Has Harry sold Daytona magic?

It would appear that Dan & Ana Peterson are the current owners per the About page.

It looks like Harry is still listed as the email on the contact us page.

Did you notice something change from your interactions with them?

The website lists new owners

I guess the problem is where does someone who's been in Florida for about a century go to retire?

Nothing wrong with someone enjoying retirement, but it seems to me that Harry is perhaps only "semi-retired", having sold the business (and the headaches of maintaining the business) but he seems to still be associated with the shop, because on Daytona's Facebook page Harry is still doing almost daily videos (along with new owner Dan Peterson) about specials they are offering or new items in stock. Maybe Harry is planning to do a slow fade from active involvement with the shop, but it seems like he is still in the shop every day for the time being.

I plan to stop in around the 25th and will see what's going on. I know a guy near me who owned a card shop (baseball, mainly) for over 20 years. Last year, he sold the shop and is staying on as an employee. He loves it!

It's probably the best of both worlds. He gets the cash from a buyout, loses the constant pressure and headache of being a business owner, but gets to keep his feet wet in magic.

Nothing wrong with that! I do hope that in the future, Daytona won't list items that are out of stock, allow you to order them, then call you to tell you it's out of stock and offer to sell you something else (happened twice to me, haha). I appreciate a good salesman, but that was a little much

Oh God. The dreaded "sorry, it's on backorder." More than one dealer followed that "sales tactic" whether deliberate or not. Anytime I heard that after I paid for an item, even from my favorite dealers, they immediately moved down on my list of preferred dealers. In this digital age where it's so easy to track inventory internally and externally from suppliers, there is absolutely no excuse not to say "Out of Stock" when an item is in fact, out of stock.

That happened to me too, at Daytona Magic, but they did refund my money. From here on out I will ask them if it's in stock before I purchase it.

It happened to me quite a few times, but Harry was always very very quick to call me and let me know and the refund was always issued immediately.

Good for Harry! Hope he enjoys the time off right? Daytona has always been amazing about contacting me immediately if something is wrong with my order, and I had a several day discussion regarding what's in their warehouse. The folk there went out of their way to help. Hope the new owners do right by the reputation he's built!

Harry Called me to do exactly that so he is still very much involved in the shop. I'm still waiting for what was in stock to arrive....

For those who haven't heard, Daytona Magic has moved. They are now in a new location in Ormond Beach, FL (a few miles away from where they were formerly located in Daytona Beach,FL). The old shop is closed. Daytona Magic was one of the last of the classic, walk-in brick & mortar magic shops with shelves and glass cabinets full of magic. I haven't seen photos of the new location, but from what I gather it is more of a warehouse and shipping location , with a small retail showroom area in front, which is by appointment only, so call first if you plan to drop in.



The old (now closed) Daytona Magic Shop (and this photo shows only about 2/3rds of the shop, there was more in the other direction from where the photographer was standing, going back towards the door) -

I've been on their email list for quite some time. In the last 2 weeks I've gotten some emails with large stage magic props that were 50% to 75% off. I don't do large stage, but some items were $1,000.00 to $2,000.00 off the regular price.

All good things come to an end, I guess. I used to stop in often when we lived fairly close. I retired and moved back to the area several months ago and keep "thinking about" running over. I never acted on that and now I'm too late. It was never what Tannen's in the '70s was to me, but it was still a link to the bygone days of the magic shop. I'm sure that the business reasoning is sound, but there is something sad about losing it.

Yeah I ordered from Daytona Magic for many years, and I also ordered stuff that was not in stock, yet listed on the site. Many still seem to be listed on there that are sold out everywhere else. They need to fix this and make it like Penguin Magic where the inventory reflects the actual stock. This was VERY annoying and a waste of my time and money. Then if I found the item somewhere else I could not buy it, as Daytona had my money tied up while they went on treasure hunts.

They also did the "backorder" thing to me as well a few times, and then seemed as though they went and hunted down a used version of some books I bought which were OOP, as they were not sealed, were dirty, and the spine was cracked, as if they were heavily read. They shipped weeks later. I knew they were OOP though so I was not surprised, but I was glad to at least have them as no one else seemed to have them anywhere.

So either they lied or were clueless of their actual inventory. I am checking on some items right now before ordering again, mostly out of stock elsewhere, but was told they have one left. So will see how it goes. It is sad to see all the classic magic shops closing down now, and as a classic parlor performer it is getting harder to find replacement props now.

Unless I go on eBay and pay scalper prices which I have to do sometimes, since there are no other options. I may have to start making my own props soon, but rarely have time for that as I am too busy performing as it is.

So hopefully some companies take over and still keep making props, like MAK Magic quality, since they went out of business as well. Otherwise pretty soon magic is just going to be instant downloads, and kids doing card tricks and tricks with i-Phones, which is mostly what it is now anyway it seems. But some of us old school guys still do parlor and stage shows.

Today's generation lack talent, motivation, and artistic abilities, because they are too busy playing on their phones on Tiktok. That is why magic is a dying art now, and all these shops are going out of business. The internet shops are what started it, and put many brick and mortar shops out of business. Now many of those online shops are also going out of business.

Madhattermagic was sold by Bill Groome to new owners not that long ago last year in Oct, and now they are already going out of business again. I bought from them and their other site USAmagic for many years, Hank Lees, Denny and Lee etc. So there are not many left now. I still buy from Hocus-Pocus, Penguin, Magic Warehouse, Magictricks.com, Tricksupply, Magictrickstore, and others.

I used to order from Abbott Magic long ago as well, but they also sketchy with outdated inventory. But most of the classic props are now discontinued and out of stock, as there are no manufacturers left to make them. So the only options are eBay or other auction sites like Quickerthantheeye.com, which mostly sell used props.

I used to stop by Daytona Magic on my winter trips to Florida. I would go in with a list of items I wanted and most of the time they weren’t in the store. More than once I was told “oh, we have that in our warehouse. We can have it for you in a few days. It will be X number of dollars plus shipping” I always found it amusing that I would have to pay shipping when buying something in the store. I took it to mean they’d be happy to sell it to me but the had to order it first. I’m from Canada, so the whole idea of purchasing from the store in person was to save on the shipping. Go figure.

Yeah unless they had to ship it from their warehouse to the shop, but not sure why they would not have a warehouse near the shop to avoid that hassle? Or it could be that they did not have the room to keep enough stock they are advertising and then ordering it after receiving the money.

Seems like they continue to do that now, and "drop-ship" as well. They are too lazy to update their old site and make it accurate, and just want people to order first then they can hopefully get it. If not no big deal, they have your money for a few weeks until you start asking about a refund. But that does not work on me now, as I always ask first before ordering. You would think the new owners would change this but seem to still be doing the same thing, and come off as "shady."

But so far I have got my orders that I ordered recently. But I had to request a paypal invoice because their site claims that "shipping is free over $75" yet in the checkout it is not, and there is no code option. They claimed they could not change the price on the site easily one time, or send a free shipping code, so they sent a paypal invoice instead.

But they need to fix that "free shipping over $75" offer or stop advertising it if it does not work in the checkout. Some may order based on that, then forget and pay the shipping charge, which seems like they are counting on since they have not fixed it.