The bitcoin market is crazy, haha. It's something akin to a perfectly competitive monetary system. In other words, value is determined purely on the basis of demand and supply.
Swings are very volatile and can be rather drastic. I did some odd jobs in .onion land a couple of months ago and did accumulate some significant amount of bitcoins, sold them all a couple of weeks or so ago, right after the whole media frenzy in connection to the silkroad market.
I really love the whole concept tons, it's a fucking peer-to-peer currency for godssakes, whats not to love? However, mining is not as lucrative as it used to be. As it is a perfectly competitive market (as of now), the value of your mining operation will only diminish as more and more people flood the market.
Sadly enough, there's just not that much you can spend your bitcoins on. Yes there are a couple of marketplaces where you could buy drugs, weapons or whatever else you desire, but who's really interested (well except for the drugs of course, haha)? The value of the currency might only diminish from here on in, before it stabilizes again, seeing as how most of the markets have stopped accepting new members (which is probably a good thing).
Cheers
