There is always an opinion that these ASICs were mined when the profit was very large, and after the end of mining, the company decided to sell them. If they mine Ethereum Classic later, the payback could be long. Video cards are now cheaper.
Buying that device now I agree is a very wrong idea,sure we have Ethereum Classic that we can mine with a 6 GB memory like the E9 is equipped for years to come but it could take some years to ROI with the actual price of Ethereum Classic near 15 dollars or somewhat more at best.For example with the actual profit of this miner if you mine Ethereum Classic it is almost 30 dollars so if the price of the ASIC is 20.000 dollars divided by 30 it takes 666 days or nearly two year to ROI.
The only possibility I would buy this device is if I have money to spare which I don't know what to do with and keep accumulating like near 2 Ethereum Classic daily for when the next bull run will come,and this is not something I recommend nevertheless.
Bottom line,not a good idea to buy an ASIC nowadays.
I don’t like ASICs, but after the end of Ethereum mining, their price will drop dramatically, because there is nothing else to mine besides Ethereum Classic. Perhaps there are a few more coins, but there is no profit and no trading on the crypto exchange.
So soon it will be possible to buy cheap ASICs.