How do you safely buy a BFL pre-order on eBay?

[mrmintmaker]

Is it even possible?  Most of the sellers want BTC only, and refuse to accept PayPal. Are these scams? 

Is there a way to verify that the seller has modified the shipping address, and can not change it later?

Would you buy a BFL pre-order on eBay?

Thanks in advance!

[termhn]

I wouldn't buy a BFL pre-order period.

[Dervana]

But......... they're shipping in two weeks! 

[silient]

Lol. sure they are.

[Peleus]

Buying BFL from eBay - The chance of two scams for the price of one!

[wrenchmonkey]

BFL is vaporware until it actually ships. No way in hell I'd send payment in bitcoins for an ebay transaction for a product that doesn't even exist yet.

I was pretty sure that ebay banned selling products you don't actually have. I'd report the sellers, and then run like hell from that scam.

The day I see confirmed customers receiving their Butterfly products is the day I order one. Not a moment before. Does that mean I'll be behind the curve? Maybe, but then again, I also won't be giving out interest free loans on thousands of dollars...

[Merchant]

Trying to buy a product from BFL has lower odds of paying out than winning the lottery.

[dhenson]

Not only do you have to be careful of being outright scammed, but BFL ships not on order number but on payment date.  Someone could very easily be selling a sub 3k order number that just got paid off this month.  

However... even if you wait until they are actually shipping their product, you are likely to receive a quick ROI.  Check out this handy calculator that takes into account increasing network difficulty.

http://bitcoininsight.com/2013/04/05/bitcoin-mining-profitability-calculator/

[keiichicom]

You maybe better off to buy an asic miner from Avalon, they have actually shipped, although they are sold out of the current batch...and you would have to wait a while.

[georgeberz]

In reading the Avalon site... they are not responsible if the hashing protocol changes... could turn all of em into paper weight... I wonder if bfl will do the same?

[darkmule]

Same way you safely buy a unicorn or any other imaginary entity safely on eBay.  You don't.