Quote from: tymothy on August 22, 2013, 02:43:10 AM

Quote from: User705 on August 17, 2013, 12:12:29 AM

So if network doubles or triples shortly the USB will be unsellable with the current exchange level.

People may expect bitcoins to appreciate and anticipate a positive ROI.

This is a bad reason to invest in mining hardware. If you expect bitcoins to appreciate, you buy bitcoins and either hold them or put them in low-risk investments.

If a mining investment (or any other investment) today costs 1 BTC, then it better be worth more than 1 BTC (profits paid out + resale value) at some later time, or it was a bad investment.

This doesn't take away the fact that there are plenty of people buying mining hardware using the same exact reasoning ("if BTC appreciates i'll make a profit, despite difficulty increases") and that's one of the reasons why mining is unprofitable for small-scale miners: There are too many people willing to mine at a loss.

USB miners are novelty items that can be fun to have and use, but not investment opportunities. But not every hobby needs to make you money.