@ Slok
Thank you for your thorough answer. Feel free to ask me any questions beyond this one so you understand my view and general assumptions.
So have you informed the customers of those other producers yet?
I have not yet commented on the Avalon thread on this topic. I assume that the Avalon device was originally rated higher than the conservative 60Gh/s and the Avalon team was likely targeting the DeepBit 80Gh/s system and not BFL's Single SC (@ 40Gh/s) at the time they formulated the Avalon Device.
I presume in reality they will have a final Gh/s rate of somewhere around 70 to 75Gh/s. (Currently they are at 66Gh/s)
I believe they will ultimately offer a lower GH/s rate than they "probably can" because of power requirements and what other vendors are aiming for. I believe they will come out at somewhere around 200 to 250 watts (at worst). (160watts at best)
You may ask what the basis is for that idea. The answer is that they never seemed to be aiming for BFL and their hardware seems to be stylized in the same manner and concept as DeepBits design rather than that of BFL.
-----------------------------
To be truthful though, they are caught by the same malady we have been talking about for the last few pages. The difficulty and the wide availability of ASIC devices is what will make rigs unprofitable as a source of income.
To mitigate this issue, I am going to privately make graphs in the background that will tell me what the actual value of a device is at any point in time. (Vendor specific)
I will only hold out in selling the Avalon device when a few specific thresholds are reached.
A) The devaluation of First Gen ASIC hardware on the basis of what price it can be sold at from week to week. (Devaluation is very important to setting a resale value in the "Gray market".) <--- At a discount.
B) The rate of rising difficulty from a week to week basis and how it affects returns.
C) The rate of new/old customers wishing to purchase new or extra ASIC devices which add hashing power to the BitCoin Network.
D) The present feel for what the ASIC community will bear vs recouped costs (to date).
With all these in mind, I will then sell the device at a discount if it is seriously unprofitable and allow someone else to take on the burden of risk. Then wait until Gen 2 and repurchase the hardware.
---------------------------
My understanding is that many members buying ASICs will be lulled into staying with their hardware for too long because they do gradually recover their costs. The issue will be when people keep the ASIC devices to the point of severe devaluation and when the Grey market does not want first gen ASIC devices at any discounted cost.
At that point it will be too late to get your investment out of harms way and anyone left in that boat will be in it for the long haul. Having been stuck with over priced hardware and dwindling returns, I expect that Gen 2 will come out in about 6 months and most will not want to splurge for a second Gen device considering they are still not covering the costs of the first.
So it is best to offload it just before the gray market turns sour and people realize the lemons in the lemonade.
I expect Gen 2 will probably be a little lower in price than Gen 1. It will probably also be more advanced and hopefully faster. If that is the case, Gen 2 is probably where you want to put your cash.
If you over invested, it is unlikely you will be able to offload a large quantity of units without a significant discount.
I bet you didn't and won't. And can you answer that "have you cancelled your orders yet"?
I don't intend to cancel. I hope that someone has come up with a better plan or that the undisclosed features of the Vendor I chose is adequate enough to justify holding on to it for a few months longer.
At the moment the only problem with the Avalon device is it's electrical use. That alone won't bother people much if you sell it at the beginning when the rate of return and resell value is high.
This won't be a viable sell though if I wait too long to and the margins shrink.
I hope this answered your questions.