As a bidder paying way too much (and I don't think I'm going to win @ 32btc) here is my reasoning.
1) It's not to make money. If it breaks even I'm pretty happy, if it makes more coin (which I believe it will) within 12 months I'm happy.
2) Testing to see if ASICMiner is legit and will ship immediately, how their communication is, if they can do basic things like say - fill out a customs form properly and provide tracking numbers in a timely manner. I think we all know why this is important. I prefer to do business with those who act professionally, and a test buy is always the first step of building such a relationship.
3) First of many - I'm obviously not going to build a mining farm at that $$$/hashrate, but getting one in-hand to "beta test" is valuable and worth a few btc in itself. It takes time to properly build the automation necessary to run a mining farm. While many of my scripts and tools can be translated from the current GPU cluster, I will obviously have to modify things to work with new hardware. This includes stuff like automating adding additional machines to the pool, automatic power cycling should one lock up, etc. These run remote in a datacenter and I have a day job, so it's important they "just work" without any hands-on from myself.
4) The novelty/coolness factor! Why not be one of the first to have a unique piece of hardware only a few folks in the world have access to currently? That right there is worth at least a few btc
5) Support the community. If ASICMiner is as legit as people say, then I have no problem sending them some coin for their hard work. I don't "invest" with shady folks who promise to ship 8 months later, these folks are unique in that they have product in-hand ready to ship and I really want to support that type of business model vs. what I've seen go down in this forum the past 6 months or so.
6) Bragging rights - so I can be the big swinging dick on the forums and rub everyone's faces in my eliteness
Edit: spelling