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C) pretty low cost for a stick
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No - that's the flaw in your argument.
They are not low cost. They are high cost.
The cost in BTC is above the BTC it will ever return.
Not only that, but originally when the AsicMiner USBs came out the mark up on them was at least 2000% - probably more - up to as much as 5000%
They are still priced with 1 requirement:
1) That AsicMiner will receive up front more BTC than they could get mining with them
i.e. you will lose BTC buying and mining with them
I still do not understand why so many people don't see the obvious.
More so, I do not understand why so many other people say
"It's OK to lose BTC - doing something that makes BTC"
No one who has bought an AsicMiner USB from AsicMiner or it's distributors, and mined PPS or equivalent, has got back the amount of BTC they paid for it.
Low cost, meaning fiat price.. Anyone can buy one and start mining.
This is something no other product/company has achieved.
Until at least one asic manufacturer steps up and acts responsibly - this mining roi issue is not going away anytime soon.
yep out of pocket anyone with 20-25 usd can buy an am stick on ebay plug it into the pc and hash. put the coins earn in an account and hold them for the 'future". All naysayers to this idea simply are ignoring the ease of doing this. Lets say I do not want to buy btc. Why because buying btc is not that easy. many people do not want to give a site like coinbase all the info needed to buy btc. But millions of people have an ebay account.
Below is the best usa ebay price for 1 stick 21.37
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Bitcoin-ASIC-Miner-USB-Block-Erupter-333MH-s-IN-HAND-Same-day-shipping-/111172616545?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19e2678161I get 2% in ebucks I get 2 % if I use my paypal ebay card cost for this stick is .96 x 21.37 or $ 20.52 cheap easy and a 45 day safety net from ebay/paypal.
contrast buying btc on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BITCOIN-Paper-Wallet-0-20-mailed-USPS-BTC-/151123207660?pt=US_World_Coins&hash=item232fa525ec .20 btc for 38 dollars For the ebay shopper he or even she will get the stick over the paper .20 btc
Also many nay sayers don't understand ebay deals/bargains and the ebay 'fiat' ebucks. you can only use your account to spend the ebuck in it and the ebuck must be spent on ebay.
earning ebucks varies and specials of 4% or 6% vs standard 2% also occur.
I buy US Post office Forever Stamps on ebay 2 to 3 thousand dollars a year from solid safe ebay sellers.
I earn 2 or 4 percent and another 2 percent with the cc so 4 percent of 3 thousand is 120 ebucks.
With other purchases i would say I earn close to 200 in ebucks each year.
Many ebayers joined ebay to late to be in the ebuck program and are not aware of it.
But I have had more then one buyer tell me they want to use ebucks to pay for an item can I wait until the day they get the ebucks. The next ebuck payout day is oct 3rd. Every 90 days for an ebuck payout. I know my sales will pick up on the 2nd-10th of oct.
So all the people that think an ebayer is loopy buying sticks for a really high price do not take this into account. plus buying a few sticks is action. maybe the coins will go up to 1000 usd. And maybe I will get a hot streak with bitminter and mine 20% over norm for a week or 2. Also AM sticks have resale value guess where on ebay!
So I don't knock Kano and what he preaches. I know he is a blind man with an elephant and the leg he touches is truly like a tree trunk. Preaching that an Elephant is like a tree trunk is a part truth.