Yeah I don't prescribe to this "you could have bought the equivalent of xx btc" bullcrap either.
When I bought mine I paid with a credit card to give myself the guaranty they would deliver or I would get my money back. (Plus about 6k airmiles.)
I doubt I would have went out of my way and dropped $4100 into more bitcoins at that time but buying an exciting new mining product was a no brainer for me.
So, it isn't the same as saying you could have bought and held and made more money...not at all.
This is where simple economics fails us. Satisfaction per economic unit is higher buying a mining device than it is simply buying more bitcoins.
In some peoples case it is also easier to buy a mining device than to buy bitcoins...something else to think about.
The protection of returning your money by chargeback is irrelevant here because had you bought BTC directly you could have traded back to USD even more easily.
Are the airline miles really valuable enough to determine whether the purchase of the miner was worth it or not?
Since we are talking about hypothetical investment strategies your personal psychological factors that would stop you from investing in X BTC but spur you to buy a mining machine that makes X BTC seems besides the point in determining the logical best course of action.
Might have a point with difficulty to obtain BTC. I'd think this wouldn't be applicable to a significant portion of the bitcoin enthusiast population, however that is pure speculation on my part.
6k airmiles is about 5% back on the purchase of the miner...so shipping is more than free in this case.
My credit card also covers my purchases for theft, unexpected damage...and doubles the manufacturers warranty.
My psychological factors wouldn't stop me from buying more btc, but the convenience of buying a mining rig in a few clicks of my mouse and knowing I am covered with no risk at all vs the convoluted process of buying btc makes it much easier.
Also, people keep harping on this but the fucking bottom line is that you CANNOT BUY A KNC MINER USING BTC...so it isn't a valid comparison.
You want a miner, you pay with USD. You want to buy more bitcoins, you pay with USD.
In my case, I wanted to buy a miner. I want many more bitcoins, but I want a miner even more.
I would get a lot more enjoyment for my money buying a miner at this point than I would to own a measly 40 more bitcoins.
That's what simple economics is all about, how much personal satisfaction are you able to obtain from an economic unit.
You can't make an economic judgement call, the satisfaction a person receives from spending their money is a psychological factor that has to be considered.
It's like telling your kid that can spent $300 on a new bicycle that they could have done better buying a savings bond.
Which do you think the buyer derives more satisfaction from?
You don't know, because you aren't the buyer.