Yeah, BM have been too clever for their own good.
Unless you get batch 1. You'll only just ROI on batch 2, then be left with a doorstopper. In some cases (see the XMR saga) you don't even get that. When you factor in the hassle and time spent playing fastest finger, shipping + fees, customs faff, warranty returns to China and then maintaining a dedicated noise-proof, power and cooling area for your asics, it's really not worth it at all.
Bitmain has been far too clever indeed if you ask me. They do it subtly and although it isn't as pronounced as the Cryptonight ASIC screw up, they are also playing tricks on Z9 purchasers. Sharing the computations one poster did on the difference in price from Batch 1 ($2000) compared to batch 3 ($850):
Not really. It still doesn't make much sense to screw over batch 1 investors. Here's the math behind it:
$2000-$850 = $1150 <- total difference that you need to make up
Estimated profits (ASIC is OC-ed to 15k sols, conservative)
1st week of mining: $30 per day * 7 days = $210
2nd week of mining: $25 per day * 7 days = $175
3rd week of mining: $20 per day * 7 days = $140
4th week of mining: $15 per day * 7 days = $105
5th week of mining: $12.5 per day * 7 days = $87.5
6th week of mining: $10 per day * 7 days = $70
7th week of mining: $8 per day * 7 days = $56
+ 8th week of mining: $6 per day * 7 days = $42
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Total value mined after 8 weeks (2 months = equal time to receive new batch orders which only cost $850 per Z9 ASIC) = $885.5
You would have earned more if you just waited and bought the $850 version. To be specific you would have $300 ($1150-850) more if you simply buy the latest batch. Fu bitmain.
Good luck to all those who will continue to support Bitmain's products. You are simply selling out your values (by buying from known tricksters) for a slim chance at profits.