I used to have this and thought it was quite mediocre and eventually sold it.

What is a new copy worth right now?

Tim,

This book is LONG OOP so a "new" CardCraft would be one that the original buyer never cracked. Richard Kaufman has stated that this will not be reprinted due to publication costs. I should hasten to add that Mr. Kaufman stated this a few years ago and perhaps plans have changed. However, since Magicana and Mr. Jennings Takes It Easy have yet to be published, I would wager that CardCraft isn't even remotely in sight.

In 2003 I scored a copy of this at Magic, Inc. for a paltry 55.00 USD. It so happened that one of the demonstrators had an extra copy. I treasure this book and constantly find great ideas in it. I had written in an earlier post in this thread that Mr. Hartman's prose tends to be dry. That is off-putting to many readers. But, for those who do not mind a writing style that is nowhere near that of Harry Lorayne for instance, CardCraft is an EXCELLENT resource.

Best,
Vlad

$55 was retail back in the day.

A copy went on eBay last month for $310...

The book is for sale on ebay... ending today.

Hocus Pocus had one in an Estate sale for about 30 seconds or less and I'm not sure, but I think it went for somewhere in the $400 to $500 range.

Anyone who thinks Roy Walton's two card books aren't superb isn't someone whose opinion I would take seriously. They are two of the hidden gems of magic literature, and would be in every magician's library if only Davenports of London--the publishers--would allow other dealers to sell it. Most people think the books are out of print, but they're not. You just have to order them from Davenports in London.

Art of Astonishment, Card Zones and the Walton books are POOR?????? Okay, Barry, even if the magic isn't your style, how can you say any of those books are poor? Really?

My god, Art of Astonishment, Card Zones and the Walton books are classics??? I own pretty much every book worth having on card magic (i have over 1700 books) and these are absolute stand out material...... Watch Jerry Sadowitz perform his magic and you will be stunned. Wow!! if those are BAD books what do you consider GOOD ones??? Very worrting that you find them bad????

Just saw Card Craft on Amazon.com (used) for $375. Glad I held on to mine!!!!!

Frankly, I have never gone thru it. Going to break it out of the closet and enjoy it!

Current Library:

Royal Road
Expert at the Card Table
Expert Card technique
Card Craft
Stars of Magic
Elmsley Vol 1
Derek Dingle Complete Works
Classic Larry Jennings
Zarrow - Lifetime of Magic
Aragon - Book in English
Mnemonica
Focus
Vernon - Secrets
Vernon - More Secrets
Vernon - Further Secrets
Strong Magic
Fechter Magician Nightly

For Sale: Mint condition copy of "Card Craft." $300. PM if interested.

John Kokot

Yeah, right!

I'll offer you $40.

Are your other 1163 comments as stupid?

Card Mechanic, you set up the sale nicely for John Kokot.

If I was was cynical I'd say that you either know him or are him. However I'm not so I won't.

Neither.

I never thought my 15 (or fewer) minutes of fame would hinge on impersonating someone or being inpersonated. Just for the record, with the exception of Vlad_77, I do not know, nor have I ever communicated with anyone involved in this message topic.

My only quibble with this otherwise informative discussion of "Card Craft" is that I mistakenly placed my offer on this, the "Good, Bad and Garbage" board, rather than on the "Let's Make a Deal" board, where it belongs. Perhaps the moderator could correct the error of my ways and move my post to the proper location. Transferring my offer may also have the added bonus of minimizing suspicions about Machiavellian motives.

I think Card Craft is an excellent book. Explanations are clear and very complete and I believe everything is withing reach of the average performer. Besides excellent effects, there is a large section of slights/techniques (new and variations on existing slights/techniques) in the beginning of the book. I found a lot of these useful (I spent quite a bit of time on Hartman's variation of the Convincing Control/Immediate Bottom Placement. It is good, though I ultimately settled on Jennings' approach. There are many other slights of interest.) As previously mentioned, there is a nice section in the back teaching the non-original moves used in the book.
I am neither artist nor art critic but I found the illustrations extremely useful. I grew up (magically speaking at least - I was in my 20s) on Schmidt's illustrations in Pallbearer's Review so I am used to them.

I still think that CardCraft is an excellent book. However I do not think it warrants the after market price that is roughly equivalent of the Kaufman reprint of Greater Magic. Perhaps the difficulty that some people have with CardCraft is that it's a huge book (over 250 effects) and obviously not every effect is earth shattering, but then, I can't think of a single book in which EVERY effect is geologically destructive. The fact remains however that J.K. Hartman has earned an excellent reputation in the art. I will reiterate something that I have stated in other threads about CardCraft as I think it bears repeating. Hartman's style of writing tends to be less conversational/more textually dense than Harry Loryane's style for instance. Also, Hartman tends to understate effect so you have to dig and CardCraft can be daunting at 660 pages. There are some real original gems in the book and a lot of Hartman's reworking of others' effects are quite interesting.

There IS one clunker in the book that stands out in my mind because as written it simply does not look convincing. It's a faux gambling demo called College for Crooks. The effect is very cool and what a boon to those who aren't Jason England or [insert heavy hitting gambling expert here]. But the method just does not work - at least for me. Since J.K. Hartman doesn't correspond much with magicians, I can't contact him to ascertain whether I am missing something.

I am a huge Hartman fan, but, I would not pay more that 150 USD for the book. I got lucky at Magic Inc. in 2003 because one of the demonstrators had an extra copy. As it happened I spent a ton of money at N. Lincoln that day, and they sold CardCraft to me at the publication price - and bear in mind that CardCraft was already OOP and proces for it were creeping up. So thanks to that demonstrator who I believe is no longer with Magic, Inc. after they reorganized.

Namaste,
Vlad

Any trick [or even a sleight] that is worth it's salt, is worth [at least] $100. There are far more than 1 and a 1/2 effects in Card Craft... FAR MORE!

Worth every penny of $400 USD.

I bought may copy of Card Craft off eBay For $30.00 in 2007. Back then I was looking for misspelled titles and it came up (Cerd Crafft) with just a hour to go. It was a very long hour - I bid $150 but no one else found it. I love this book but the only thing I 'm currently using is his method of doing the Mexican Turnover. The added tips made it invisible . I now use it all the time. I guess it's time to open it and start reading the rest of it . I mostly look for handling of card moves from different angles and applicants.
Thanks and Take Care ~ magic.42