Best Stage Trick; Custom "teleportation device" by Nick Wenger.

Close Up: Tom Bartlett's "Deacon Dan" Shells

Book: Frank Garcia's "All in a Nutshell"

Mikame's Sucker Block Box. I had gotten a sucker block box when I was a wee lad (my first "real" magic trick), and felt totally let down in how it worked. The Mikame one, on the other hand, absolutely blew me away in the genius way he makes the actual cube disappear as it goes into the box, so it's definitely on my top ten all-time favorite list.

I/O by Promystic, Greg Wilson's Freakey, Messado Rings, Telefoto, iForce, Andy Nyman's The Code... John LeClair's IT Hook Up... And recently... Adam Wilber's Pyro... I mean... This innovative take on flash paper and cotton is a gem... The basic effect where you put your hand above a candle or lighter then shoots a fireball... Feels like a Marvel Magician in itself... I mean heck... Being a Magician makes me feel like a superhero... Reading minds, telekinesis... Illusion and deception...

Inferno - Josh Jay
Invisible Paint & Bigger Wands Creative Magic
Twisted Sisters - John Bannon
Tenyo Elite Fortune Sticks

Not in any order:
1.) Invisible Deck
2.) Messado Rings
3.) Mesika Elastic Thread for Loops
4.) ACE by Richard Sanders
5.) Strong Magic

Effects I'm still doing over the years:
Professor's Nightmare
2 ones to a two dollar bill. Always there and ready to do in your wallet
Wonderland Bill. Another easy to carry effect.
Cinema Verite

Cuss Cards from Alchemy Moon
Hedge Tarote from Alchemy Moon
Doppleganger from Prof BC (sold from Lebanon Circle in the UK)

Given I'm a hobbyist who hadn't even being magic for ten years (not close) this is quite tricky. But in all honestly the following have really helped me (though I'm not sure everyone would benefit as I have):

Gerry Griffin's Complete Card Course and some cards (Phoenix)
Science Friction (I know, I know ...)
Sander's Turbostick
The Magic Café website

I'm sure I'll add more to the list when I've mastered all the stuff I want to, but this is the 'gold' for me at this time.

Imagination Coins
Cassidy Wallet
Sansmind Prospect
Ring Flight Revolution
Swami Writer
Smokey Magic 2

Industrial Revelation, W.O.W, and a fire wallet.

In no particular order:

Nest of Wallets by Nick Einhorn.

Coinvexed Third Generation by David Penn.

Super Slim Mullica Wallet.

Pocket Space Plus.

Titanus Finger.

Art of Astonishment by Paul Harris.

Isabella Star by Peter Turner.

On the Loose by Bill Malone.

Invisible Deck.

So many more I cant think but will come to me at 1am when I need to get to my scratcher.

Greig

Trinity System by Subdivided Studios.

Mystery box and Deep Astonishment........oh and any book by Simon Aronson. I just love Fate, particularly now it is slightly 'modded' for a normal deck use.

Doc,

I can't start naming things I love or else the list may never end, and worse yet, I'll leave something off and feel bad about it later. What I will do is tell you two things (really three) that I've purchased and got a surprisingly amount of milage out of. So much that I would consider them at the top of the list of "best purchases" because I really got my money's worth.

The first (and second) is Mr. Dean Dill's Revelation. I sure miss the man already, what a loss. If you've seen this effect it is setup in a three ringed binder. Knock your socks off kind of effect. The binder is very bland when you get it and he suggests that you add some tabs like you would do if it were a real notebook and stick some papers in there and so forth. What I did was make a binder with a bunch of parapsycology kind of stuff in it. Downloaded articles and study material. Then I got Depicting Thoughts from Para Labs ( got mine from Tannen's but I don't see it there anymore). So I do a few effects using the Para Lab cards and that usually goes over real big then end with Revelation which hits them between the eyes. You have to keep the second part clean for it to work best. Put all the cards away and go to a clean sheet of paper in the notebook and make sure you have that envelope in plain sight the whole time. Anyway both of them have been good to me, but combined it has possibly been my best purchase. The notebook is getting beat up and used which makes it even better.

The second thing (or third if you're keeping count) is Mr. Jamie D. Grant's Revelation. Hey I just realized they have the same name! What are the chances of that? It is totally different. Used in a completely different situation. Where the first is long, could be formal, and an effect which builds for some time, Mr. Grant's Revelation is more of a walk around pocket thing. I hate to call it a thing. It's not a prop or anything like that. It's something that makes people smile and scratch their heads. People always want to snatch it out of your hand, which I encourage you to let them. Actually I dump it into their hand, but other people grab at it. I wish I could describe it better because it deserves it. It's not something you will make your reputation on but the topic is best purchases and when I think about if I my money was well spent, it sure was. That thing doesn't owe me anything. It is not something that will live it's life in a drawer if you recognize it's potential. By the way I like using a knife with it instead of dropping a coin through it. But that's a preference thing.

Already long winded, so I'll stop here. Sorry about leaving off two dozen well deserved tricks.

Respectfully,

Phil

I haven't done this hobby more than 10 years but here is my list:

Industrial Revelation
Showdown Wallet
World's Greatest Magician - Card To Wallet
World's Greatest Magician - Ambitious Card
Strange Traveler

Card Dodgery book by J.K. Hartman

Brainstorm DVD Set by Guastaferro

Personally it has to be in no particular order:

Invisible deck
In a flash
Spreadwave 2.0
The Raven
Industrial Revelation
The Informant
Twilight Angels
Tool
Tarantula

You know, I'm going to break the rules just a bit and list one of my all-time favorites that I purchased when I was a kid.

The Magic Coin Box (vanished coin appears inside 2 banded boxes and a banded felt bag). Sorry for the deviation, but I got more mileage out of that when I was younger than any other effect. It was the very first trick I thought of when I saw the topic title

Thank you, Adams!

A felt bag. That WAS a long time ago. When I demonstrated in a magic shop it was plastic bag that did not work very well at all.

I do remember when I was a kid and my sister got that trick at Disney World it had a felt bag.

Reading this thread again I have to add a classic that I forgot about.

Snowstorm in China.

I would close all my kid shows with this. The gasps I get, along with the excited giggling and kids trying to catch the "snow" when the snow starts falling on them, make it seem like I'm doing real magic.

How is it useful?