apples to oranges. buying is an investment, and yes, on paper looks better (and often is), but depending on your jurisdiction up to half of that profit could be lost to taxes. mining is a business, and has numerous tax advantages as such. anyone home mining knows you they cant compete with big mining outfits on $/kWh, so its a hobby. In my case, I heat my house during the winter with mining, and play with things like bitaxe as a hobby. at this point I value the knowledge and skills more than stacking the absolute maximum sats I can.