In the magic world at the moment, amongst certain dealers there exists a most peculiar business practice. One I have never encountered in any other field of business. That of reviewing your own products.
To me this is as bonkers as it sounds. The whole idea of a reviewer is that they have to remain impartial to what they are reviewing. Can you imagine the outcry if we discovered Michael Winner ate with gastric gusto at a restaurant then gave the place favourable reviews, only then everyone discovered he owned it? Or how about if an online film website gave Steven Spielberg's films amazing reviews and then it turned out it was Steven Spielberg who owned the online site?
And yet it seems quite justified for magic dealers to review their own products. What is astonishing is not the audacity at doing so. But the fact that it's accepted, hook, line and sinker by the watching masses.
When confronted with this, a dealer will say that they're stating an opinion on their product. The implication here is if you complain they shouldn't have an opinion on their products, you are an evil communist who believes no-one should have an opinion about anything. But whilst it is fine to express ones opinion on the product you sell, to give it a percentage score and then encourage people in the review that they must buy it as it's a 'must have' or whatever buzz words are used, makes that dealer no better than a snake oil salesman rolling into a town during the Wild West with various miracle 'cures.'
I made the mistake of saying this on a private Facebook page last week. Cue the next day having an irate dealer on the phone who believed the post was about him and his company (we shall ignore with good grace the fact I was expressing an opinion on my own page and the subsequent conversation that ensured made it clear I shouldn't have an opinion on this subject, despite the fact the phrase 'it's just my opinion' is the main argument of dealers who do this business practice). The post actually wasn't about him, but the business practice as a whole. But he's a magician. So perhaps he believes everything is about him? Magicians and their egos, tsk.
Besides simply saying 'It's just my opinion' is a bit of a flaky argument. Would a murderer, caught in the act, simply say 'In my opinion, I thought her head would look better removed from her neck' be let off with a shrug from the police?
I was told I was jealous (I laughed) but I'm not sure what I was meant to be jealous about? This was never clarified. I believe he thought he took more profit home to his home/lair/lightning blasted tree abode every night than myself. He may do. But I am sole owner of House of Magic, so all profit from sales, tuition, gigs go to me. Whereas the afore mentioned frustrated performing necromancer has huge costs to cover in his business.
It did give me a chance to put my point of view across and discuss the concept of reviewing your own products, but alas my carefully worded questions were ignored and bounced off his mighty ego as easily as bullets off Captain Americas shield.
It almost makes me want to sign up for next years The Apprentice. If I can get through to the final and present my business idea to the furry beetle Alan Sugar surely it would win? 'My idea Lord (Or would he be an Emperor by next year?) Sugar is to review your own products'. There would be a hush and a pause before he would leap over the desk, kicking Brady out the way with a fluid grace quite shocking in a man his age. His gnarly arms would embrace me and he would whisper hoarsely 'That's bleeding genius that is son!'
Or perhaps I could descend into the Dragons Den and ask the lounging lizards for a cool £50,000 for a mere concept. They would scoff and bite into their small mammal snacks and eye me hungrily. But when I tell them the concept, they would instantly leap on each other, clawing and breathing fire on each other until one would be victorious. Standing in the slippery innards of their slain cold blooded peers the dragon would instantly give me my money for the concept: Review your own products.
Not really of course because it's all daft. You cannot review your own products. A member of a jury cannot sit in on a case if he has the slightest connection with that case. A magic dealer cannot review their own products. There is an incentive there, a desire to sell the product. It affects all scores and opinions. The dealer may throw in the odd red herring, give one or two bad reviews, but do they like the magician that created the effect? Do they have a grudge against him? How do you know? And if there is any doubt at all, how can you believe the reviewer? Even if the reviewer states they know/respect/are friends with the creator of the effect and then give it a bad review, how do you know this is true? This is the magic world after all.
Of course a dealer would say this is sour grapes. I'm envious because I didn't think of it. In a way that's true, I didn't think of it. Probably because I didn't think for a moment people could not see what was happening. But I forgot just how dumb the masses can be sometimes. Also there's nothing stopping me doing it now is there? Jumping on the bouncy wagon like many dealers have. Well there is something stopping me. It's called professional pride.
The same goes with the magic forums. I know people in the magic world and on these forums the same people crop up doing reviews for the same dealers. Why? Because they know the dealers personally that's why. It's the curse of the internet I'm afraid. It's so easy to hide your identity and become a 'keyboard warrior' on the net. Don't believe me? Well how about this, how do you know if dealers haven't created false profiles on these forums and are in fact reviewing their own products?
That's not to say magic products shouldn't be reviewed. They should. But I believe it should be the Hobbyist or Amateurs that do so. With their identity fully revealed, name, contact details and so forth. Of course no system is perfect, there would always be the danger that this reviewer could become popular and be wooed by dealers quite easily. But it's got to be better than for example this classic bit of reviewing I saw this week, here it is abridged: 'We're now the exclusive UK dealer of this company and we have one of their products to review'. You'll never guess what? The product got a rave review. No? Really? They're the only UK dealer that can sell this company's products and they gave the product a brilliant review? Well paint me blue and call me Papa Smurf, fancy that! What were they going to do? Rubbish it? That exclusivity would have flown out the window.
The only purpose of this blog is to simply make you think twice about purchasing an item online because you have seen it reviewed. You are far better to save your money and visit a magic shop in person or go to a Dealer Day. There examine the product. See it demoed. Then form your own opinion before buying it. Surely that makes more sense?
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