I first heard about Bitcoin about a month before MtGox fell. So the price was already high.
However, I was just prepared to buy some (some more) this year when it was around 230$ and, since I didn't like the fees from the Pay Point machine, I looked for other option. Bad luck, until I found the better choice, the price started to rise. So I waited to fall back. It didn't..yet Grin
About ETH & Co: there are threads with maybe 100s of coins that are already worthless. ETH can rise to the sky or can become 0. You just don't know.
The trick is to sense the change, buy low, sell high and hold only if you REALLY believe it will rise a lot.
You'll say that's the same with BTC too and I agree; just with BTC the chance to become worthless is much smaller imho.