Prices is coming down indeed.
Im mining altcoins for its 3rd year now, and have made the most profit when it is unprofitable to mine in bear market. This means the difficulty doesnt increase as fast or is decreasing.
I do prefer mining then investing in coins.
Lets take an example why :
1.You have invested in 10 ether 1 year ago and bought the coin at 300 usd (total value 3000 usd) https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/historical-data/?start=20170820&end=20170820 and still haven't sold by today, so it means in 1 year you haven't gained anything.
2.you have bought a ethereum mining rig https://mineshop.eu/ethereum-miner/ethereum-miner-eth-gpu-mining-amd-rx470/ for the same amount of money you have invested in ethereum year ago by now you would have mined about 10eth , power cost for one year mining at 0.13c which is about average worldwide would use about 900usd in power costs.
If the results will be the same moving forward then there is no doubt to mine the currency is more profitable them buy it, if you have bought the coins you have no made any profit. But if you have mined coins you have made profit 10eth + you still own mining equipment which you can use for coin mining if you look well after mining rig. I have mining rigs which are mining for its 3rd year now and there is no issues with them. Also they still have resale value, or you can use them for other stuff like gaming/rendering....etc
But the of course there is a lot of risk and not always you would make more money mining, the secret is to choose right hardware.
Im mining altcoins for its 3rd year now, and have made the most profit when it is unprofitable to mine in bear market. This means the difficulty doesnt increase as fast or is decreasing.
I do prefer mining then investing in coins.
Lets take an example why :
1.You have invested in 10 ether 1 year ago and bought the coin at 300 usd (total value 3000 usd) https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/historical-data/?start=20170820&end=20170820 and still haven't sold by today, so it means in 1 year you haven't gained anything.
2.you have bought a ethereum mining rig https://mineshop.eu/ethereum-miner/ethereum-miner-eth-gpu-mining-amd-rx470/ for the same amount of money you have invested in ethereum year ago by now you would have mined about 10eth , power cost for one year mining at 0.13c which is about average worldwide would use about 900usd in power costs.
If the results will be the same moving forward then there is no doubt to mine the currency is more profitable them buy it, if you have bought the coins you have no made any profit. But if you have mined coins you have made profit 10eth + you still own mining equipment which you can use for coin mining if you look well after mining rig. I have mining rigs which are mining for its 3rd year now and there is no issues with them. Also they still have resale value, or you can use them for other stuff like gaming/rendering....etc
But the of course there is a lot of risk and not always you would make more money mining, the secret is to choose right hardware.
watch out you will have traders try to tell you different for what ever reason but i do agree an why i keep mining with GPU .
after all we need miners with GPU CPU and ASIC to produce new coins that may come out or old coins or they can't trade unless it's a coin that can't be mind an those coins don't seem to last long , those coins are more scam like because no real hard work goes into making them.
. 
