Cardshark and cards

[Cardshark]

Regular 8's.

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Hot cakes.

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Houdini Cards.

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More Houdini

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This is when I was putting the room together.

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The room is now filling up.

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With more wall.

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And more.

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Signed brick.

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Day of Dead.

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Day of Dead

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Day of Dead

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Signed series.

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Innovation

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Innovation.

[Mike Ratledge]

And more.

This and the last three pix, I thought I had seen plenty of large collections, but you really do have a huge amount of decks, of all types and genres. Awesome!

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The set of Magic Castle Decks that were available when I became a member. It's the earliest addition that I own.

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The next design, still kept the Castle logo

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A set of fifty year anniversary decks camre out at the appropriate time once again using the Castle logo.

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Changes were coming down. Milt Larson owned thr Magic Castle logo. Anything that had The Magic Castle logo on it that brought in money Milt received a three percent kick back. A number of years ago the Castle grossed five million and Milt was looking for his three percent. The Castle told him no. FYI this last year they grossed 16 million. In short, Milt told the castle they could no longer use the name The Magic Castle. This is why it is now called The Academy of Magical Arts. There are a few things that still use the Castle logo, but very few. The decks you see have the new logo. All the gift shop items have the AMA logo.

[shaitani]

Changes were coming down. Milt Larson owned thr Magic Castle logo. Anything that had The Magic Castle logo on it that brought in money Milt received a three percent kick back. A number of years ago the Castle grossed five million and Milt was looking for his three percent. The Castle told him no. FYI this last year they grossed 16 million. In short, Milt told the castle they could no longer use the name The Magic Castle. This is why it is now called The Academy of Magical Arts. There are a few things that still use the Castle logo, but very few. The decks you see have the new logo. All the gift shop items have the AMA logo.

I didn't know this, that's pretty strange. So the AMA operates out of the location called the Magic Castle, which I guess they are leasing (?) from the owner Milt, and then any time the AMA uses the name Magic Castle, Milt demands a cut? Very interesting. I always thought the AMA and Magic Castle were part of the same entity. In fact, it looks like the guy who started the AMA and the guy who owns the Magic Castle are brothers... This would make for an interesting movie.

[Cardshark]

Let me clarify. Tom Glover is the owner of The building and property. Both Bill and Milt Brothers went to Mr. Glover and sold their Father's idea of a gathering place for magicians and it was acted on in 1961. The Larsen's were the owner of the copyrighted name The Magic Castle. The Larsen's were getting a cut for the use of the name Magic Castle and all merchandise bearing The Magic Castle name. A few times it struggled and was close to shutting down. A number of years ago Not very long and my guess would be perhaps seven years, The Castle Grossed five Million. Milt was very excited and wanted his three percent and was basically told no. Milt told them, they could not use the name any longer. The name was changed to The Academy of Magical Arts. There are one or two things that have the castle logo still, but not much. Verbally members call it the castle as people do not know what the AMA is. This year they grossed 16 million. I past my board and stayed a member for two years and resigned. The fact is the membership fees are about 670.00 a year. So basically I was paying a fortune and entertains their guests for free. There are hired magicians that do get paid, but it's not a lot. One performs about five days or so and does three shows a night. They get about 1400.00 and fees taken out for dinner and lodging. I was a non paid entertainer and tired of the politics and being treated like crap. They care about money and that is it. It was a great experience and a huge feather in my cap, but not my type of place. A lot of times the will pay for the magician's transportation. In short, 1400.00 is not a lot, but the magicians performing for a fee do not mind. It is kind of a hub not to mention they lecture and sell merchandise. Not always the case where they sell, but if they did not like it they would not send a video tape and go through the process of getting hired. That too is political as I know of a magician that has been black balled who won a huge award. The reason sucks. Basically saying this person does not change up their show. None of the magicians change up their shows. They may add a illusion and take one out, but shows generally stay the same. It took me a year to write up two shows, close up for a full room and close up for a small group. Watch show isctwenty minutes. If you work in the large room for stage, each show is 45 minutes. My larger shows were parlor style the small group intimate, meaning sitting around the table. If a large group walks in, during the intimate, I switch up to parlor but it all can not exceed twenty minutes. Let me know if I can answer any more of AMA questions.

[Cardshark]

As a matter of fact here is a shot of me performing there. I light the bulb up, and it blinks and will explode. The bag is a heavy gauge plastic. Also sometime in the near future another Type of Magic Castle will open. Again Milt's idea. Cannot remember the name, but it is in California. Same exact principle with different name.

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Back to cards. Limited and do not know what they look like.

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Here is another Tyler Deck.

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As I mentioned to you folks card collecting started about 2002.

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Collecting started after I finally purchased the Tiger Decks From Ellusionist.

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Little did I know what was going to turn into a multi billion dollar, industry. I purchased The Tiger series as a magician, not a collector, but hadcreservations, thinking it would be looked at as a special magical deck.

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After the Tiger Deck, another company designed a deck, but cannot remember who. Could have been Theory 11. All I knew was, I liked what I was seeing.

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I believe the tw companies putting the decks out in the very beginning ere both Ellusionist and Theory 11.