Oh yeah. We are very much in a big speculation bubble right now. Who knows when it'll burst. I remember a lot of prices going up due to movie buzz for a while. But the last couple years or so... it is insane on some of the hikes.

I know that feeling though. It is hard to shake. I kind of just did that with Werewolf by Night 32. Always wanted it. Should have bought it a few years ago at 1/3rd the price it is now. But I couldn't. And now I did... hope I don't regret it haha.

There is kind of a difference between the bubble of now and that of the 90s at least. Back then, they were doing print runs in the millions and people were just illogically hording them without regard to the massive supply. Expecting them to be worth a lot at some point. A large portion of the bubble now is actually low print and/or very old key issues that actually have supply problems and the demand to go with them. So they very well could remain high priced for a long time.

Though there are quite a few modern keys that have jumped big time lately too that really have plenty of supply out there that I expect to drop back down at some point. I would definitely not invest highly on anything printed from the 90s to now unless I knew for sure it had an unusually low print run AND was very significant. A lot of these $30+ modern 'keys' people are going crazy for right now are going to end up in dollar bins at shows in 5 or 6 years. 😅 But... 60s, 70s, even 80s keys that have stood the test of time, have lower supply now, and a huge demand. Those may never go back down.

That Hulk #449 is borderline. Being a 90s book, it is not super rare but I think it did have a slightly lower print run than a lot of 90s books because Hulk has never really been a top seller. If Thunderbolts hits it big though... who knows? If not, it'll be back down to minor key status in no time.

Of course... I haven't really looked to see what it is going for these days, got mine in a back issue bin for $1 like 15 years ago haha.

Good luck! Maybe you'll catch it pretty low.