Reselling Magic - The Ethics
What are the ethics of re-selling Magic?
Before we start I do know consumer law, or rather I’ve read what I need to for this article. I’m not about to talk about the rights of the originator, the consumer or anyone in between. This is about the ethical issue of re-selling magic.
I hesitate to say unique, but Magic is unusual as a product. What you are buying isn’t just the physical product if any prop is involved at all. You are not buying just the method either, although that is part of it. What you are buying is the secret.
The secret is the reason, product descriptions are so cagey to the point of lying and trailers edge toward miss-leading. Indeed, the product descriptions are often more deceptive than the trick itself. They tread such a fine line I’m surprised Trading Standards aren’t swamped.
This is all justified under the banner of keeping the secret hidden, whilst trying to sell the impossible. With magic if you actually show what you are selling, that is the secret, there is little reason to buy it.
So, the magic consumer has only a shady idea of what they are purchasing, indeed they probably have a better idea of what they aren’t getting (thread, magnets etc.).
The magician makes his purchase on instinct almost, not surprisingly then most of the time he suffers buyer’s remorse and if left with something in the fabled bottom drawer.
These days there are numerous sites, forums and Facebook groups to sell these erroneous purchases. But can we resell our magic ethically.
Once we have made the purchase, we do now own the secret, and we can’t wipe our memories yet. This applies to prop based tricks, books and DVD’s. Once you know the secret, you sort of permanently own the product.
Therefore, even after selling the book or DVD say, you still have it in your possession. I can still perform Twisting the Aces for example, even if I sold the instructions a long time ago. It is my view, that I’m morally obliged to keep the product until such a time that I no longer wish to perform it. I think it is hard to argue against that. To keep performing a routine after selling on the secret, is 100% wrong.
What then of those regretted purchases, where we have been misled for lack of a better word into buying something that is ostensibly crap. We have the secret, even if it is a bad one. This is tricky wicket for me. I’ve got what I wanted, the knowledge, I just don’t like it. I can’t return or resell my knowledge. My ethics are yelling you are stuck with it, you can’t sell it on and hold your head high, but that is tough pill to swallow.
However, the real problem the magic world is confronted with. Is the amount of landfill tricks being peddled to the unsuspecting consumer by money grabbing producers and wholesalers.
I believe if we stopped the ‘I can always pass it on’ mentality we may be more cautious before opening our wallets. In theory only the better items will sell, the crap won’t make any money and will stop being knocked out a dime a dozen.
The magic community will have cleaned up it’s back yard and the like of Abstract Effects will fold and the world will be a better place for it.
0 Comments To "Reselling Magic - The Ethics"
Write a comment
Enter the code in the box below:
Note: HTML is not translated!