An escrow agent on this site can get hit by a car tomorrow.
Nothing is a sure thing.
Buyers in these new ASIC miner deals need protection. That comes in the form of Paypal or Credit cards.
Everything else is a much greater risk.
In my mind:
1. Credit card
2. Paypal
3. Escrow agent
4. Bank Transfer
5. Direct BTC payment
is the order of ideal transactions from a safety perspective and if you are a new, unknown ASIC vendor (not a group buy from a known vendor) than #3 is not an option because they want the fund to fund the deal and #4 and #5 are a HUGE risk
Which leaves Credit Cards and Paypal.
I can respect that. One price for that protection is the risk of unacceptable delays.
It all boils down to your risk management strategy. Diversification with smaller position sizes is an additional approach. Especially if your risk model assumes a possible 100% loss on any position.
Ideally, I'd like to see the risk reward curve favor pure BTC.