Should dealers be able to......

I suppose virtually everyone who spends any time using the Internet has gotten fed up with "spam", so I certainly understand why you might find it irritating for dealers to contact you directly. Having said that, we need to bear in mind that Audiogon is a public forum, and only dealers have to pay to participate.

If a dealer has taken the time to research the posts and see who might be interested in his/her products, that shows some business initiative, and from my perspective is an acceptable practice. It is certainly preferable to the snobby high-end dealers who won't give you the time of day until you have given them a large down-payment.

As others have suggested, maybe an "opt-out" for A-gon members might be an option. I'd only be interested in using that option for myself if I were regularly receiving unsolicited sales pitches from dealers, which I don't. The only time I got a dealer response was after I put a "want to buy" ad in A-gon and got an E-mail from John Rutan of Audio Connections in New Jersey. John is a real audio pro, and he treated me so well that I bought some speakers from him, and subsequently went back to him with repeat business.

I agree with Sdcampbell. Anyone that builds an e-mail list from A-gon members (not easy since the actual e-mail is hidden until you get a reply from someone) and then uses that e-mail to send "this month's specials", or other spam, in my opinion is completely wrong. However, if a dealer reads comments in the forums and believes they have some pertinent information, that would otherwise come off as advertising in the forums, then I agree with SD that this is more showing initiative than being annoying. I also agree that if a user requested not to be contacted, or simply didn't reply to the e-mail, the dealer should take the hint and not e-mail that person again. I've only had one person e-mail me to tell me about a particular product. I wound up trying it, it didn't work for me, and was very easily returned for a full refund minus the shipping. Although I didn't care for this particular product, this person's business practice was such that I would do business with them again.

It is very simple anyway:
Weather you or someone else accept the offer or not before it's being advertised on the web. Sometimes it happens to find it reasonable and go for it and that's for you do decide. The main thing is not to think that you're saving him/her $2 ad fee:)
You're right being not the only one. I get it from time to time as well and deside myself seing nothing wrong in this situation.

I would prefer not to recieve email unless I solicit it. I don't care for the medium,though I recognize it has it's place.

If one dealer has sent more than one email, just block the address using your email application.