The Innovation here is not in method but style. These smaller wallets rather than classic UK bifold are becoming much more popular. (I’ve been using a Trove as my every day wallet for a couple of years because I was fed up of the enormous bulge in my pocket with a conventional wallet).

What is it?

To start off with, it is worth saying there are two models. The 2-part ‘formal’ wallet, and the 1-part ‘street’ wallet. They are fairly similar to look at, but the ‘formal’ wallet (which we were sent to review) has a zippered ‘purse’ which slots into the main credit-card holder part. If I’m honest, I didn’t even notice that mine was the 2-part wallet until it was show on the DVD. I now realise that it can easily be visually distinguished by the excessively long strap on the zip of the ‘street’ wallet.

The wallet(s) is gimmicked to enable you to perform a no-palm card to wallet effect (or indeed, anything else you can introduce into the wallet – see below) – and also enables a few other moves/techniques. The formal wallet functions somewhat like a Mullica wallet.

The design is clearly motivated by a desire to be more contemporary. I have seen some wallets in this kind of style – though most people I know do still use a bi-fold. My wife is normally more ‘on trend’ than me and her opinion was that is looked ‘cheap’ – but you will draw your own conclusion on that. I was certainly disappointed that they didn’t utilise real-leather – since there are so many beautiful leather wallets being made today.

The routines

The wallet comes packed in a heavy card envelope in which there is also a teaching DVD (more about this below). It explains a number of different effects and techniques. The explanations are primarily geared at the ‘street’ version – but then include a brief explanation of any differences in handling if you are using the 2-piece wallet. I can see why they would do this to save time and money, but it does make the ‘formal’ wallet feel like a poor relation.

Card to wallet – A signed card to wallet routine is taught. The presentational premise – for me – was a bit cheesy – but you can easily adapt your own. But this is your bread and butter card to wallet routine. Given that the ‘technology’ for no palm card to wallets is pretty standard, you could easily adapt your existing C2W routine to work with this.

Mystery Card – this is essentially the same as the C2W routine – but you first demonstrate that a card is inside the wallet at the beginning of the routine. It becomes a different effect as the mystery card is shown to be the spectator’s chosen and signed card – which was chosen after the card was already shown to be in the wallet! I have always loved the mystery card plot and this is a nice and simple solution.

Card Steal – this is a nice two-card transpo effect. The spectator chooses and signs a card, which is zipped in your wallet for safe-keeping. They then choose another card from the deck – and in an instant the two cards change places – so the signed card is in your hands and the second card is zipped in the wallet. The main move in this can be used in many other routines. The move here is slightly trickier – but still pretty easy. [Strangely this item doesn’t appear on the DVD menu so I guess you can only view on play all]

Peek – you can use the wallet for a basic peek function for anything that will fit inside the wallet. I think it’s fair to say this isn’t really the primary function of the wallet – so although you can use it in this way, there are many more elegant solutions which have been specifically designed for this function. I definitely wouldn’t buy this primarily as a peak wallet. In some ways the two part wallet makes this function easier. But at the same time the whole procedure then feels a bit illogical. As ever, presentation is all.

Mind Read – this is simply an application of the peek – using blank cards and a straightforward mind-reading presentation.

ACAAN – I admit I was surprised to see this on the DVD menu. A red backed card is show in the wallet. Spectator shuffles the deck of cards and then says stop at any point as you deal through the deck. Then the wallet is opened and it is seen to be the very card stopped at. This is a lovely bit of lateral thinking which makes for a super easy and pretty clean looking version of this classic effect. I have a half-inkling that I’ve seen this kind of idea before – so I would have liked to see some crediting here.

Business Card Switch – a fun little idea where you look at their business card and then give it back to them to hold – at which point it switches places with your business card inside your wallet. I can’t work out what I think about this one. It could be a great way of getting your card into their hands and theirs into yours. But it almost feels like a non-effect. With the right presentation it could be more than just mildly confusing.

Object to wallet – of course you can get other things into the wallet This may or may not appeal to you. When I use a gimmicked wallet (or other prop) I quite like trying not to draw attention to the wallet itself. So I’m uncomfortable with using some of the more ‘impossible’ objects (like a sharpie too big for the wallet) since they seem to do just that.

Wallet Management – I couldn’t get this section to play – nor the final thoughts. But how much more is needed to say at this point?

Overall I was impressed with the teaching which was clear and thorough. All the necessary moves (forces controls, DL etc) are taught at a good pace and from helpful angles.

I was very pleased to see a DVD supplied instead of being bound to an internet connection like so many modern releases. However, (and this may just have been the disk I received) had problems reading the DVD on two different computers I tried. It was more successful on a blue ray player – but even that got stuck at some point. I hope this is a one-off – but it may be a function of the storage of the DVD in heavy card packaging which a bit tight with the wallet in there too and is perhaps more prone to scratch?

What did we think?

If you like the style or are keen on the size then this is well worth a look. It is well-made (though I would have liked to see real-leather) and should last well. I was pleased with the thought which had gone into the teaching DVD which gives the newcomer a good number of different effects to get going straight away. And if you’ve been performing this kind of magic for a while you will no doubt already have many other ideas for how to use it. Definitely one of the better SansMinds releases.

The SansMinds Wallet is available in the 2 piece style for £65.99 or in the 1 piece street style for £49.50 direct from MagicShop.co.uk.

Review copy kindly provided by Murphys Magic to whom dealer enquiries should be directed.

Sans Minds Wallet – review

3.6 / 5 Reviewer

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The post Sans Minds Wallet – review appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

UPDATE: For full details of the breakdown of prizes click here.

Top prize is your choice of either the Ring Flight Revolution or a Starbucks Chop Cup – both the creations of the wonderful Dave Bonsall at PropDog.co.uk.

Next up is a fantastic selection of goodies courtesy of MagicNevin. An ultra rare Ellusionist Black Ghost Uncut Sheet which would look fabulous on your wall. 2 classy polished aluminium Deck Defenders and a pair of Ellusionist Republic Deck #2.

MagicTao have offered 4 super magic tricks – one of which hasn’t even been released yet! Max Francis’ Hospitality is an amazing trick with a drink can – pour two drinks from one can! Mentally Exposed is a superb DVD of mental magic (read our review here) and Shock Twist is a super packet trick (read our review here). And Drop is so new we don’t even know what it is yet! It is released next week!

We also have 6 (yes SIX!) Pairs of the fabulous Bicycle Civil War Playing Cards courtesy of our friends at JP Playing Cards.

This is more than £330 of magic up for grabs – and all you have to do to enter is like, follow, or tweet various pages as you’ll see on our competition page. The more activities you do the more entries you get and the more chances of winning some of these fabulous prizes. If you tell a friend and they enter – you get another entry! What are you waiting for? Head on over to our Amazing Summer Giveaway and get entering. Good luck! Competition closes on Sunday 31st August, 11pm GMT.

The post Amazing Summer Giveaway! appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

Not strictly Bicycle, but we love the pastel colours on these limited edition TallyHos! Available in Red, Yellow, White, Orange and Lavendar at £8.99.

The Bicycle Porcelain Playing Cards are not yet in stock but will be coming in soon and are likely to go just as quickly – so you may only have a narrow window of opportunity to snap up these beautifully shaded porcelain inspired designs. £8.49

And if you intend to use any of these cards in action, rather than just adding them to your collection, you may want to consider a Card Guard.  Our friends at Merchant of Magic have got them in a variety of designs and colours from only £9.99.

The post Striking new cards available in the UK appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

Enter our friends at JP Playing Cards who have a variety of solutions to this problem – depending on the size of your collection.  We review some of their offerings below…

If you just have an individual deck you want to store and protect, then you need look no further than their handy Plastic Playing Card Storage Box.  At only 99p (with reductions for bulk) they are a very convenient solution.  As you can see, they comfortably fit a deck of Bicycle Cards still in their tuck case and wrapper.  Great for keeping your decks and tuck cases clean and tidy.

If you have a larger collection they sell 12 deck (one brick), 18 deck or 36 deck (three bricks) solutions.  We looked at the 36 deck solution and the ‘Cut out brick box’ (they do another brick box with no window, but we didn’t look at that one). [if you look closely you will see that we actually have 39 decks in our 36 deck box! This is because newer decks tend to take up less space and there is a little room for expansion!]

These boxes come arrive flat and you have to assemble them yourself.  This is a straightforward task – if you know which boxes you are expecting.  I must confess I was a little confused until I worked out that I had a couple of different types of box in my parcel.  After that it was fairly intuitive.

The cut out boxes are of a single piece and pretty much fold themselves up.  The 36 deck boxes have a separate lid, and also two extra dividers which fold into the overall design.  But unless you are very spatially challenged you should have no problems putting them together.

With the large storage box, the lid felt a pretty tight fit when the box was empty, but it became much easier to put the lid on and off when the box was full.  If you load the box to its full capacity (36 decks) then it is a little hard to get a deck out [NB – this was true for us when we had 39 decks in! it would be different for only 36!] – since there is barely any finger room.  But I think in storage terms a snug fitter is better than a loose fit, so this is a sign of something which is fit for purpose.  The ‘Cut out brick box,’ as its name suggests, has a cut out in the top allowing you to easily locate the deck you are looking for.

These boxes are made of a heavy cardboard and will keep your decks well protected.  But if you are particularly concerned about humidity or damp problems they would probably not be a good choice since the cardboard wouldn’t provide that much protection.  And obviously the cut away boxes expose more of the decks.

JP have a couple of other options on the storage front including the, to my mind, mildly ridiculous ‘deck stays’ (for reinforcing your tuck cases!).  But for the convenience of a purpose built and reasonably robust storage solution and a fair price, these storage boxes are well worth a look.  And if you want to spend a bit more, the Carat Cases are gorgeous!

Why not get some to store all your Christmas decks in?  Or buy one for the magician in your life to house their collection?

And whilst you’re there, why not look at their fabulous collection of collectable playing cards.  They have a great range…

And check out our competition (coming soon) for a chance to win some playing card storage solutions.

The post How do you store yours? Or how to solve a problem like playing card storage… appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

These are not new, but I just love the idea, and they are not always available in the UK.

A factory sealed pack of Bicycle Cards in an ordinary milk bottle. Wonderful way of adorning your magic den and reminding you that anything is possible…

Wayne Dobson has some at the moment – visit Dtrick and look in the Close Up and Stand Up section.

(Thanks to MagicWeek for the tip-off that they were back in stock).

The post Anything is possible… appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

Whilst shopping in Next at the weekend with my wife, I couldn’t help noticing a rather groovy lady’s tee-shirt covered in playing cards (there are more on the front – for some reason Next prefers the over-the-shoulder-look). Whilst I don’t want to assume that all the readers of this site are men, it might be something you’d like to buy for your female friends

And if you feel left out, a quick scan of their website discovered some men’s boxers also covered in playing cards – so there’s something for everyone. Pics below, available in any Next store, or at www.next.co.uk.

And if you are a woman reading this, reverse the advice…

The post Latest Card Magic Fashions appeared first on Bicycle Cards.

In the meantime, if you just want small quantities of gaff Bicycle cards, don’t forget they are available at BicycleTricks.co.uk who also have Changin’Glue back in stock.

The post Create your own gaff cards… appeared first on Bicycle Cards.