How and why we curate the magic tricks we stock

At Vanishing Inc. our founding principle was simply this: we wanted to create a magic store to carry and produce the kind of magic tricks, mentalism, magic books and playing cards that we, ourselves, would like to buy. Years later, nothing has changed. We still have the same story. That’s still our criteria for choosing the magic we promote and produce.

We (meaning the founders, Andi and Josh) are magicians first and business owners a distant second. It’s important to us that the magic tricks we put into the world somehow moves the craft forward in some measurable way.

If we cared only about making money we would simply stock everything. It’s easy: you list every single item available from our wholesalers, and let the consumer sift through the junk to get what they want. And in some ways, we feel like this is a service to customers, because they have the option to get the largest array of products.

But in the end, this does a larger disservice to you when a shop carries everything. The reason is that it’s impossible to understand the quality of a product before you can inspect it. If we can weed out the awful, terrible, never-should-have-been-made products, what’s left is good-to-great. And this leaves enough selection to cover the necessary “what’s useless for this person might be perfect in that person’s show.”

How Do We Curate Magic Tricks?

Curation simply means that we’re going to carry the best magic tricks, by the best magicians. If a product has been stolen or improperly put out, we don’t stock it. If a product is poorly reviewed, we don’t stock it. If a product gets a lot of complaints from our customers, we take it off the site.

On the other hand, we seek out products from the very best magicians. We deal directly with them, and we deal with the best manufacturers. If something is getting a lot of buzz, we make sure to carry it. It's one of the reasons so many professional magicians shop with us.

But the most important part of our process is that somebody inspects absolutely every item that makes it onto our site. It doesn’t go on our site unless someone qualified has inspected it carefully and, if possible, tried it out on people.

Why We Curate Magic Tricks

The main reason we curate our products is to offer our customers a higher standard. When you shop with us, we hope you take comfort in the fact that you aren’t “buying blind.” You know what you’re ordering has passed a number of quality tests.

Why We Think Curation Is Important

As we’ve grown and expanded at Vanishing Inc., we recognize that it’s the long-game that matters most. If we want to be the best magic store in the world, we want to build complete trust with our customers. By curating the very best products and eliminating the worst ones, we feel like people can trust us.