I have both, but if I had to choose I would choose Tarbell first. Not only do you learn a ton of card stuff but everything else about every genre of magic as well. In fact the Tarbell Course was one of the first book sets I got long ago. I had several of these sets over 37 years and it is the most complete and comprehensive course ever written on magic as a whole. As a kid I paid $400 for my first set at a magic shop which I had to save up for a long time, but it was WELL worth it. I have two sets today one that are "reader sets" and one set still sealed as a collectible. I wish I could do that with all my books but already have very little room left. I also have the huge single book and original lessons by Magic Makers which is great also.

One of my favorite book sets of all time and one that started my career in magic and allowed me to study and perform many different genres and get a taste of magic as a whole and see which ones I liked to do the most. One could easily make a career out of these books alone and I did, but I also got many other books back then as well. But these took a long time to get through, especially while practicing as you go. But in the end it was again WELL worth the time. I plan on going through the entire set again some 37 years later, and I believe I went through them twice since. I read so many books it is hard to keep track. You learn something new each time and I am looking forward to coming full circle going through the course again soon.

I also used to just open them randomly and work on whatever hidden gems I could find. Should be fun! I have enough reading to do that will take about 20 lifetimes lol. But I love magic books, especially HUGE ones and huge sets. I also love Card College as well which I believe should come later, as it focuses on cards exclusively. I was always a "card guy" myself but I also do many other genres of magic as well especially cards, close-up, parlor, rope, coin, silk, mental magic, mentalism etc. Card magic is a whole art in itself and many do just card magic. I also love RRTCM the book and DVD and Daryl's Encyclopedia of Card Sleights which is the best video on Card sleights and moves ever made as it is encyclopedic. But there are many other great ones as well for tricks and routines. There were times I did card magic exclusively for many years. Card College is the first time that card magic was approached as a "scholarly pursuit" as Dan Harlan said.

So as Tarbell is a course on "magic" as a whole, Card College is a course on "card magic" exclusively. Both certainly compliment each other well. Even magicians that only do a few card tricks can benefit as they can just look up the tricks or moves they want to use. Or us "Cardicians" can go through it entirely and work on mastering everything or again just using what we want to. So really both are a must for serious magicians and those who do card work. It just depends on what you want to do. As an overall magician looking to do all kinds of of magic in general including cards, Tarbell is all they would need. Just card guys could get by with just Card College.

But if you want to do it all and you also do card work a lot, then both would be great which is why I have both. Tarbell is the most complete course on "magic" as a whole, Card College is the most complete course on "Card Magic".

Also a cheaper lighter version of both would be RRTCM and Mark Wilson's Complete Course which I also got as a kid, along with The Amateur Magician's Handbook which I had all before Tarbell and contains much of the same material but not as much overall and a lot of different stuff as well. the the RRTCM DVD set with Rudy Hunter and Daryl's EOCS. Also the new Tarbell Course videos with Dan Harlan are great, and I was the one who recommended them years ago but no one thought it was possible but I knew it was, it would just take awhile. http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......c=195893