LOT of magic tricks

Lot, Tricks restaurant magician's magic kit. Jim pace,


ended - Thursday, April 3, 2008

Auction grade: C+

Starting bid: $25.00

Final selling price: $0 - no bids


Up for sale in this eBay auction is a small collection of various books and magic tricks for those who like to entertain others, ideally in the restaurant environment.

First of all, the title definitely needs some adjusting. "Tricks" should go right after the word "magic" (catch people looking for either: "magic", "tricks", or "magic tricks"). Jim Pace might be better off left in the description and have more useful search words go into the title. "Illusions" could also go into the title, eliminating the need for the auction's subtitle.

Using a subtitle is a good way of catching somebody's attention and adding a few extra key words, but there isn't much use for it in this example. All of the key words could easily have been added to the auction's title, and with this being a relatively low cost auction, the money spent on the subtitle could have been saved or spent on another auction.

For the description, I like the seller's attempt to try to sell us the products. He gives us examples on how he used the products himself to entertain people and leave them guessing and wanting more of the action. I like that part. It adds value and desirability to the items for sale. However, there are still problems that need to be corrected in the auction's description.

The first issue deals with the general flow of the words. The entire text is one giant paragraph where he jumps from one topic to another. This would be much easier to read and follow if it was broken apart into separate paragraphs or even bullet points.

If this seller wants to appear to be more professional, it would help if he would correct the numerous spelling and grammar errors throughout the description. It's obvious that he typed everything all at once and didn't bother to do any proofreading.

"The restaurant workers handbook by Jim pace" --- "The Restaurant Worker's Handbook" by Jim Pace.

"Beat,em Cheat,em and leave them bleedin" --- "Beat'Em, Cheat'Em, Leave'Em Bleedin'"

"alot" --- a lot (allot is a verb)

"Needle through ballon" --- Needle Through Balloon

"Comedy square knot" --- Comedy Square Knot


"To buy all this great magic fortheprice l $78.75" --- Ummm, yeah.


Those are just some of the specific problems in the description. Other problems include numerous run-on sentences and generally disorganized thoughts.

It's interesting how the seller was able to list supposedly retail prices for the items in this lot. Reading his biography, it turns out that this seller used to own a small magic shop. Could it be that the "retail" prices were actually the higher than average prices he might have used in the store, therefore making it look like this is a great bargain?

I myself am a fan of magic and the world of illusions. I know that most of the equipment and props sold in stores is generally very expensive and overpriced, and the real way to save money is by shopping online. Also, because of the availability of information on the internet, it's possible to find out how to do many magic tricks for free, thus lowering the demand and value for actual books and DVDs on the subject manner.

Even if the seller were to redo the auction's title and description to bring in more potential buyers, I'll be surprised if anybody places a bid. The $9 shipping charge is on the upper limit of being reasonable, but the $25 starting bid is a bit high to entice buyers to click the bid button.