Magic supplies in Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina

Coin work travels better than anything else: one gimmick in a pocket and whatever change you already have. A plate that lets a borrowed coin fall through the base of a glass, and a coin you can see straight through — both work with the coins in your hand rather than a matched set you have to go and buy. Harder than cards to learn, and considerably stronger when it lands.

Material built to survive inspection from three feet away: sponge balls, cups and balls, chop cups, ring gimmicks and close-up mats. Street and table work is the most forgiving way to get good, because the audience is small enough to restart and honest enough to tell you when it did not land.

Nobody needs an expensive prop to start. The strongest beginner material in the shop costs less than lunch — self-working decks, sponge balls and forcing dice — and all of it still gets used by people who have been performing for twenty years.

Magic shops closed almost everywhere between 2000 and 2015, Columbia included, and the trade moved online. The gain is range — a marked deck, a chop cup and a set of linking rings in one order. The cost is that you cannot handle anything first, so the listings are written to be read instead: what ships, what it does, what it takes to do it.

Southern magic skews toward walk-around and family work: restaurants, fairs, church events and corporate functions. Material that plays to mixed ages earns more here than anything built for a bar.

We post to Columbia like anywhere else in the country. That covers all of Richland County. Free shipping over $75 anywhere in the United States, Columbia included.