve

I was a little less sophisticated at the time (not that I'm any expert at the moment). I didn't know what a Balducci (sp?) wallet was, and I assumed there was some sort of "locking" mechanism that allowed for close inspection.

There is also the ...for lack of a better word... depth at which the spec can reach into the secret compartment to pull out the card themselves. For the Real-man's wallet, the spec can reach in (from the correct angle) him/herself and take the card out. For most of the other types of wallets I've used, the magician pulls out the card partway, and the spec can pull it out the rest of the way (and I would consider the Expert Card to Wallet to be one of those).

I imagine that, at some point, someone will come up with an idea for a wallet that will be able to withstand very close scrutiny. At that point, how close a spec gets to his money will be up to the magician, rather than having the wallet's mechanics make the determination.

All that being said, I still think the wallet was an excellent value for a magical prop.

Bill

Since I am a very sick man, I have three fetishes in magic: cups, shells and wallets.
From the many wallets I have, the Wakeman wallet is the one I use the most and it has never failed me. I've been buying other wallets as well after I had the Wakeman wallet (after all it IS a fetish:-) but this one remains in my insidepocket forever.
One of the top 3 props in my professional repertoire.

Dan,

Were do you install the batteries in this wallet?

Mike