I sold a miner 1 time on ebay.  Will never try it again.  The buyer actually returned a different miner that had obviously been burned to hell.  It was completely destroyed and wasn't even the same board revision #.  I provided evidence to paypal showing the miner worked beforehand, showed evidence the miner that was returned was not the same miner that was sent, and tried to fight it.  They sided with the buyer (they always do) and I was out a miner and the $.  The kicker is that ebay/paypal even still took fees from me for ripping me off.  I can honestly say that I believe ebay is the absolute worst possible way to sell a miner and if it wasn't for how awful paypal is, I and many others probably wouldn't have even discovered Bitcoin in the first place.  If you haven't been stung by a scammer yet on ebay, you will.

That interview was only a couple weeks ago.  Read it, then ask me my opinion again when we reach $800. 

Back in 2011, I urged people to hold, calling them greedy and stupid for selling at single digit prices.

As the price peaked in 2013, I urged people to switch their BTC to physical goods that would maintain exposure to BTC and cushion a fall, saying it was "worth selling your soul for."

In 2014, when the price hit a dead cat bounce up to $600 from $400, I warned about the dangers of only valuing investments in BTC during a period of inflated BTC value (or a bubble).

Early this year when the market was dipping under $200, I gave encouragement to those who feared they were mining at a loss.

Just before the latest price jump from $220 to $490, I predicted we will see a coming $800/BTC within 2 years.

As others have stated, I doubt you would be able to get a refund, but you have options for avoiding the VAT.  You could send them to someone like me in the US who could resell them for a fee and recover most of your money, or you could have them delivered to a data center and mine yourself with them.

EDIT: He wants you to send BTC first for his order.

/thread

Gold highlighted pre-order packages are now sold out.  Quoting for posterity and to clean up the OP.  I am now opening orders for the all silver 2oz Minted Seats.  Cost is $225 with $100 of that being donated to NastyFans, shipping should commence in late January.

mpex.co is nothing more than a ponzi scheme masquerading as a centralized exchange.  The owner simply overcharges for membership and then uses those funds to fraudulently emulate volume and pretend there is any sort of demand or value on the exchange.  Not to mention their promotional tactics around here are shameful at best.  Avoid at all costs.

Ask yourself this.  Would an exchange that does more than a quarter million dollars per day in volume have an owner who spends his time bashing community projects and creating fake forum accounts?  Why are there no supporters of mpex with any sort of trust rating?

1.1BTC

With immediate regret.

The minting order has been finalized and paid for.  I should be receiving coins in ~8 weeks and I hope to have them in everyone's hands before the end of January.

Always.  I am currently working on bringing the new 2oz Minted Seat Coin into existence, but I urge others to think about ways they could help raise donations or promote sales of our Minted Seats.

Has anyone had any kind of success suing these guys?  I wouldn't mind having a chat with an attorney who has had success recovering funds from them.

You could also try getting in contact with their US distributor.  I had good luck with that.  They'd probably charge you for the repair, but you'd have it much faster if your goal is a quick return.

Mining is not the only source of BTC, but if it were, you missed that 25% of BTC is sent to NastyMining.  That makes the ROI numbers based only on current hashrate longer than your prediction.  With the bad luck on p2pool as of late and using the last 9 weeks of data, you get an ROI of years.  

This thread is offering a 20 week ROI. 

You got the wrong one if that's the case. I'll get you added.

Wow.  I didn't know he was such a flake. 

This is great.

Be careful.  This is a new user that has posted this offer in multiple sections... 

BEWARE!  NEW SCAM ATTEMPT.

Some idiot is trying to fool people into sending BTC to their address by posting a link to a fake post that is supposedly on this forum by me.  It is obvious, but people should still be aware.  Always make sure any communication comes directly from me.  I am not shy.  You can reach out and confirm things that I've supposedly said, or just drop a line to say hi and make sure everything is on the up and up.  I am busy so I'm not much for chit chat, but I'm always willing to take the time to prevent a scam.

Here's the link that is being used to try and scam: http://bitcointalkboard24.pixub.com/

Please be careful and trade safely!

99% of the blame for that falls on the people who invested in things like Goat's fictional rice patty field or usagi's endless ponzi funds.  It got to the point where issuers weren't even listing where their revenue was going to come from.  They just claimed a return and people piled in. 

I do wish there were more good options so that sites tracking these securities would pop up, more investment was directed at worthy targets, and maybe even analysts popping up to cover them.  Right now, you are right, there is very little investment happening here due to the endless scam attempts and lack of BTC by it's remaining users.  It is a shame, because I think that this type of micro-security and Bitcoin is a perfect match with all sorts of potential to build some really great stuff.  Oh well...

Genius.