I agree with the whole process from purchasing in a groupbuy to finally getting a mining device being quite risky. And it is a turn off compared to how straightforward it was to get into GPU mining via Amazon, NewEgg, etc. There's also the risk that those ASIC miners will have little resale value once their shelf life has expired, or if bitcoin crashes, unlike the GPUs.

I agree with the point on it being a gamble, but all of bitcoin is still a bit of a gamble. Investors in ASICMiner and Avalon batch #1 units were all essentially making a gamble. They succeeded, but there were many other gambles (many are documented on this forum) that failed, too.

I think I will make a small investment in Avalon chips anyway, but at the moment I need more confidence in the board development process. I almost zero expertise in electronics, and I would need a board building service that can build boards that are 1) high quality 2) built and shipped fast, and 3) price competitive.

Meanwhile, I found it interesting to see this post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=164742.msg1723826#msg1723826) which shows the Avalon boards as used in their own devices. It's the first time I've seen this.