I really think that we need to look into selling this equipment. The fees that we pay to the coop are still a reasonable percentage of the total mined BTC, coming in a bit less than 5%. The next pay period, Feb.15, is going to be a much higher percentage and we will probably be at 25% or more by our Mar 1 payout. I know that we are still making btc at that point, but our equipment will be doing over a quarter of it's work just to pay our fees.
Selling Antminers on ebay sounds like it could be a very good idea right now. I think that we, the miners, need to make this decision. I know that the co-op organizers have worked very hard for us but their income doesn't change when difficulty goes up, only ours does. They make $400 every two weeks whether we mine $20000 worth of BTC or $1000 worth. We can't wait for them to suggest selling, we need to start to force this issue.
Actually this is not true, the management fee is a percentage of total mined (0.5%), the hosting fee is what remains unchanged and well that fee is required to keep the machines active / powered.
As for selling the units that's fine if everyone / most people want to it will be added to the next payout (as the payout is on the first if the sale happens soon after the payout can be done early as there will be a large amount of coins in the wallet). I think we actually have someone that gave an offer today for all of them but I have to confirm the price.
Thanks Thomas. Please pursue that offer and find out a concrete price. Also, it was mentioned that the plan was to sell namecoins once there was a decent number. When are you thinking of selling them?