RIGHT! -- a bunch of years ago I did sell a TREK1400 for $300. I had no idea it would quadruple in value!
(...on the serious side - i REALLY liked how that bonded aluminum frame felt. My memory of riding it in Detroit was that it was smooth on the bad roads, and still had a good snappy feel. sometimes I wish I had kept it)
SpeedOfLite posted a Bicycling! magazine article a few months ago that compared a Trek aluminum bike (that used the same frame as your 1200) to Trek's equivalent steel road bike ("equivalent" meaning same components, fork, and geometry). All the reviewers agreed that the aluminum bike rode more smoothly than the steel bike.
The writer of the article was so impressed, he said that he expected that steel road bikes would all but disappear from the market in the next few years. Which is, of course, exactly what happened.