Stumbled across this last night, but BBO (upcoming star in the podcast game) had a great back and forth where the fallacious arguments against purchasing picks are discussed and summarily dismissed. One great point was that even if a single specific pick doesn't win, just the INFORMATION you get (whether it's the analysis provided, or just the takeaway that a Pro thinks a team's rating is underrated) is often worth much more than the result of the pick itself.
http://www.bboknows.com/BBoKnowsPod58.mp3
Good luck today, guys. I'm on the Hawks -1.5 on the obvious zig-zag play