No, but an album with a twenty year vintage beating an album with a two year vintage on sales doesn't mean it's selling better.
It's like if me and Usain Bolt went for a sprint, and he gave me a 45 second head start. I could perfectly fairly claim to have won the race, but I'm not running faster than him at any point in time.
BCSL sold like hotcakes in its first few weeks. Images and Words has been selling like lukewarm cakes over twenty years.
I have to completely disagree with you for two reasons:
- Selling records is marathon, not a sprint. In no way can you ever possibly say that BCSL is a more successfully selling record than I&W, DT's only gold record, which achieved the certification within months of release.
- BCSL was released in a triple-disc edition, which vastly inflates the sales numbers since one special edition counts as three sales (standard disc, covers disc, instrumental disc). I&W's never had this advantage