4) Lastly, resale. Believe it or not, people will still buy unprofitable miners. You may well recoup $100 selling your unit when you are done with it. Not everyone can do math.
This is where you can actually profit. Not in the miner earnings, most calculators will give you 100 days+ or maybe never.
It's in the resale where you can be in the positive, if you sell it at the right time, for the right price. Ebay, Amazon, or right here in this forum is where your loss can end up a gain.
yes I resell here on this forum. the key is find someone with 'free' power
Sell him a used s-1 during the summer.
Sell him a used s-3 during the fall.
Sell him a used sp20 next year.
If You are of higher power cost like I am :
net 10 cents from oct to apr
then 16 cents from may to sept.
you find a low cost power buddy and sell off gear while you upgrade.
his benefit is discounted gear-------------------and with his 'free' power your low price to him makes him a winner.
you end up making profit when you make that sale to him.
Will this always be true no. I think it will end with the sp20's for me.
I would agree so far I have found my old miners homes elsewhere. It normally is a benefit to both parties. One with free/super cheap electricity is able to give a second life to older gear.
You won't get rich selling the old gear, but it can be a nice little extra BTC. I started the trend with GPU's, then asics. It's a good system. With 10 cent electricity year around I tend to keep my gear quite a while.
On a side note the best mining part I ever sold was surprisingly the old anker hub's during the block erupter days. With them switching to a 9 + 1 charging model compared to 10 powered port solid metal one it sold at almost same price I bought it. Almost no loss with using them.