On 2004-04-08 02:21, Black Hart wrote:
I've just browsed through this thread and believe me from a dealers point of view it was very interesting. At Black Artefacts we are always very interested to get a handle on the customers point of view.

I started Black Artefacts 8 years ago because I was interested in weird and bizarre magic, but in the UK and Europe there were no dealers specialising in this genre. I had no idea that it would grow the way it has. I had no real idea about the business of magic dealing. I wanted to be able to supply the kind of effects and props that I myself would like to purchase. I also wanted Black Artefacts to be the sort of magic dealer that I would like to deal with.

My philosopy was: good quality, fair price, honesty, a range of exclusive effects.

I never wanted to be the sort of dealer who buys cheap wholesale packet tricks and then sells them to all and sundry.

Let me state now that Black Artefacts is a commercial business. We invest a lot of money in equipment, stock, time developing new effects, general running costs including credit card transactions and one full time member of staff. All of this has to be taken into account when setting prices.

However I do feel that over the 8 years we have stuck to our principles.

For example how many magic dealers offer an unconditional 90 day money back guarantee? Yes, you can return any product within 90 days and we will refund the purchase price in full - no questions asked.

Why do we do this? Simple. We want our customers to be able to shop with confidence. As has been mentioned if you purchase something you are dissapointed with, you (the customer) feels cheated and you may not deal with that dealer again. However if you can send it back and get your money back or request a different item instead, then the chances are that you will use that dealer again. It is a win win situation.

Of course we are open to the devious person who may want to copy a book, steal a secret or copy a video. But we feel that people trust us to send them the items ordered so we must trust them as well. In actual fact we get very few items returned because we are honest in our descriptions and dealings.

Also we never try to sell customers anything that we do not think is suitable for them. What is the point - you will have a dissatisfied customer.

At Black Artefacts you can speak by telephone or email to the person who actualy developed the effect, purchased the props and uses them in real life preforming situations.

I believe that all of this makes a real difference to the experience of buying magic.

Of course we ARE human and will occasionaly mess things up. Sometimes we will be waiting for delivery of an item that we need to manufacture an effect. But we will always tell you if there is a delay and we will do whatever is possible to rectify a problem. We find that our customers appreciate this and we find that we have many regular customers who are now more like friends than just customers. It makes the business of magic dealing an enjoyable exberience for BOTH the customer and the dealer.

Our genre of magic may not be to the liking of all magicians, but it was never intended to be so. We are a specialist dealer for a niche market and we intend to stay that way.

Anyway there has been some good advice on this thread, especially the bit about asking questions. Ask away, it's your money bt remember there is a bit more to being a magic dealer than just buying in cheap tat and bumping it out again at twice the price...at least for some of us anyway.

:)

Black Hart

On Jan 10, 2016, cerberusdog wrote:
This will show to anyone how new I am to magic, but I have to ask, "What is a packet trick?" I've seen the term in a few posts I read but don't know what it means. Can anyone help me?
Thanks