I find all the posts about how it's not worth $25 or whatever, wouldn't pay more than a couple of bucks for it, to be quite weird.
It's all about sources of value. There are three pieces to a trick.
1. Gimmick.
2. Method.
3. Presentation.
I would want #2. I may not be able to do the trick without #1. But #3 is just garbage. I don't want or need it. Indeed, if I respect you as a performer, and you show me #3 - I won't use it. That's yours. I need to get my own.
Now, there are a lot of people out there who are completely incompetent and can't do anything without #3. And we all started there, so there's no shame in that, but if I'm not one of those people - I shouldn't have to buy it!
Likewise, if I think the trick's creator did a great job and want to give him extra money - that's
my decision. It shouldn't be made for me. What if I think the trick's creator did a crappy job, and I want my money
back?
In the seventies, you would buy a little $2 pamphlet that had only the trick's method... and an order form in the back. That order form could usually be used to order an overpriced gimmick for performing the trick, other tricks and gimmicks from the same source, and - wonder of wonders - some sort of fan club membership. Which is another way of saying "nothing". Here's a $30 check, for nothing.
If the trick sucked, I tossed the pamphlet in the trash or gave it to someone else. Usually in trade with some other magician for another trick. I wouldn't do that with a DVD. I never go up to someone and say "trade you Matrix for Spider-Man!" - and neither does anyone else. Once it crosses the $10 line, I don't lend my stuff out at all.
On the one hand these forums, like many others, are replete with threads about exposure, stopping it, stamping it out, about giving creators their due, crediting, all that kind of stuff...but when it comes to the magic effects themselves, everyone wants them for a pittance.
When you think about it, the inventor technically got it for free. Then he spent as much time as he wanted performing it for money. Then he traded it with other brilliant creative people for more great tricks. Then he may have sold private instruction to carefully selected suckers - I mean, students.
And
then he put it in my local magic shop for $30.
So all that other stuff he milked out of it isn't enough? He needs
me to give him $30 for it? I don't think so. I'll do my own tricks.
As for already knowing methods and it not being worth the money, again ask yourself this: If you created it and decided to sell it via an online magic site, would you charge $5?
I would charge $2, with the gimmick available separately for $10, a $20 routine under separate cover, and a $50 fan club membership. For those who want video instruction, I'd make a $30 DVD companion.
That's over $100. If you think my trick's worth that, you can pay it. If you don't, you can pay $2 and say "that trick sucks" and throw it in the garbage. Because I'm not selling that trick to make money; I'm selling it to help you be a better magician. The money is just a nice bonus. If I'm a major contributor to this art, and I innovate sufficiently that my trick profits qualify as an income - well, I deserve it. But that isn't likely. The money just reminds me that I'm helping people, and I should keep doing it.
So you're going to expose my trick? Why? It's $2. Who cares about $2? Exposure is valuable because people think it's a $30 trick. It's not a $30 trick. It's a $2 trick with a $10 gimmick and a $20 routine. The guy on YouTube only exposed the $2 trick, and he knows it. Now you think you know a $30 trick, but you don't - you know a $2 trick, and he still has the $10 gimmick and the $20 routine.
So who's stupid? YouTube Johnny made a video and is getting
credit for revealing a $30 trick, when he
really revealed a $2 trick. The guy who learned from the YouTube video isn't a better magician for it. The guy who invented the trick isn't making any less money because of it. But the fans of that magician, the inventor of the trick, get all up in arms about how much this damages him.
I challenge anyone to show documented evidence that any video on YouTube has ever actually lost him money. There simply isn't any.
