Why should I buy ether?

Investor

I am impressed with the concept of etherium, however I can't figure out why I should buy it. I am not a programmer, If I buy 2000 ethers I can't resell it because the next buyer won't know if I held onto the wallet and used it. If I can't sell it and the value is going from 1 BTC for 2000 ethers to 1 BTC for 1300 ethers then what have I gained. I guess I don't know why I should spend 10000 dollars for some ethers. How would I get my money back?

Technologov

You can sell after Ethereum goes live (in 2015), i.e. after Genesis Block.
As for it's inflation -- it is somewhat higher than Bitcoin, but should be okay, because it tends to zero. (I expect around 15,000,000 Ethers will be generated per year, which is way below gold.)
In 10 years we will have around 19 million BTC vs 250 million Ethers.

maidenlake

One reason might be that you see the world-changing potential ethereum has and you want to support it / be a part of it and hopefully (but not definitely) benefit financially in the process. Also, there is the potential of those with ethers joining with developers on a project. Andrew suggested this and then avsa referred to it as The Ether Venture Capital Fund here: https://forum.ethereum.org/discussion/comment/5552/#Comment_5552
There are probably other reasons to invest as well. Hope this helps with your decision.

BittBurger

Investor said:

I can't sell it and the value is going from 1 BTC for 2000 ethers to 1 BTC for 1300 ethers then what have I gained.

Well you gained a 70% increase in value right there. Without doing a thing.

Can someone explain to me what the OP means: I cant sell it because the next buyer wont know if i held onto the wallet and used it" ? Seems to me like there'd be a way to verify funds on an address...

Wil611

@BittBurger I think he means that if he sold before the actual genesis launch then there is a chance that he could be first to move the ether from the existing address to a new address before the person he sold them to. The ether won't be created in the blockchain until winter 2014/2015 at the earliest yet people are already looking to trade/sell their "ether IOUs" .

Investor

My thoughts are, I agree to sell my entire ether wallet to BUYER A and send BUYER A my wallet with password. I then sell the entire ether wallet to BUYER B and send BUYER B my wallet with password and then I do the same with BUYER C. Will this situation change in winter 2014/2015? I want to buy some ether, but I don't want to be left holding ether with no personal gain and the inability to sell it.