The simpler tricks are often overlooked. That's a shame, because they often have more to offer than one may think at first glance.

Buddha Money Mystery is a very versatile trick, and can work with many small and/or flat objects. In this routine, something is wrapped up inside several layers of paper, and when the paper is unfolded, the object has either vanished or changed into something else, depending on the presentation.

One classic routine for the Buddha Money Mystery is to wrap a dollar bill up in the papers, make your magic motions, and then unfold to show that the bill has changed into four quarters. On it's own, it is a simple routine that can get potentially powerful reactions.

Nickels to Dimes, is another simple trick in which four nickels are covered with a brass cap, and then changed to four dimes. It doesn't require any skill, but the effect is often amazing.

While I can't go into the methods behind them, as these are effects we sell here at Penguin Magic, I can show you how to turn them into an entirely new effect that neither could do alone!

Here's the new effect: You take four dimes, and wrap them up in four layers of paper. Once the dimes are secure inside the folded papers, you put a stack of four nickels on top of the papers. You then cover the four nickels with a brass cap, make a magic wave of the hands, and then lift up the brass cap to show the four dimes that were wrapped up in the paper earlier! When you unfold the paper, there are the four nickels that were on top just moments ago! The nickels and dimes have somehow changed places.

If you own both of these effects, the method isn't hard to work out. If you don't, clicking on the above links and pictures will take you to where you can purchase them.

There are many presentations you can use for this routine. For example, you can say you're working on a smaller version of "Metamorphosis", the classic stage routine in which a magician, standing on a crate, instantly switches places with an assistant who is locked and shackled inside the crate.

If you already have a number of magic tricks that you don't perform any more, you might want to look through them again, and see which ones may create entirely new tricks when combined.