Disposing of a Collection
I’ve been thinking about how to manage my magic collection as I age. My attorney advised me to keep my magic books out of my will. I have nearly 1,000 items in my library, some of which are fairly valuable. But my beneficiaries are unlikely to know what they’re looking at, or what to do with the stuff! The worst option would be for them to just chuck it all out as unwanted junk. A simple solution would be for them to sell to one of the consignment dealers. Or they could try to sell some of the items individually. I’m working to thin my collection by 15%, but it’s tedious work. I would be interested to hear what others think.
Thanks and warm regards,
—David Kaplan
(I’m not the Midwest neo-vaudevillian; I’m the ex-pat Aussie in Boston!)
Your question is an excellent one and I am sure other Genii readers will either be thinking, or have thought, about the same thing. And as it happens Sara Crasson’s column this month does talk about the importance of making a will, though only with the well-being of your dependents in mind, rather than the more important question of what happens to your magic stuff….
Unsurprisingly the serious magic collectors are the people I have heard talk the most about this, with a few options regularly emerging. Perhaps the most poetic approach is one I have often heard from Mike Caveney, which is to try and put all the items back where you found them—the idea being that in doing so you would give future collectors the opportunity you had to uncover items in strange and serendipitous settings, and to thereby experience the same joy and excitement those moments of discovery gave you.
More easily actionable options for the serious collector include donation or auction. The value of a collection does not only lie in the individual items, but also in the way those items illuminate one another, an accumulation that is truly more than the sum of its parts. One way to preserve those connections and ensure they are useful is to donate the collection to an institution that will preserve it as a whole. If maximizing value is the priority then auction may be the best bet. Auctions of magic material have boomed since the landmark Sotheby’s sales of the J.B. Findlay Collection in 1979 and 1980 and if you, for example, were the proud owner of Houdini’s walking stick you could have sold it for $50,400 in the most recent Potter & Potter auction.
Of course most of us will not own items that warrant those kinds of treatment, but it is still important to decide what you want to happen to your collection, not least because you don’t want the responsibility of taking care of it falling to your family during a difficult time. I would add to David’s ideas that you could consider a sale at a local magic club, a donation to a group that supports young magicians, or the nomination of a trusted magic friend to manage the dispersal of the items once you are gone.
If you have ideas for the dispersal of a magic collection, or stories about past examples, we would love to hear from you.
Genii and AI
I understand the concerns many people have—particularly those in creative fields—but I wonder whether the growing resistance [to AI] is proportionate.
My fear is that this harks back to the 19th-century Luddites who opposed industrial machinery largely because they feared it would threaten their livelihoods. Similar concerns surfaced in the latter half of the 20th century as computers entered the workplace. Now AI has become a target.
History shows that technology has enabled people to do so many things better, faster, and more efficiently. Today, AI is already delivering results more quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively than people—and that’s why it’s used.
If AI can help magicians develop stronger performances, create new methods, generate ideas, streamline administration, or even assist in producing this illustrious magazine, then why resist it?
Within the next decade AI is likely to become woven into almost every facet of life. My hope is that magicians and other creatives do not become the 21st century’s Luddites, and instead embrace it wherever it helps us to do what we do better.
—Tim Barnes
There may well be things that AI can do “faster, and more efficiently” than people, but I don’t believe that it can generate “better” material for a magic magazine; and we prioritize sharing the best material possible above speed or convenience.
Of course that does not preclude the possibility that AI might do something better than a human would. When that situation arises, we will use AI and follow our policy by marking it clearly, so that no reader will be confused as to what is or is not AI-generated.
No doubt the technology will continue to evolve, and as it does our approach will evolve too. Our policy is simply an attempt to explain how we currently choose to engage with something that offers huge potential, but for which the current use pattern and structural underpinnings often seem deeply questionable.
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