Indeed they were not scared to sell, but I could also say that they were not in huge need in money. Also, I dont believe when people say "I have always believed in Bitcoin. I was a fan since the very beginning". Imho these people mined first Bitcoins just for fun, just because "the software was running on the background". Only few really believed and mined, because they knew the price would go up. And many among those have sold when price reached first thousands. I wont say "they were smart". They were lucky, smart, and lots of circumstances worked out well.