My 25 GHS starter kit delivered 1-st of Sept 2013 made 4-5 times ROI by the end of the year
Also bought some chips and used assembly service for them 1-st gen
Got 3-4 times ROI
So in fact all my bitfury based gear made ROI
I think the only reason he "ROI'd" is because of the run up in Nov 2013. He would have likely done waaaaayy better buying BTC In Sept and holding.
I got a september kit and more boards in november and made an ROI (paid with $120/BTC though). I cant recall the exact numbers but i think i spent like $2900 (~25BTC) and the return was $6000 (~16BTC) over something like 14 months of mining (i didnt sell many coins above $700) which is pretty good considering it ran more efficiently than even an undervolted S1
sure, BTC investment would have been a better faster return, but i view mining as a leveraged risk. Hardware i bought when BTC>$800 made ROI (or very close to) because the difficulty stagnated with the dropping price, whereas holding BTC would have been 40-60% losses during that time