I was comparing books in the mid/late 80s to today. I think 87 was the first year that the market saw a huge bump in (then) current trending books and less with established bronze keys. Bronze X-Men were still the sh*t, but IH181 wasn't as big as a TMNT 1 or as trending as a Dark Knight Return 1.
The Punisher Mini made ASM129 a 30$ book that year, that's a few bucks less then a Nexus magazine #1 back then
even tho it wasn't commanding high prices, I remember I was more excited with Badger than I was with Wolverine, because the character was a lot crazier than Logan.
And TMNT just made everyone speculate on print runs w indie b&w funny animals books. It truly was the WD of the 80s.
Take any of those books that were speculated on back then and look at them today and you'll find only a handful of them that lasted. Most aren't even known today.
thats why I don't speculate on moderns for the long run