I was just wondering if anyone has tried any of the online auction sites devoted strictly to magic?

One of the reasons I'm asking is because I am a member of one such site and have been very disappointed with it. There is usually not very much in the way of items to bid on, the auctioneer is constantly shifting the dates when his auctions will start, and keeps promising that there will be more items up for bid than in previous auctions. This last part almost never materializes.

Another almost never seems to have any bidders, but plenty of stuff to bid on.

If you were to put your items up for auction, where would you go?

There is always Ebay. Personally, I believe magicians should support magic only auctions. Many pieces of magic equipment should not be paraded before the general public. Doing so robs them of some of the mystery and wonder they might otherwise experience.

There are several magic only auctions online. Two auctions that I would recommend are MagicAuction.com http://www.magicauction.com and Premier Magic Auction http://www.premiermagicauction.com

Each auction has it’s own advantages and disadvantages.

MagicAuction.com has been around for some time, is well known, and they usually have quite a few large illusions for auction. Their auctions end weekly on Wednesday. Unfortunately, they want you to ship your item to them and bidding is done by email.

Premier Magic Auction is a newcomer to the magic auction scene and still growing. Their system is fairly robust. Auctions are Ebay style auctions and run 7 or 10 days from the time they are listed. Bidding is done online and you do not ship your items to them.

While their methods of charging for their services are different, both have about the same fee.

No matter which auction you choose, I would like to encourage magicians to support magic auctions by bidding and selling on them.

My 2cents, in my experience , there are no betrer deals to be had anywhere than right here in the Café, most of the things I have purchased in the [past several years have been here(except new just released items "I had to have immediately" have seen some great deals here, and when I see one that is too close or at new price I mention that too, love shopping on this site

Interesting, martinka.com has been identified by my web browser, Netscape, as a known phishing site.

As for my experiences with an online auction house, I have found one particular site to be somewhat problematic. They will list an auction on a particular date, then keep moving it forward. Then they will advertise that they will have more items than you can shake a stick at...then have almost nothing at all. Very frustrating.

Not really an auction, but Paul Diamond, magic dealer for YEARS, now does a used magic list every few days. usually it is pages and pages of stuff at GREAT prices!

I talked about him in my newsletter this month- Quote "We are not associated with Paul, nor do we get any kick back, but if you want to add your name to his list, drop him an E mail at mrhumble@bellsouth.net and tell him Leaping Lizards sent you, so he knows we’re helping out. He has everything from books, close up and mentalism all the way up to stage illusions. I LOVE getting his e mails every couple days. Make sure you specifically tell him you want to be on his E mail list, because his e mail provider tends to give him “heck” and makes him prove he’s not sending out spam to people who don’t want it. He’s a great guy and a legend in the magic business!" End Quote

Paul and his wife are real old timers and have a lot of experience in the field to share. He will also sell your used magic, so not an auction site, but he will help you sell. No clue how he works that.

I've participated in auctions on http://www.martinka.com, http://www.internationalmagicauction.com and http://www.ktmagic.com and have yet to be disappointed. I'm fairly knowledgeable regarding collectable magic (although by no means an expert), and live by the old adage of "let the buyer beware." Like any hobby involving collectables, underpaying or overpaying is based exclusively on demand. If you pay $500 for a $250 effect, it could be a bargain if you sell it tomorrow for $750. That aside, I've found Ron Alessi who runs International Magic Auction to be easy to get a hold of, and very responsive regarding shipping your order immediately after the auction ends. My only complaint with any on-line auction site is the efficient way they have of separating your wallet and cash...time after time. You get caught up in the bidding process and forget that those numbers mean something.

Ron Alessi is a straight up guy, a real pleasure to work with.

Jim

Well said, Wizard of Oz. I've purchased from all three of those auctions as well. They well run by real stand-up folks.
Mike

Hopefully of interest to all...

There is another magic site bid-on-magic.com

It is under new ownership...ok..I'm the new owner :-D

I have recently purchased this site about 2 months ago. I have been having a steady growth of registered users..and have brought back quite a few inactive users.

Now, I may very well be the site clynim is talking about with.. there is plenty of items but very little action on the site. I am hoping to turn that around in the next year to come. With constant marketing $$ permitting as much as I can.

There is well over 1000 items listed for sale at this time I believe. Not sure of the exact registered user count at this time but it is over 800+ and growing a bit each day.

NOW THE IMPORTANT PART ----

As of right now YOU can list you magic items for FREE on the site! Yes FREE standard auction. Even if I get big (fingers crossed) My fees will NEVER be that of Fee-Bay (which I call it)

YOU can also have your own magic store on the site (like Fee-Bay) BUT for as little as $5.00 PER MONTH !!! With your very own store URL.

Please do check it out --tell some friends.. most of all do register for the site. Pop on over.. check it out ... Let's keep the secrets off of E-Bay!

Thanks for reading

You site sound interesting Eddy. I'll check it out.

Any auction site for magic books, manuscripts, notebooks?

http://www.magicauction.com has a large area devoted to books,lecture notes, etc. I've picked up some very nice books at this site over the years.

I'll support Hocus-Pocus.com

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......orum=7&8

Ebay would probably be a good place to start. The traffic there is exponentially bigger than any other magic auction place, at least in my experience.
Just remember that between listing fees, selling commissions, and Paypal commissions, you will end cutting your revenues in about 10%-12%.