I would like to thank the snake oil salesman. The ones I encountered were before I even found this forum. I bought some btc last year out of useful need, no not drugs, and then looked into btc further and bought some more. Avg price $32. Not that much as I am a poor boy. I have sold enough to cover my purchase price 4x and have more btc than I started with.
I started coming to the speculation section and the observer threads in particular a couple of months ago to get some sense of what was happening with the falling/stagnating price. I have learned a great deal as there are many good posters here.