Maven’s Protocols

Posted on October 31, 2005
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From the moment news of Max Maven’s new Hermetic Press release — The Protocols of the Elders of Magic — hit the digital streets, the response was fairly predictable, but for one exception.

From Stephen Minch’s web site’s description:

Announcing an unpleasant little book that no discerning library should be without. Over a century in the making. No tricks. Only one secret, but it’s a killer!

A long-standing goal at Hermetic Press has been to produce books of quality that stand out from the crowd; books that are interesting and unusual. We’ve never published a book more unusual than The Protocols of the Elders of Magic. It is so unusual, we aren’t going to tell you exactly what it is. All we will say is that there has never been a magic book like it. If you enjoy the erudite humor of MAX MAVEN, if you love books beautifully produced, and if you enjoy having something in your library few others do, The Protocols of the Elders of Magic is for you. If, on the other hand, you are looking for another collection of tricks, pass this one up and check out our other titles.

The thread on The Magic Cafe was filled with everything from blind acceptance to objection due to perceived offense. (To understand the perceived objection, make yourself familiar with the quasi-paronymic title.)

Years and years ago, I asked Max about the value of a particular book being published by Stephen Minch. His response was, essentially, that if it was published by Hermetic, it was worth having. In the years since, that’s never once been proven wrong; neither Stephen nor Max has led me wrong.

So, put me in the “blind acceptance” column.

Ormond McGill, RIP

Posted on October 19, 2005
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Dennis Loomis posted to the Genii Discussion Board:

I got a phone call from Chuck Mignosa a few minutes ago. Ormond passed away this morning.

Ormond McGill was a living legend, no doubt about that.

Mind Mysteries Too

Posted on October 17, 2005
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In keeping with the long-standing tradition here at Casa Escamoteurettes, I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that:

1. Loads of Richard Osterlind’s new DVD set, Mind Mysteries Too, is currently winging it’s way to Osterind Mysteries Central (Jim Sisti’s office), and

2. You can pre-order your set at a very favorable price to have them ship as soon as they become available.

Also, if you check out the web site, you’ll find another excellent reason to order now. (I won’t give the details here; please visit the site.)

Head out to the Osterlind Mysteries web site and order a set now.

A few eBay auction items

Posted on October 14, 2005
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I pulled a few duplicate books from the Casa Escamoteurettes library (including a Houdini book, a 1st edition Harry Anderson ‘Games You Can’t Lose’, ‘I’ll Read Your Mind’ by Aage Darling, and ‘The Swami Gimmick’ by Sam Dalal printed with that special Indian ink on that special Indian paper) and put them on eBay. All start at 99 cents, no reserve, auctions end Sunday night. I’ll likely add a few more titles Saturday night to also end Sunday night.

TAOM 2006

Posted on October 10, 2005
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Ever been to TAOM? Maybe 2006 is the year you should make the trip. It’ll be in Dallas, Texas. More details than you can shake a stick at is here.

Magic on eBay

Posted on October 10, 2005
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Having recently done my part to bolster eBay stock prices (which is to say, I sold stuff on eBay) I’ve had eBay on the mind this week. So, please allow me to make a few people angry.

My first experience with eBay was in 1996. A friend was selling computer hardware and told me to check out his auction.

Auction?

Online?

So, I fired up Netscape (like anyone really had a choice back then) and viewed his auction. And then I viewed a few other auctions. Before I knew it, two days had passed and I hadn’t eaten. (I liken — or, if you’ve been living under a rock, lichen — this to being introduced to crack; the effect is as addicting as it is expensive. And heaven knows where all the time goes.)

It didn’t take long to wonder who may be interested in magic books and such, and I guess I wasn’t the only guy wondering. Granted, there were a few magic books on eBay in the early days. But then again, in 1996, there were few magicians on the Internet to begin with, let alone the Worldwide Web. The Internet was old, but the Web was new. (And Charlie was already selling magic over the Internet for two whole years by then.)

Over the years, in nearly every conceivable category, eBay has become a magnet for sellers selling anything and everything to buyers who seem perfectly happy to fork over more money than would normally be reasonable for items you can often buy locally.

But hey, it’s buying stuff on the Internet, and that’s worth something, isn’t it?

eBay is the Internet equivalent of the law of the jungle or Darwin In Action: those out of their element either get eaten alive, or evolve into savvy buyers who call the “Search” button their very best friend.

If you have the money and the patience, you can eventually buy just about any magic book via eBay. Then again, that works with H&R magic Book Shop, too. (I’m just saying.) The difference is you never have to worry if Richard overcharged you because he didn’t. On eBay, though, you can thank the “collector” with more money than good sense for bidding up that LePaul book — the one you almost had in your itchy little hands for $10 — that ended up going for $925. Ot something equally insane.

John’s No Fail eBay Buyer Rule #1: Repeat after me — Google is my friend.

Google something you’re about to bid on to decide what you may find it for elsewhere. Guess what? H&R Magic or Bradbury Books may have a copy in stock they’d be happy to sell you. And probably for less than eBay will end up costing you. Are you on Tom Ladshaw’s email list? Do you get Paul Diamond’s email? (I’ll bet you do…)

Ferinstance: Phil Maven…Max Goldstein…oh hell, the guy who looks like (Hoosier) Deddy Corbuzier. He wrote a fine pamphlet about thirty years ago called “Verbal Control” — still one of the best things you can study on equivoque. You will occaisonally…hic…occasionally see it sell on eBay for upwards of $NFW.

But you can buy it any day of the week (and twice on Sunday) for just $5 from — drumroll — H&R Magic Book Shop. Bradbury probably has copies for five bucks, too.

So, if you are taking my advice and Googling “Verbal Control” by Phil Goldstein and ended up here, don’t be a putz and buy on eBay for a penny more than $5. Unless it’s being sold by Max himself and he blesses it. Or dances on it. Or something.

John’s No Fail eBay Buyer Rule #2: Repeat after me — You can’t be outbid on eBay.

I don’t care what anyone says or believes or states to their priest in the confines of that dark confessional on Saturday afternoon. You cannot be outbid on eBay.

That’s because of something called proxy bidding — that magical, mystical state of being in which eBay bids on your behalf up to the dollar amount you decide in the most you’re willing to pay, that’s it, no-sir-not-a-penny-more — your maximum bid. It’s like having a slave do your bidding. Haha. Okay, I’ll stop.

eBay works on a proxy bid system. That means, you can enter one dollar amount — the most you are willing to pay — and eBay will bid on your behalf to make sure you remain the high bidder up to your highest bid amount. It allows you to place a bid on that LePaul book you’ve been jonesing for (not to be confused with Tom Jonesing, in which case, its not unusual) and spend the rest of your weekend arranging the lampshades, or mowing the lawn, or chasing chicks wherever it is chicks get chased these days.

In other words, while you’re off having more fun that God Hisownself would allow on a sunny day like today, eBay is busy making sure that LePaul book is yours, my friend. Up until that point where your $10 bid runs out of gas and someone’s $10.50 bid picks up.

If you have determined the most you are willing to pay for that LePaul book is $10…well, frankly, you don’t deserve to win it anyway. But if $10 is your ceiling, what do you care if some is willing to pay $10.50? Or when he’s willing to pay it?

Which beings me to my favorite part of eBay:

John’s No Fail eBay Buyer Rule #3: Repeat after me — Sniping is good, clean fun.

Nothing — and I mean nothing — goes with a good piece of cheese like a big glass of whine. And nothing gets the whine flowing like being on the butt end of a good round of sniping.

Sniping, for the uninitiated, is the art of successfully placing the very last bid at the very last microsecond humanly possible in an eBay auction. In other words, it’s when you say your highest bid is $10 doggonit and not one penny more and some yahoo places a bid — with 2 seconds left in the auction — for $10.50 and wins the auction, because there’s no way on God’s good green earth you could change your mind and bid higher. It’s TOO LATE.

On the surface, this seems like an awfully mean thing for someone to do. I mean, that ~~rat bastard~~ highly competitive spirited human being just won your book for fifty cents more that you bid. He jus won your LePaul book for just $10.50. (Well, he doesn’t deserve it either, but that’s another post for another day.)

For some unknown reason, the realization of what just happened is, more often than not, followed by a long and wildly creative string of profanity that wakes the neighbors, wilts the roses, and makes the cat hide for a week.

And it’s all for naught.

Remember that proxy bidding system I mentioned above? The one you took advantage of and bid the highest dollar amount you were willing to pay for that book? If someone comes along and bids more than you were willing to pay, what do you care when he does it? That he managed to squeak by with nary a second to spare instead of telegraphing his intentions hours before the end of the auction shouldn’t make a difference. But it does, doesn’t it?

And it does because you thought you could get a $150 book for just $10 and you’re now aggitated that someone got it for $10.50.

Welcome to eBay. Please review John’s No Fail eBay Buyer Rules #1 and #2.

Want to win auctions and feel good about yourself afterwards? Bid high, take lots of Prozac and…Wait, scratch that.

Follow rules 1 and 2 above, and bid in the last minute or so of the auction. The adrenaline rush of pressing that button to enter your bid is a lot cheaper and a lot more healthy than doing drugs. And, you might even end up with a LePaul book out of the deal.

(By the way, I stole away all of that fun I just described by having fixed price auctions this past week. What a spoil sport I was. But I promise to make up for it starting Thursday night. Check back here then.)

A few more great deals on new DVDs

Posted on October 9, 2005
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I posted a few more excellent deals on DVDs over at The Magic Cafe. All are brand new, never opened duplicate sets that have been accumulating here for a while. Snap these up if you are interested — I’ll ship them free to USA destinations:

THE RESTAURANT MAGIC OF DAN FLESHMAN 3-DVD set

FALKENSTEIN & WILLARD’S LIVE CLUB PERFORMANCE 3-DVD set

MAX MAVEN’S VIDEOMIND 3-DVD set

ROSS BERTRAM’S LEGENDARY MAGIC 2-DVD set

JEFF MCBRIDE’S WORLD CLASS MANIPULATION, 3-DVD set

THE VERY BEST OF MARTIN NASH 6-volume 3-DVD set

THE MAGIC OF JEFF McBride, Double-Length DVD

THE VERY BEST OF FL!P, 6-DVD set

Back to normal.

Posted on October 2, 2005
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Okay, things are back to normal. Mostly. Time to catch up with the magazines and emails that have been piling up.

So, while I’m doing that, take a look at a number of DVD sets I’m selling over at The Magic Cafe’s, “Let’s Make a Deal” section. All of these DVDs are brand new, unopened duplicates of stuff I already have and it’s stacking up to the point of me tripping over it here at Casa LeBlanc. And we can’t have that.

Most of it is selling for about half of list price, and includes free shipping. Note the first listing:

VERNON REVELATIONS (8 DVD set) $195
GREGORY WILSON IN ACTION (3 DVD set) $59
DOCC HILFORD - THE CASSANDRA DECK (DVD) $19
EDDIE TULLOCK - THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT TRADE SHOW MAGIC (DVD) $24
THE AL SCHNEIDER TECHNIQUE (4 DVD set) $79
THE COLLECTED SECRETS OF LUBOR FIEDLER (DVD) $19
AMMAR - EASY TO MASTER MONEY MIRACLES (3 DVD set) $59
AMMAR - THE COMPLETE CUPS & BALLS (2 DVD set) $39

That’s a start. There’s more where that came from but I have to catch up on emails first.