Heh, however only those who preordered made a profit 
actually... no
only avalon batch 1. that's it (and journalists who got their BFLs)
I think our batch 3s will ROI one way or another. In two weeks we mined 20% of what we paid for them. Hopefully Avalon offers a trade in deal for next gen like they did for Icarus/Lancelot customers. The FPGAs were selling for more than what you could mine with it, simply because you could trade it in for value on a purchase of an Avalon ASIC. It is possible we will ROI this way.
Another possibility is SHA256 ALT coins. Although Bitcoin may become unprofitable at some point, perhaps SHA-256 ALT coins will become more popular as people's Bitcoin ASICs become unprofitable. Thus injecting people into the SHA256 ALT coin communities and markets... price likely goes up. Kind of like how Litecoin became way more popular after GPU mining became unprofitable on Bitcoin.
Another possibility is as Bitcoing gets more popular, people with free power start popping out of the woodwork, offering to buy hardware for more than what others are willing to. If I lived in an apartment that offered free power, I know I would buy a rig. You could mine for years and years, and not have to worry about profitability or electrical efficiency.
A lot of things can happen, the future is impossible to tell, but you shouldn't worry too much after hardware has been ordered and it's hashing. We all made the decision to order the hardware, no one made us. It is partially our own fault and everyone should of known this was risky. What Bitcoin investment isn't risky though? Bitcoin in itself is inherently risky due to the wild fluctuations in the price.
