"Hummel, Hummels ..."

Herb 96, Samstag, 22. März 2014, 21:07 @ Herr Hrdlicka

Hallo, lieber Herb, how's tricks?

To me How's tricks? is how one greets a prostitute ...

I don't know what others would say, but to me "how's tricks?" is a very dated way of greeting someone. I might expect it from someone even older than I am (!), but I wouldn't expect it in general conversation. It sounds like something from the 1930s or 1940s to my ear.

"How's Tricks" derived from a slang way of asking a "lady of the night" how is business -- because her job was "turning tricks".
It has come to be generally used as a way of saying "how is business" or "how are things".
But that is definitely where it originated..