http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-RARE-TENYO-TM-......6d9bf54e

This one takes the cake!

OMG!!

And to think I wasted money on so many other things, like groceries and clothes for the kids, whereas I should have been saving up for this!
**sigh*** guess some other lucky bidder is gonna get it...
Life as I know it...is over...

:-(

Yes but you will get $90 in ebay bucks!

Stuart, this ain't you, right?

No, it’s not me... But I am selling off my entire Tenyo/Mikame collection as I am leaving magic behind in pursuit of a different venture so once it’s all gone you won’t be seeing me here, all enquires welcome..

Best part is the free Trio Cigarette!

Astro Tube is *** hard to find though...

Ahhh....a glimmer of light in a dark Tenyo-less world!
;-)

I wrote the guy, thinking he meant to list as $450. Nope. Here's what he had to say:

"If you can find any astro tubes in this condition I will buy them at 1000.00 a piece. Thanks for looking and yes the the Auction is correct $4500.00. I can assure only a dozen astro tubes in existence this one being in the top 3 condition wise including the one Tenyo Owns in their collection from Japan ."

I have an Astro Tube. Not for sale though. Great condition. Maybe I should sell it to him. Afterall he will pay $1000

I have one as well but it is in used condition. I guess mine is only worth maybe $500. :-(

What exactly is the Astro Tube effect? Even Stereo's encyclopedic site is a bit vague on this item? (it must be rare if no one knows what the effect even is!)
Sounds like some sort of "Instant Art" or magical printing sort of effect? It would be nice if the seller could show us a picture of it so we could experience it like a museum exhibit.

Angelo or xl18, maybe you guys can share a photo of it with us?

Towledge, the Astro Tube is, from what I know, the same effect as Mikame's Dream Tunnel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkFCG1OMTU - so nothing that special but very rare nonetheless.
A mint Astro Tube was sold a few years ago at Ebay for from what I recall about 200 USD - it will probably be worth 300 - 400 USD now I think. I was planning to buy/bid on it, but thought it wasn't that special and the price was too high

Yes, it is the same effect as Dream Tunnel. Basically, you can make any paper or bill change into another.
The Tenyo version comes with some colorful papers allowing you to change a striped paper into a spotted one or move all the spots on the paper to one side.
I'll try to take some pictures sometime within the next couple of days.

Astro Lube, oops, I mean Astro Tube , IS a truly "RARE" (everyone on earth uses this word too much by the way) Tenyo effect/item.

Most hard to find (HTF) and very hard to find (VHTF) Tenyo magic IS SCARCE, not "RARE", and is often only regionally so from my experience.

If you closely inspect his eBay ad, he's trying to compare the rarity of Astro Tube with the rarity of a rare baseball card in a baseball card set, such as the case with some Mickey Mantle baseball cards (1952 Topps Mickey Mantle High Number). He's essentially postulizing that above all else, Tenyo magic is part of a "SET" or a "RUN" and that some tricks, as with baseball cards and comics, are harder to find in a set/run than others. This is undeniably true and the point is valid.

Bottom line is he is trying to create interest and "manufacture" rarity to attract possible buyers.

Now, what he's also doing is trying to spur what I refer to as the "Wagner Effect", referring to the 1909-1911 Tobacco 206 Honus Wagner card from the T-206 set (designation taken from a well known baseball card collecting catalog at the time, yes people collected baseball cards even then). Wagner didn't believe in Tobacco and didn't want his image associated with Tobacco cards as this might influence a kid to start smoking or chewing. When he found out that a Tobacco card existed of himself, he immediately demanded the that Tobacco companies pull him from their Tobacco card sets. Very few of the cards made it into circulation, many were damaged over the years, the card quickly became RARE (I'm a collector and can tell you that there ARE rarer cards than the Wagner), fast forward to present day and the Gretzky/McNall Wagner has sold far in excessive of $2 million.

He's essentially trying to say that Astro Tube is a truly RARE Tenyo effect and comperable to a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle High Number issue (considered by some his rookie card but it's actually not). Rarity and Worth DO NOT go hand in hand. There are some baseball cards even rarer than the Wagner and they fetch far less than the Wagner card.

The point is this... If he sets a ridiculous price and someone is willing to pay it, then it's worth what someone will pay for it, just like the Gretzky/McNall Wagner. The fact that more than one of you has a complete run of Tenyo, or a very near complete run, and owns this trick tells me it's RARE but it's not that rare. I believe the trick could fetch $500 USD to the right buyer BNIP, but perhaps more, people said the Wagner in Mint Condition could never fetch $100k, well they were wrong.

Angelo had some RARE tricks up for sale, but rare and desirable are two very different things (not to say they weren't rare and desirable Angelo because they were/are), this is why you see some tricks that aren't rare at all selling for stupid amounts of money and some RARE tricks selling for peanuts. Case in point, MB KNIGHT'S TOMB is far more RARE than DIABOLICUS, but it will likely NEVER fetch as much.

Angelo could sell his Angel's Coins for $3000 and some nut might actually pay it. I'm betting it's rare but not that rare, Angelo could weigh in on this. I'm also betting the guy got conned by his "famous magician" friend and paid stupid money for the trick when it's only worth about $500.

For your viewing pleasure...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1909-T206-Honus-......94446030

$875,000, OK. But $25 to send one baseball card? OUTRAGEOUS!!!

Now, that's funny!!! Lmao.

HAHAHA

Exactly!

In all honesty, $25 to ship is way too low. Could you imagine insuring that thing? You would hit a carrier's max I would presume and that's it. Who sends a $1 million dollar anything by mail? Nuts.

For what it's worth, many years ago I was able to actually hold one of these in my own grubby hands. The guy was asking $15k for it!!! Man oh man I would have bought it had I had the money.