As I stated in another post, raising the price of cards from $5 to $7 has not seemed to hurt my biz at all.

In fact, if anything, I’ve made more money with the same % of pitches to sales (about 80%). It seems that if the kids can weasel $5, they can finagle $7. And if there is more than one kid per family, many times they’ll buy one per kid.

The cards from MM, with an A of D ‘key’ card cost only a penny more per deck than Loftus. Plus I can buy a gross at a time from MM instead of 2 gross from Loftus. Have you ever attempted to pick up 2 gross of cards? Man, you could get a her—uh, never mind.

There are only two things I don’t care for with the MM decks: the cards seem to be a little flimsier than Loftus’ so your demo deck needs to be replaced more often. The top/bottom edges flare out sooner, so after 30-40 pitches, the DL is harder. Plus the cards are not collated. I always explain this after the sale, but Brian told me that he and David Walker open every box and collate ‘em so they don’t have to explain. I think they went back to the Loftus decks to preclude that fun task.

Now for something completely different. Had a couple of kids come to my table at the gun show yesterday. Two of their friends had already seen the demo but didn’t buy. So there were 4 of them watching the pitch. One of the guys who’d seen the demo kept whispering in the ear of one of the ones who hadn’t. That kid then said, “I didn’t see it go thru the box. Did that card REALLY go thru the box?”

“Naaaaw, it’s just a trick,” I said and continued the demo.

“…so the Ace of Diamonds has vanished, the KING has jumped back in the deck so it can’t be under that box. What could POSSIBLY be under that box?”

The kid who’d asked the question couldn’t wait to reach for that card and turn it over. Even tho his friend had TOLD him (I guess) that the A of D would be there, his eyes really got big. “How’d you do that?” (How many times have you heard that one?)

He took the A of D, looked at the edge, trying to see SOMETHING…I thot he was gonna rip it apart.

“Did I say it was a trick deck?” I asked.

Long story short, at the end I did the larceny bit and they all bought. That was a first for me.

One of the vendor’s kids, maybe 10-12, who’d bought a deck on Saturday came by on Sunday. “I made $50 with those 2 cards.”

I was skeptical, “Really? How?”

“I use it on everyone who comes to our table. They all fall for it.”

Was he lying? Dunno. But maybe I need to hire a kid to ‘rove’ the show. We could split the take.

And last, saw a Svengali demo on You Tube where the guy showed the cards all the same by dropping them on top of each other, rather than fanning them in his hand. I tried it yesterday and liked it. I could see where this would not work so well in a crowd situation, where the people in the back couldn't see it but, frankly, I never have a problem getting people close to my table. In fact, if I have a prob, it's keeping the kids from putting their arms on my table and being TOO close. They REALLY wanna see it. And when the kids are close, the adults close in too. In fact, the adults think I'm gonna flim-flam the kids, so they REALLY watch! Darn!

Jon

One of the great things about the Svengali Deck is that you can do all the effects literally right under the specs' noses. If you are smooth about it, they should never catch a thing.

In fact, I will often lean forward over the table so I can be eyeball-to-eyeball with my assistant. In my experience, leaning in like that and deliberately invading their "personal space" can be very effective. Most people have never seen a live magician, let alone a live close-up magician, so when you are right under their nose, it's all the more impressive. But since you always have the table between you and the specs, you can always (well, usually) be in control of the situation, and can quickly put more distance between you and the specs if necessary.

And the more effective the trick is, the more of them you will sell, which is the whole point. SETH

Just exactly what is a Thot?

61magic, Why I thot you know what that meant.

I just didn't know if this was something like a round tuit...

Hmmm maybe I could pitch this...

Last weekend, the kid who SAID he'd earned $50 with the TCM came to my table at the gun show and said, "I've earned over $500 with those 2 cards!"

Did he? Frankly, I doubt it but if he did--WOW!

Then he said, "Ask me if I have any friends."

"Well, do you?"

"Whatda you think?" and walked away.

I'll guarantee you, if I'd used those 2 cards as often as he says he did, they'd have the print--AND the slide(!)--worn off and be in the trash.

As I'm sure most of you know, the TCM cards from Eddies seem to get sticky sooner than the ones from Haines, but they both get sticky eventually. So I use the ones from Haines for demo but sell the Eddies. You can't beat $1 per deck! But, as you know, there are duplicates in the deck so I have about 4 boxes of 9s and 2s that SOMEDAY I'm gonna glue together and use.

Someday!

Jon