In this blog post, we let you look behind the scenes of Butterfly Magic Store. We share the story of how we established the store, what we want to achieve with it, and what principles we set for ourselves.
Introduction
Butterfly Magic Store is an online magic shop with a brick-and-mortar store in Prague, Czech Republic. It represents another step in the evolution of Butterfly Playing Cards. In this blog post, we'll give you insights into the creation of Butterfly Magic Store, our plans, and what we want to achieve with it.
How We Established the Butterfly Magic Store
Before we founded Butterfly Magic Store, there was an online store called butterflyplayingcards.com. It was a platform to offer our Butterfly Playing Cards and other Butterfly products to people worldwide. This shop was founded on Ondrej’s name day on November 30th, 2018. Fast forward a few years to 2021.
Ondřej, the creator of Butterfly Playing Cards, was used to traveling worldwide, visiting magic conventions, and lecturing. When the pandemic and global lockdown hit, he settled in Prague for the longest time in many years. He came up with the idea to open a brick-and-mortar shop in Prague where magicians could visit, read books, and share ideas. In May 2021, when the strictest restrictions were lifted, we opened the doors to our Butterfly Wonderland.
As we gathered more tricks, playing cards, and books, we wanted to make them available outside the Czech Republic. We could have just placed them on the old website, but we wanted to create a new, separate project. After quite a long time of planning and three months of building the website, we opened Butterfly Magic Store to the public in May 2022.
What Do We Want to Accomplish with BMS?
Elevate the art of magic in Europe by offering a curated selection of quality magic resources and tools to magicians and the art’s fans.
As you may have noticed, we have a limited selection of books, tricks, and playing cards. Our goal is not to offer everything but to carry products we believe in.
We tested most of the tricks before we brought them to the store. We read a lot of magic books. And we have tried almost all of the decks.
We want to make sure you won’t be disappointed after purchasing them. That is also why we avoid cliché marketing phrases and mention all the good and not-so-good things.
It is hard to describe a magic product online without exposing its method. One feature somebody appreciates might be a put-off for another person. Everybody has a different character and style, so not everything might suit your needs. If you ever need more information and details, please, contact us via e-mail or Instagram. We’ll answer all the questions you might have.
We are also starting a YouTube channel later this year with plenty of content, including honest magic and deck reviews.
Provide the best customer service possible through honest, prompt, and educated communication.
We strive to provide the best customer experience. This goes with our honest communication, where we want to be transparent with everything we can. We take pride in knowing our products, so we believe we can thoroughly answer your questions.
We usually respond no more than twelve hours after you contact us. If you use the online chat on this website during our working hours, we respond almost immediately.
Every order that leaves our warehouse is carefully packaged by our Butterfly team. We believe even a standard deck of cards you buy for practice is a gift to yourself. Wrapping products in silk paper does not serve just aesthetically. It helps with protecting them from damage, and it is an environment-friendly way of packaging orders. And this way, it feels like Christmas every time you receive a package from us.
We don't believe we are perfect and keep trying to improve every day. If you have any feedback or suggestion for what we could do better, please get in touch with us via e-mail. We’d love to hear from you.
Create a space for magicians to meet, study, and collaborate through our physical locations and events, including courses, conventions, and casual in-person and online gatherings.
Our Butterfly Wonderland in Prague is open Monday to Friday, from 1 PM to 6 PM. We invite you to visit us. We will gladly discuss anything magic related with you. Our ever-growing library and collection of playing cards are available for any visitor. You can browse the books and learn a trick you always wanted to master or try almost two hundred decks to discover their differences.
Every year, we organize lectures in Butterfly Wonderland. We previously welcomed Alex Hansford, Victor Piña, Avi Yap, and many more brilliant lecturers. We announce the lectures at least a month before they take place, so even if you don’t live in the Czech Republic, you can plan a trip to Prague. Follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter to be informed about the upcoming lectures.
And conventions? We plan to run our first magic convention in Prague in 2024.
Encourage talented creators of magic and playing card designers by helping them produce their creations and supporting them with fair compensation.
We want to work with other creators and designers in the future and help them bring their projects to life. Through the years of making playing cards and other products, we have gained a lot of brilliant partners who can help us achieve that.
We also want to give the creators the spotlight and financial compensation they deserve. As we are transparent to you, our customers, we are the same with everybody we work with.
Have you created anything and would like us to collaborate with you? Send us an e-mail, and we’ll get in touch.
The End
Hopefully, you now have an idea of what Butterfly Magic Store is. We don’t want to be just another magic shop. We want to create and grow a community of people passionate about playing cards and magic.