Torpedo Con - July 15-16, 2023 - Glendale, CA (Los Angeles)

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Bumble Kitty · July 18, 2023

On 7/17/2023 at 2:37 PM, HouseofComics.Com said:

Sounds like it was a little more sedate than previous years.

I talked to one dealer on Saturday and he said sales were OK. Of course when the 2022 version was cancelled after some people had already booked plane tickets, you might need another year or so to build up goodwill. Just thinking out loud.

However, I felt the number of books and quality of books in the room was outstanding! Another dealer said he thought this convention was a notch above Terry O'Neil's convention (in February). And that was Terry O'Neil's own words! For those who complain about SDCC being too crowded, too expensive, too Hollywood, well this is the one to attend. I even heard that the food truck (out in front) had pretty good offerings.

Robot Man · July 19, 2023

Good to hear dealers did OK. It did seem very slow attendee wise. Maybe last year put a lot of folks off. I didn’t see a lot of PR on it. Mostly just word of mouth. The room was just packed with vintage material. It was a sensory overload to me at first. But I focused and went through methodically. As expected, pricing was a bit aggressive for the most part. But for those with an open mind and willing to work, there were bargains to be had.

The only “notch above” that this show had over CalCon was the greater amount of bigger nationwide dealers. Only because of SDCC being this week. It behooves them to do this show while in town. Cheaper booth and hotel rates and to capture a lot of SO CA serious buyers that don’t want to deal with SDCC anymore.

CalCon was 6 months ago. We hadn’t had much in the way in cons in a while and a lot of economic conditions had yet to set in. People are being a lot more selective with their buying now compared to then. I set up at CalCon. Was the best show I’ve done in many years. But it was VERY crowded and people were spending freely. Plus CalCon is a one day show which also helps the dealers a lot.

I LOVE this show but did bring home 2/3rds if the money I took. I just bought smart, looked for deals and only bought books I might not have had the opportunity to find elsewhere.

Here are some photos for comparison. The first two are Torpedo and the last three are from my booth at CalCon.

Edited July 20, 2023 by Robot Man

jmg3637 · July 22, 2023

After circling the rooms looking for FOur Colors and Classics I was at Lady T's booth and noticed a T-Man with a Hitler cover. I have about 1/2 of that series, and fortunatley had added the missing issues onto my Mycomicshop want list. I was quickly able to determine that I actually had issue 34, and that it was a reprint on #6.

I recircled the main room looking for the even more obscure T-Man. Low and Behold Bedrock had a nice looking copy that also had the Hitler cover. This one was the original #6 but had several spots of restoration. I was glad to be able to trade for it.

Moved around more to Harley and he also had an issue #37 ( last issue?) that was in nice grade but at a high price. He looked at the books I was offering, but could only find 1 book that he wanted and it was for less than a third of the cost of his book. Was unable to make a deal for that one.

Robot Man · July 22, 2023

I bought a book on the bay last night. I’d been looking for a while. They had an opening bid that I thought was full retail. So I held off until after Torpedo. Well, sure enough, there was a pretty similar copy at the show but it was priced 3 times this one. I wanted it bad and had plenty of money. I thought about making an offer but I just passed. I rolled the dice and ending up getting this one with the only bid. Patience is a virtue…

Great going to Cons. Nothing like buying in person but a lot of prices are sure

Edited July 22, 2023 by Robot Man

jmg3637 · July 22, 2023

Here is a book I had never seen before. As an off shoot of Classics not only were Jr's included so were Fast Fiction , Picture stories in the Bible, American history etc. Another variation was the picture news. That is supposed to be a pre Queen version of ELizabeth and came out prior to her fathers death.77 years ago

Found this one at the booth of a local guy I have been working with for many years. He opened a shop in Santa Clarita called Cruzin thru comics.

TO make our deal balance we greatly expanded it so I got a very nice Showcase 41 first Tommy TOmorrow. As I was not much into TT, I did not think I had it, and even if I did this would be a nice upgrade.

I traded him two silver age DC war books and one of the slabbed books I brought