I have always passed over slate routines in everything I have read...Annemann, Corinda, Hull, whoever...not because I didn't see the value or thought them overtly dated, but because I could never find any good slates!!! Just big old gimmicky over priced apparatus...These are Awesome!!! Simple, Basic and Effective...& the perfect size to actually carry & use all the time!! Just what I needed to open a whole new area of Mentalism.