Three Antminer U1's will easily outrun a 5GH/s Jalapeno, and use less power doing so. Even at Ebay prices it will be in the range of $150 for the 3 USB sticks. I don't suggest that this is a money making proposition, just that the Antminer U1's are a superior approach.

Put me down for the minimum of 5, assuming you can ship to Minnesota. Of source with the weather here, maybe I need a trip to LA. That's would of course destroy the whole "low price idea". 

+1

The Email I got suggested that it was also possible to PM thomas_s and provide sufficient evidence of ownership that didn't include a "signed" message. Isn't that correct? Have you had a chance to look at your PM's yet?

+1

While I have no particular "dog in this fight", when you do a "Group Buy on a Pre-Order", you have taken on two levels of risk. The 1st is that the Group Buy leader will abscond with your money, be it BTC or USD. You also have the Pre-Order risk. In a sense you double down on risk. I've only nibble at Pre-Orders before, while I didn't lose my money it was always a disappointment, and late.

I personally have zero appetite for pre-orders, be they BFL or another company.

The problem with waiting is that the value of the hardware will likely decline over time (in terms of USD). My single vote for one share is to sell while the hardware still has some value. The original price as I recall was in USD. The BTC I had to send in strictly an inconvenient contrivance. My metric is USD loss/gain, not BTC.

The guys at Amazon must just look at this and shake their heads. They have absolutely nothing to fear in terms of Bitcoin becoming a currency. What a silly bunch of hoo-hah.......

Earlier today, I stopped at Super America (a convenience store in Minnesota). I bought two items, and the cash part of my visit consumed maybe 30 seconds. I was done before Bitcoin could have figured out which way was up. I really don't get Bitcoin as a currency. Highly speculative commodity sure, but not currency.

Just to be clear, is two Antminers with a total 360 GH/s one rig or two? What does the $275 fee
apply to in this case? The .5% is pretty obvious and just scales with results. It would seem that
since the 50 shares are distributed across two boxes, the two boxes constitute "one rig", but you
could look at either way and make sense.

I really don't understand the end-game for miners. When the last Bitcoin is mined, what's to become of the 100 Petahsh of equipment out there? There isn't any way that can be supported by transaction fees. I am sure I don't want to own a 100 Terahash of gear when the last coin is mined, because there is no way it will continue to even pay it's electricity bill. There will have to be massive write-downs in the value of equipment and facilities I would think. This situation will come into much clearer focus after a couple more halvings in block payout.

The $319 price is long gone on Amazon. It now appears to be more like $379!!!

When I saw the above tracking info for Rolla, MO. I just started to laugh. I attended the University of Missouri - Rolla (UMR) many years ago. Prior to it's joining the University of Missouri system, it had been called the "Missouri School of Mines" (aka MSM). I think it's only appropriate that a "Bitcoin Mining" operation is in such close proximity to MSM. Something tells me that the Geology Department won't be adding "Bitcoin Mining 101" to the curriculum any time soon. 

Best of luck Bob in your setup of R9.

Thanks guys. I looked at the spreadsheet and thought the lines had been in sorted order. The
obvious place for #253 wasn't there and hence I thought it was missing. I should have
looked at the spreadsheet in total.

Payout address sent to thomas_s via PM.

Thanks for your patience.

Anybody else noticing a problem with your miner getting to stratum.bitcoin.cz?

Is ther3e some kind of server outage, or a DDosS attack maybe?

I would request that you re-check your spreadsheet and incoming orders, because I appear to
have completely vanished. Back on the 17th, I posted to the Forum my order number of #253,
which appears to be missing. Coinbase  seemed to take the better part of hour to confirm
the transaction to me in an E-mail. I would also encourage you to check the "Support Tickets"
on the dzminercorp website. Right now I am feeling out some .89 Bitcoin with little to
no recourse.

In for 1 share, Order #253 via website. Please confirm receipt. I can provide wallet payment
address when needed either via E-mail or PM. I am very new to a Group Buy with Bitcoin, so
assume I know little or nothing about the mechanics of the whole transaction.

$9.48 is a pretty good price. If that is for one and includes shipping it's a pretty good
deal as far as it goes. It won't generate much BTC at current difficulties and may well
not pay for it self any time soon, if ever. If you check Ebay, the going price is about
$15 or so with shipping. Some folks try and get $30, and will be waiting a long time for
a buyer.

I am a bit confused. This offering is priced in $USD, and yet it's supposed
to be paid for in Bitcoin? What's the expected exchange rate, or do I get
to choose my own rate? 

I am not surprised that it's priced in $$$, since virtually all the "inputs"
(i.e. the miner, shipping, etc) have a $$$ price attached and not a Bitcoin
price.

Since I am a complete on Noob on actually completing a transaction with
Bitcoin, will I get a TX-id if I send the Bitcoins from my newly opened
Coinbase account?

Thanks for your patience.

This computation completely ignores shipping costs, and other bits along the way. The
Ebay price will likely have "free shipping" and convenience if you aren't skilled at
producing labels, converting $$$ into BTC, and "signing" messages.

None of this is a dig at Canary, all I am saying is that for many folks, the cost to them
will be way more that 125.99 * .07.

I think this all depends on your situation and perspective. My situation:

I don't have .9 Bitcoin to just fling off to somebody. I have to start trying to navigate the the murky
waters of "buying" Bitcoin. While MtGox is happy to quote a range of prices, it's completely
non-obvious on how to convert USD to Bitcoin in a safe, reliable, and relatively "inexpensive" way.
I'll bet if I just wanted to get .9 Bitcoin at least half that $24 difference would disappear before
my .9 Bitcoin arrived. I found one guide that suggested I could use Paypal to buy some kind of
other "virtual currency" (SEPA?), that could then be converted Bitcoin. Of course at every stage
of the process, somebody has their hand out to get their cut, which just ends up increasing
the price to me for that actual .9 Bitcoin. Maybe that all drops into the noise category if you are
buying hundreds of Bitcoin.

The other reason to use Paypal is that I am no longer powerless should Maidak turn out
not be a legitimate seller. While I am re-assured by his presence on Ebay, and the relationship
he seems to have with BPMC, the whole Bitcoin/Pre-Order/Group-Buy universe is fraught
with risk. Maybe I am just too sensitized the BFL fiasco, but there is still quite a bit of
"Wild West" mentality out here at the moment. I've been reading about folks who placed
orders with BFL more than 6 months ago that have gotten refunds from Paypal once this guy
figured out the process and correct folks to talk to Paypal. Or in other cases, folks who
mention a PayPal dispute, all of sudden had their hardware get shipped. To me that kind of
service has some value to me. The Bitcoin purchasers of course are at the mercy of BFL's
"No Refund" stance.

Don't get me wrong on this. I think BPMC and Maidak are all "Stand up" folks. I think they have
a real, legitimate product, and are likely to become the new  "Block Erupter" unless friedcat starts
to give them away. I think Maidak will make this happen, absent some tragedy.

On a more upbeat note, why does it matter if there are any Bitcoin purchasers in this Group
Buy? I don't understand the mechanics of how Maidak buys the product from BPMC.

P.S I guess my status will make it obvious that I am a complete (3 month) newbie with Bitcoin.