I have heard it said that the only part Sankey about In a Flash is the Flash Paper. Does anyone know who the creator of the basic method is and/or where it is in print.

Back in the early 90s I was doing "In a Flash" before it was in a flash. Sankey was doing a lecture at Barrys Magic Shop in Wheaton MD and saw me do it behind the counter for a bunch of guys before the lecture. I'm sure he long forgot about the encounter, and had no idea who the heck I was. No biggie.
The only difference between "in a flash" an what I did was that I followed up by using the bit of circle shaped flash paper that is left over to vanish the marked quarter at the end. The marked quarter ended up in the guys pocket.
Any way I got the idea from a marketed trick that I believe was called Hole'd Out. It was a crappy trick where a card was "selected" and every card was discovered to have a hole in it (the size of a quarter) except the one in question. Simon Lovell later took this premise on to create a trick that I believe is called Heartless.

And in the words of Forres Gump..."thats all I have to say about that."

"In a Flash" is nearly identical to an effect that Bob Farmer and David Ben came up with a long time ago. You will find it in The Linking Ring, September, 1983, starting at page 73. I believe the effect was called "Journey to the Center of the Deck."

Jim

I have a trick with a similarly gimmicked deck that utilizes a quarter placed on the top of the deck then it disappears but is found to be in the middle of the deck on top of the chosen card. However, when the quarter is turned over, the center of the card is found on its face and the chosen card has a hole, the size of a quarter, on its center. Now, if only I can remember the name of this trick. I'm sure it was marketed by Zanadu. Ahh, I believe it was called Drawn and Quartered. No flash paper but it was marketed before Sankey's. But I'm sure there are other similar tricks that came before these.

Jimmy