Hey all; I just got cardworks from ebay, and was wondering why noone seems interested in it... I have searched all over the board for topics on this book, and can't find anything...while it is not a revolutionary book, it has some great effects, ideas, and contributors...is this book highly disliked for some reason, or is it just not very popular???

I think it is just a little more obscure and off the radar so to speak. It is a book that I am interested in, but I have not had the resourses yet to aquire. I'm sure its a great book.

I would say that 'Cardmagic' is an "updated" (so to speak) version of 'Cardwork' : that's why you'll find more subject on it.

I think it's one of the worst books Kaufman, CardMagic being another one of the worst, has published, and I'm not alone in that thinking. That could also be the reason.

Aaron; what you said is kind of what I was thinking that others were thinking...but I want to know why. the book has some really good thinking, and has plenty of big names which is enough for most people, so why do you think it was so bad???

Big names don't necessarily mean good magic. Even with some decent thinking, most of the products of the thinking that are in the books are not that good.

The only things I can pick up that are half decent are the slightly modifed Radical Change, but the modification is failry slight, and I think the original works better for most purposes, and Passing Along The Vanishing Aces. While I'm not personally a fan of Passing Along The Vanishes aces, the methodology is nice, and has led other to develop variations. Aside from that the book is mostly a series of dead ends.