I love the thought of alternate pickpocketting. =) I heard Apollo Robins steals a pen, takes out the ink cartridge, and putpockets the pen back, then comes up with a reason to have the spectator sign something... whatta surprise it must be!
I've developed a nice signed-card-to-spectator's-wallet-which-is-found-in-your-pocket trick but haven't had much opportunity to test it "live" -- only practicing on friends.
But it certainly is one step beyond the standard pickpocketing. Plus I don't flash the wallet to the audience, so they are astounded as well at the end.
Anyway, in the beginning of the routine, when I have any card selected from a one-handed fan, I load a [fun colored, not black] Sharpie into the man's shirt pocket. When a card is selected I step back and say "Why don't you sign it with your Sharpie that... looks like... mine. . ."
He does, then I ask for the Sharpie back. Then I go to put it back into his shirt pocket and fake it, stealing it away (since it's mine!) and never showing it again. I've also worked out how to plant a biz card during that fake return.
I like the idea of pickpocketing with one hand while having a card selected via a one-handed fan in the other. Your free hand can go anywhere and do practically anything if you do the dirty work at the moment the spectator actually grabs onto one card and withdraws it because *that's* where his attention is.
--Diavo