A sucker born every minute on ebay

[jwcastle]

I find it completely ridiculous that people are still buying Antminer U1's and U2 for about $10 to $15 each on Ebay.  
$10 for a miner that does 2GH/s.  At today's difficulty (if it doesn't increase again), they can stand to make about 5 cents in a year! LOL

Here's a link that show the U1's and U2's that have been sold on ebay recently:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=antminer+u1&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

[GordonBM]

Maybe collectors?

[TheRealSteve]

Most people who buy those know they're not going to make a profit, and those who don't - well they're only out $10-$15, so they'll just not go to the movies this month.  Big deal.  I'd be more upset with those who try to sell low-end stickminers for $50+, or those trying to sell $2,000 miners for home use even though they won't ROI under typical home electricity costs and the people who buy them have to jump through hoops to try and quieten them.  And then there's cloud mining...

Yeah, I'm biased - but it's true all the same

[bgibso01]

Thanks for pointing it out.  I just now listed the last 3 I had.

[jwcastle]

Thanks for pointing it out.  I just now listed the last 3 I had.

HAHA! I hope you make a few bucks from those suckers 

[MasterRadix]

I don't know why, but I love the U1 simple design

[philipma1957]

I find it completely ridiculous that people are still buying Antminer U1's and U2 for about $10 to $15 each on Ebay.  
$10 for a miner that does 2GH/s.  At today's difficulty (if it doesn't increase again), they can stand to make about 5 cents in a year! LOL

Here's a link that show the U1's and U2's that have been sold on ebay recently:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=antminer+u1&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

well some people get free ebay money in the form of ebucks and they can buy a few sticks and attach them to a pc at work that gets free power .

So cost is zero.  at zero cost why not.

[dogie]

That reminds me, I was going to get a U1 and U2 to take pictures of.

[Bananana]

going for a movie is 10$ when they can watch it online for free, are they sucker too?

[wh00per]

Definitely, you need to get out more. Just try it once in a while ..

[adamskona]

going for a movie is 10$ when they can watch it online for free, are they sucker too?

Free power? Free internet? Where? 

On topic: You can still make some decent deals on ebay.

Look at those Neptunes https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=886033.0

[lowbander80]

Running my business involves meeting people and visiting offices.i have once seen a U2 on a pc mining because the green light was flashing.did not know the man over there and din not want to embarrass him but yes I have seen then them where power is free, yet small hashing but free and probably they know it its no use running the in a pool but solo
Playing lotto for free who cares how much is the hash rate 1/300.000.000 currently

[Real-Duke]

They are still usefull for people involved thru the Bitcoin Utopia Project in BOINC to generate more than a million credits per day

[fresca]

better to lose less than lose a lot.  You can learn a lot about mining software, hardware and mining in general by buying ultra cheap, no longer profitable miners.  It costs a lot less, and depending on where you live, a much lower electric bill, and your still involved in bitcoin.  At this point, the writing is on the wall for home miners and for all the "you'll never ROI" there's still a lot of people more interesting in understanding mining than hooking up your bank account to an exchange to trade fx.  And trading btc on exchanges is wrought with spreads and fees and complexity to withdraw funds and such that makes mining far more interesting than buying btc.

[novak@gekkoscience]

If you think that's bad, look at what redfurys go for.  Those things actually sell for like $50 on ebay.  I understand dropping $5-$15 on something to collect it, or just to learn about bitcoin- much better than signing up for some cloudmining scam- But holy crap some of those miners are insanely expensive.

--
novak

[crazyearner]

People are not suckers for buying them. More than likely that people are buying out of fascination to get into mining and to see how to set them up and make them run and  build their knowledge in mining and then start using other equipment. I still have 30 block eruptors collecting dust with pencil mods to them. Maybe start mining with them solo for a lol and see if it ever makes a block of BTC lmfao

[lowbander80]

Yes solo is the only way for these if you decide to try them , as a suggestion run them on scolo colivas pool.dont run them fully overclocked as solo pool pushes them like working full time

[pmorici]

I find it completely ridiculous that people are still buying Antminer U1's and U2 for about $10 to $15 each on Ebay.  
$10 for a miner that does 2GH/s.  At today's difficulty (if it doesn't increase again), they can stand to make about 5 cents in a year! LOL

Here's a link that show the U1's and U2's that have been sold on ebay recently:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=antminer+u1&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&rt=nc

The top listing there is offering free shipping.  Once you consider Shipping ($2-$3) and eBay and PayPal fees 30 cents + 13% they are only selling that USB miner for about 5 bucks.  In other words the price floor on mining equipment isn't determined by how much you can mine with it but at some point it comes down to basic costs.

10-15 bucks isn't a bad deal to learn the ropes of using an ASIC before plunking a tone of money into something more expensive.

[pak13]

I know a few teachers/professors who whilst teaching about cryptocurrencies, they would bring in small ASIC examples, power them up and hash away. Naturally some of these items would "disappear" so anything cheap that worked was logical.

[jwcastle]

I supposed these $10 U2's are one of the cheapest ways to get your feet wet on the Bitcoin madness.
Any serious mining rig is going to cost some serious bucks. At $10 a pop, it's a nice educational tool for someone to get a taste of what Bitcoin mining is about.

When I had a small mining farm (12 Antminer S1's) in the garage, my kid asked me what are all those machines doing? (lots of blinking lights, fan noise, and heat). I couldn't explain it the way a young person could understand. So I gave him an explanation that isn't exactly true, but easily understandable:
"You know how people have solar panels on their houses to generate electricity? Electricity costs money. So if they generate electricity themselves, they make making money. These Bitcoin machines are kind of similar. When they are running, they are making money."