I'm more interested in the start time of the cloud mining compared to the shipping time of the X3's
What they do is pretty obvious - you rent 1TH/s for 4 or 6 months then it's over, you don't get to keep any hardware. I believe you even get to choose the pool to mine at.
The price for 6 months hosting per TH is roughly equivalent to the price per TH of the X3. But you don't have to pay customs (which in my case would be 13% of the product's value), no electricity costs, no monitoring the thing, no lost revenue while shipping or if the unit is damaged on arrival. And I assume after 6 months X3's are more than likely obsolete and their resale value at that point might not cover the previously mentioned costs. Depending on how fast difficulty rises the cheaper 4 month cloud rental might be the best bang for the buck Black Arrow has to offer, but at least in my mind the 6 month cloud rental is almost certainly better than buying an X3. Might be different if customs can be avoided and you don't pay for electricity, but even then, the shipping time can still get you. Of course this entire analysis hinges on the cloud offering starting the same time as X3 shipping...