I would also like to add, if you buy now, you are in the back of the orders so you are most likely not going to see yours until sometime in 2013. Let me break that down really quick with some basic assumptions.
$2500 in btc now = 17.24 @$145
If the price goes up to $500 that would be $8620 if $1000 = $17240
Those prices are very real.