Problems Checking Out? Blame the USPS!

Hey guys! Just a quick update. I was going through my usual routine, checking on open orders, answering customer questions, etc. when I noticed that sales were a little slow this morning. Granted, with any business, there are fluctuations, but this morning was a little slower than normal, and that usual means one thing: there is a PROBLEM somewhere!

After a little digging, I found the culprit, and it was the lovely US Postal Service! You see, since we have a one step checkout process for your convenience, we need to display all your available shipping options on one page. Well, the USPS was having issues where it was taking an incredibly long time for their servers to send the shipping prices to our servers.

What's that mean? Basically, if you went to checkout with us this morning, it may have looked like our website was HANGING and not responding. What was really happening is that our site was waiting patiently for the USPS to give us the shipping prices to display for you......and during this wait, it made it look like we were not responding.

So we temporarily removed the USPS shipping option from the site, leaving in place the UPS and free shipping option, just so customers could place their orders. At the time of this writing, it APPEARS to be off and on. We will get good response times from the USPS and put it back on the site.....and then it will go down again so we will remove it. I don't what's going on over there, but until they straighten it out, we will keep the USPS option removed from our site until it's cleared up.

Contact us if you have any further questions or concerns.

UPGRADE: Search Feature Improved!

If there has been one complaint we have heard about the website, it was that our Search Engine results were way too broad. For example, if you typed in the words 'invisible deck' on our website search engine, it would return any product that had the word "invisible" and the word "deck" anywhere in the product description.

As you can imagine, this made it difficult to narrow down what you were looking for, since many, MANY items on our site have both those words 'invisible' and 'deck' in the description, but may have absolutely nothing to do with an "invisible deck."

So I put on my Software Engineering hat that I take out from time to time, and got to coding the backbone of our site, and I am happy to say that the search results are 150% IMPROVED!!!!

Now, when you type in some words, it will search the PRODUCT NAME first, then the product description, and rank the results based on relevance. It will then display that new list out to you on our website, severely narrowing down your results to more of what you're looking for!

I can't tell you how huge that is! So using the example above, if you were to now type in Invisible Deck, you would see it right near the top along with any other item that has "invisible deck" in the title, followed by more broader results where the two words are in the description.

(Note: There is only one limitation right now, which is the words you're searching for need to be more than three letters long, or else our database won't filter it correctly (and default to the broad search as before). This is something I am working on, but requires a reboot of our server and that would bring the site down for a few minutes, so I may save that update for an evening or a slower weekend when downtime will not be noticed)

ANOTHER IMPROVEMENT

One other thing we did. When most people come to our site, they simply click the "See New Items" link at the top of every page, and this takes them to a list of new products, sorted with newest on top and oldest on the bottom.

However, prior to now, if you were to click on an individual category, like DVD's for example, it would list all the DVD's alphabetically. Well now, when you click on an individual category, the results are returned CHRONOLOGICALLY, so that means you will see the newest items from that given category listed first!

Most people will still just use the New Items link to see all the new items, but this extra improvement with individual categories will go a long way to helping you find the latest items more easily.

That's it for now! Hope you enjoy the new improved Search Engine on our site!

VLOG: MJM Order Prize Giveaway - New Feature!

NOTE: This is not a form of gambling or raffle. We are not taking money for a prize, or asking you to give us money which is pooled together and given to a winner. You are purchasing items in our store as you normally would, and we are sending you those items. We are not collecting money on top of that in any way, shape, or form in order to give away to a random winner. We use the word "lottery" because we are randomly selecting orders to give away a prize that we are spending as a business expense (out of our own pocket). This prize isn't purchased by our customers and money isn't received for the prize itself. This is not unlike a sporting event, where you pay for a ticket to see a game, and at half time, they run randomly select people sitting in certain areas get a free pizza, or t-shirt.

What makes a lottery or raffle illegal is if we were to ask you to spend $1.00 to enter, all money goes towards the prize pool, and then winners are selected from that pool to be rewarded. This is nothing like what we are doing. We have store gift certificates, DVD's, etc. that we (MJM Magic) have purchased with our own money and want to give away, but we are only giving them to active shoppers in our store. In order to define an active shopper, they are the ones that place orders with us......so when they place an order, it allows us to say, "OK, this is a person who we would want to give a gift certificate too.....let's randomly see if they are selected to get one." We then expense that amount from our budget and send it to them (so the money or prize we send them is something MJM Magic buys, not the customers whose money goes directly to purchasing the items they bought, just as it always has).

Now Available: Meteor by Juan Mayoral

Meteor (With Instructional CD) by Juan Mayoral - Trick - NOW AVAILABLE!!

Don't let the price deter you! This is one of the hardest to acquire effects, and for good reason! The impression your spectators receive from watching this performance will stay with them for a LIFETIME!

The magician produces a point of very intense light that seems to be resting on the palm of his hand. This METEOR will pass from one hand to the other in different ways, and will even pass through the hand, from the palm to the back, and finally, it will appear in the middle of the magician's forehead! The possibilities of this routine are infinite, and your hands can be seen empty at all times.


Click here for more info

Video Review by Jamie D. Grant - Crossroads

A good friend of MJM Magic and an all around great guy, Jamie D. Grant is a stud. He is a true performer and also does a great service to the magic community by reviewing some of the newest effects on the market.

He has a great blog which I encourage all of you to check out here: http://magicfriday.blogspot.com

Anyway, one of the best selling card effects (a true MIND BLOWER) is Crossroads by Ben Harris. I thought Jamie did such a great job with his video review that I wanted to share it with you here on our blog:


Password: LAST name of The Father Of Close-Up Magic, six letters:
Dai ******. You need to capitalize the first letter (V).

The Magic friday Show/ Episode Two from Jamie D. Grant on Vimeo.

VLOG: Preannouncement

Inspirational Post from James Randi

I must admit, I have never really followed a lot of the debate and work of James Randi, who I've always known as a famous skeptic and debunker of the supernatural. However, I came across this very inspirational message from him that I think deserves a listen.

Seeing what cancer can do first hand to a close family member, I have always heard all the negative side effects of chemotherapy. With some of my closest family members being extremely religious with fundamental faith in their religion, they would never take chemotherapy if prescribed.

However, this message from James Randi only further solidified my long standing belief that your thoughts and outlook really do shape your reality, so make sure that you always stay positive and look on the bright side of things. The laws of attraction will take care of the rest.

SNEAK PEAK: Crimson Resurrection Deck

This is going to be the hottest deck of 2010, and we're honored and excited to be a part of it. Rather than describe it myself, here is an excerpt from Dan Sperry himself:

"Besides myself and Temika I’m very excited to also have renown tattoo artist and designer Carl Schneider and Sara from The Goodbye Girls artistic duo coming along for the crazy ride! No release date yet as I’m currently super busy on tour but look for them to come out some time in early 2010!!!"

I just wanted to give you guys a heads up on how AWESOME these decks look. The artwork is incredible, and I'm told that there will be a lot more built into this deck than the previous version.

Stay tuned for more updates. Things are still in the finalizing stages, but we still hope to have these sometime in the first quarter of 2010!

Video: Dan Sperry Boot Giveaway

My good buddy Dan Sperry is such a gentleman. He sees someone in need and it's in his nature to just give away his prized possessions for free.

And by "prized possessions," we mean a pair of old smelly boots, and by "free," we mean you have to be humiliated with lipstick in all over your face in order to get them.

So here is the official torch boot passing ceremony, to the next generation of magicians!



For the record, if he tells you that he will give you his necklace if you eat some runny dog poo, don't believe him. I fell for that once and it took three tubes of toothpaste before I could kiss my wife again.

MOJOE by John Kennedy Now Shipping!

LINK: http://www.mjmmagic.com/store/mojoe-by-john-kennedy-now-shipping-p-10488.html

Are you as excited about me regarding this brand new effect? As a coffee drinker, this seems like the perfect way to alter someone's reality!

You're in a coffee shop, relaxing with friends and sipping your favorite cup of joe. You're waiting until the moment is just right for some...

MOJOE! "Watch," you say as you hold the coffee cup between your hands and then turn it upside down and crush it!

Total shock and fear ensue as everyone tries to escape the eruption of hot liquid. Moments later, in a stunned condition, they realize that the coffee has completely disappeared and that they have been very, very badly fooled!

With MOJOE you can make coffee vanish or even change into something else, like coffee beans! It works with paper cups (like Starbucks® coffee cups) and also ceramic cups. MOJOE also works with different drinks like Coke®, milk, etc.

MOJOE sets up in seconds and the durable gimmick lasts for years! You will receive the revolutionary MOJOE gimmick along with a DVD video teaching John Kennedy's favorite vanishes and changes.

BONUS: You'll also be able to sample a fine roast of Gregory Wilson's brilliant ideas for MOJOE - they're included!

Ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't get any better than this!

BRAND NEW AND SHIPPING SOON (HOPEFULLY IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS) - ORDER NOW TO RESERVE YOURS.

Frequently asked questions:

Do I need to buy any refills or other supplies?
No.

Are there any clothing requirements?
No.Do I need to crush the cup at the end or can I show it empty instead?
Crushing the cup is very dramatic so there are some crushed cup handlings. Other handlings include vanishes where the cup is shown empty at the end and also a transposition where the coffee changes into coffee beans (or another object).

Can I drink some coffee before I make it vanish?
Yes.

Can the coffee be hot or does it need to be cold?
Hot or cold, it doesn't matter.

Can the cup be examined at the end?
You will learn handlings (including some of the crushed cup handlings) that allow the cup to be examined at the conclusion. It is important to keep in mind, though, that after you crush the cup it becomes litter in the spectator's mind.

Is it difficult?
The average person will need about 1-2 hours of practice.

Is it limited to coffee shop performances?
Although coffee shops are a great venue, Mojoe also works in your home, on parlour or stage, or anywhere that a cup of coffee, soda, milk, etc. can be introduced.

GET IT HERE: http://www.mjmmagic.com/store/mojoe-by-john-kennedy-now-shipping-p-10488.html