Vincent,
Did you get your new mirror? I agree with Jim about checking out the yard sales. It's a great way to find mirrors. Also try Goodwill stores and pass the word around to family and freinds that you are wanting mirrors. Sometimes when people move they have bigger mirrors they don't want anymore or when older people move to smaller homes, apartments or retirement homes they have to down size their stuff and mirrors can be one of those items that have to go. So pass the word that you are wanting mirrors and you might be surprised how many offers you get.

Wish I had all the cash spent over the years. Even after many years I am still a sucker for some effects I admit it and still get bit. But as years pass some mens junk is other men's treasure. So I keep it all even the useless junk, mind you not a hoarder but some day someone will see all the stuff and wonder what the devil is this.

This topic is priceless for all beginners. I was 15 when I really got my magic hobby going. I was showing new trick to my friends at school at least twice a week, so had to practice, and oh I did a lot of practicing. I even got my first 20 minute show before I was 17 (first was at local xmas party, the other two was kids birthday parties). I did also buy lots of new tricks about twice a month, but I didn't always spent wisely...

But I did learn something new even from those useless tricks, I learned new mechanics, sleights, handling etc. And then I found out that I could actually start creating my own tricks, and I still do. I did had a long break during 2010 - 2016, lots of things happened during that period of time.

Resurrected old thread but extremely relevant still. This should have been a sticky. Sitting here on Christmas morning with my new books I received I am reminded I need to get my butt upstairs for some alone time and practice and perfect what I have already been working on.

A magic prop can be completely useless in one persons hands ... yet in another, it can produce a masterpiece.

Consider a paintbrush in the hands of a monkey and Leonardo da Vinci.
I know ... Leonardo is just starting out ... give him a chance.

Just kidding.

Before anyone thinks of investing in a magic item - check the Magic Café Reviews.
That's what it's for - it's here to help.

When you add in the de-bunking of multi-tasking ("...each time you switch tasks, your brain has to run through a complex process to disengage the neurons involved in one task and activate the neurons needed for the other."), focusing on a tighter ring of pursuits and interests, will get you farther.

As Bruce Lee is attributed to saying, "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times."