My advice is buy one book for $50 then copy it and sell the original for 50 bucks then with that $50 buy another book or tape etc.

I've noticed some of you spend $200 a month .... my wife would have me sleep in the doghouse if I spent that much consistently. DVD's and books usually go for the $30 to $40 range .... and these should last more than a month. Jeff McBrides videos will last a lifetime! In another column, someone complained about the price of buying cards in bulk!!! At roughly $2 a pack in bulk, playing cards provide excellent magic for little cost. This is the "new to magic" forum, isn't it?

Babakali's words of wisdom.
"The thing is, we all too often spend days looking for that ONE trick that's gonna exhalt us into the magickal-god status..but as the elders will tell you, it will never happen...desire is unquenchable..."

How true.

Years back I'd spent maybe an average of $300 dollars a month. Most on books, some on tricks and some on stuff I never used.

Now I'm on a strict budget. In the past six months I spent maybe $200 of Christmas cash, a birthday gift certificate and a bit of money earned from web design.

I'm trying to be selective but sometimes the desire to buy wins out.
I've been going over the stuff that I own and realize that I never really worked hard enough with what I have and what I've learned over the years.

Stephen Bargatze told me recently ' only spend money on magic that you have made performing magic..". This is, without a doubt, the best advice I can share with any of you.

If you will follow this advice, it may motivate you, and push you, to start performing or perform more often. Live by this rule - and you may be surprised where you find yourself a year from now...

Hmmm- weekly 'eh 75ish dollar rues.

Matt

200$ each month????

When do you perform all these tricks???

Magixx

Way too much...

One thing I always now do - Always search out the trick/prop/DVD on the Magic Café' this saves making costly mistakes... and WAIT a few weeks for the REVIEWS and the HYPE to die down...

I really need to buy since I'm a dealer. I have no option.

Years ago I spent a lot for gimmicks and gaffs which sadly were destroyed (except for my Johnson coins from the '70s) during Florida's banner hurricane season last year. I've replaced a lot of my books though, so I've spent some money...now it's just cards and books. I'm in it as a hobby and not for profit, although I'm seriously contemplating it as a side job with today's economy and all. I would invest as much as I can afford for anything as rewarding as this. One thing I have learned though, nothing is forever... except for learning and the quest for knowledge...which is hard to put a price on! Amen, I thank God I'm alive.

I would probably only spend about $30-$50 a month on average.

@ magiccigam

I hope you are joking....

Magixx

I stopped spending money!!!! There was one day when I counted every effect and effect in every book and realized that I had more than enough effects to entertain myself for the rest of my life...

Spend what works right for you.

Buy effects that look right for you - don't buy something just because the other kids have it.

I've thought about this many time. People always say, think and decide what you want to be, then decide on what you want to buy.

I always wonder, how do I really know what I want to be or do until I do it??

Its pretty much a catch-22 for me.

So I guess its pretty much a refining cycle..... I tend to spend alot, then spend lesser as I go through what I do have and what I do know..... Ah... but does anyone have this problem?? Once you get better and decide on what you do want. Instead of spending money on more props, you start spending money on BETTER props!

I spend about $15 on magic each month, occationally buying a book. This is the cost of three decks of cards in Sweden.

I counted the effects recently that I have - single effects or effects in books. I have more than 4.000 (for example in Apocalypse, Magic Menu, Compleat Invocation 3, AoA, etc)!!!

I guess I will never learn all of them......

Magixx

Nice thing about it is now no matter what, I have a good out.
My wife says what happened to the hunred bucks you had.
I tell her that I spent it on a hooker.
She says,"Baloney! You've been buying magic again."

I don't think it really matters how much a guy (OR LADY) spends on their magic. If I ever win the lottery I will own every book, dvd and trick ever devised and will spend the rest of my life learning them in my huge house.
If it makes you happy then the money can always be justified.

When I first started out, I bought DVDs, books, magazines, attended every lecture
I could find. That ran me on average to 200 month. Now that I am pretty much
settled in the art I subdude my want to buy more magic. So at this point I spend
about 50 dollars a month. I know a product will bite me in one these months, which can easilly jump this up..but on average I think it comes out to about 50.
This includes:

• IBM dues.
  
• lectures.
  
• potential purchages of lecture notes and/or DVDs.
  
• a potential convention.
  
• magazine(s). (depending on content)
  

There have been times that I have bought some magic that I am not happy with...no
thanks to certain dealers and my own stupidity. Now, I pretty much think twice
before I buy as mentioned above.

I think there are a lot of misplaced priorities in this thread.

Counting cards (somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 decks a year), about $55 a year. Have you guys considered that you might be working towards the wrong goal? How much should you spend on magic? You should spend about $12 plus prop maintenance. Total. Ever. Completely. Get yourself a copy of Mark Wilson's CCIM. If you absolutely, positively, have to spend more money, get the Tarbel series. You don't need to ever ever ever spend another dime after that. I have spent a tiny bit more than that in the 20 odd years I have been a magician. Most of it was a waste, and the rest of it could easily have been.

Wow Drew, I'll be the magic dealers love you!

Some of us enjoy magic as a hobby and don't mind spending money even if it's just to adorn our magic shelves. I don't care if I make any money at all on magic, I still enjoy buying new toys now and then.