I always
considered this to be a *legitimate* application of
E-bay (their retarded rules not withstanding of course).
What I don't like is a business/person who refuses to sell the item to
a high bidder that didn't meet reserve (entirely reasonable), offer to
sell the item off-eBay at retail or higher (still acceptable, if
irritating), and then *continue* to offer me high-priced crap by email
after I've requested to be taken off their list.
And it happens all the time, even from people you've bought from. It's one thing
to recieve a targeted inquiry from someone who
knows you have a particular interest in something, and quite another to be added
indiscriminately to someone's spam-mail
distribution list.