When John Byrne assumed main X-Men art chores inked by Terry Austin, sales in my then Bay Area comic book stores immediately began to jump. New copy sales on X-men 94 revamp thru 107 were mostly still moribund. When Byrne came on to the set, sales began to noticeably climb.

Each ish Best of Two Worlds began to sell out. This was the first 1970s comic book which a very noticeable amount of "new" females began coming on seeking to score X issues.

By the time X-Men #114 was being on the order forms, I was pre-ordered 10,000 copies a month by the on-wards. Sales of X-men began to explode. Other stores and dealers began contacting me to see if I had back issues they could trade me for.

The pre-orders based on sheer demand kept creeping up from there thru Last Byrne with143,then I dropped the speculation rate big time whilst testing once again unfamiliar waters.

For a few years there having such a Byrne X stash ruled large portion of the spec universe. I began trading for AF 15, FF 1, Golden Age, EC, - as the other dealers could sell Byrne X almost same day they could pry em out of me with proper trade bait.

For some years there even Charles Rozanski traded me more than 400 Mile High Edgar Church comic books for Byrne X-men. He was getting 50 of each at a time. I loved scoring Church copies where my investment into the X Byrne was 17 cents a copy off their 35 cent cover prices.

Being polite to "scoffers" I could give a rat's a$$ what they might babble in the dark. Speculating in big numbers worked when a few of us were doing it. I began larger numbers beginning back in 1968.

From summer 1977 thru Feb 1986 BTW's central warehouse flooding destruction of a million comic books (plus other related stuff), Best of Two Worlds pretty much controlled a major swath of the Bay Area back issue market.

Best of Two Worlds for a while there was a Sparta Direct sub-distributor drop point buying from Seagate, New Media Irjax, Glenwood before consolidating to just Capital City when they began free air freight.

But with #144 I chopped the order way way down to just a few thousand - and kept lowering. The "buzz" was X-Byrne. Those who were "there" in those comic book store trenches know of what I speak. With #165 when Paul Smith took over X-art, my spec numbers went way up. But by then there were hundreds more speculators playing this comic book game

My point of view is was and remains my own perspective of how the comics business grew for me since 1968 when I speculated on pre-ordering 200 each of almost every Marvel and DC #1 issues published that year. All of the Marvel first issues and most of the DC. I was a still a sophomore in high school. By 1970 pre-ordered 600 Conan #1 from Omaha News. No "tops & bottoms" my only request

Because of the rise of the X-Men phenom once Byrne began drawing, as it grew in demand, as more & more people began opening up stores, as ALL of the promo propaganda "investment" type articles in comics fandom press were extolling the virtues of a safe bet on X-men stocked up on, its sales simply kept climbing.

I would estimate by X-Men 108 the title was indeed in the danger zone. By the mid to late teen numbers, that was no longer the case.

Not from my perspective moving tens of growing thousands of comic books in my San Fran Bay Area stores Best of Two Worlds in Berkeley, two in San Francisco, one in Santa Rosa.

By the end of 1981 when I hosted Frank Miller for his very first in-store signing at a comic book store Dec 1981 for DD #181, there were some 80 comic book stores from Santa Cruz to Sacto to Santa Rosa. All these new guys running their gigs were pushing X-Men. Then all those monthly price guides for a while there began pushing all sorts of "spec" energy.

This led direct line to the mid 90s speculator crash. Never to be seen in that incarnation ever again

Once there were half a dozen monthly comic book price guides, ALL 19 Marvel Direct Distributors (DC only opened direct distributors peaking at 17) began pumping flash PR aimed at spec deal in your spare time.

By 1988 I pre-order bought 7000 Bolland Killing Joke green first print. That was my "big" focused buy that year falling back in to one store post flood disaster.

I kept those cover price but one per person which brought me many many new customers from word of mouth. I had already vacated the spec game as it had became overly saturated.

I saw the hand writing on the wall with too many thousands of speculators mostly all thinking delusions of grandeur of getting rich quick in comic books. By 1995 "reality" set in.