An auction is about as purely a profit orientated a thing can be, so I have to admit this strikes me as strange.

Further, you're giving that gold to the people you find most contemptible. They're the ones who spot all the low price items on sale. What do they do? Resell at a higher price or (more likely) DE and sell the mats high.

If it makes you happy, keeping doing it despite not accomplishing anything. Everyone has delusional things we do that make us happy. Coping mechanisms keep us sane! :)

As for soaking twinks, heck yeah. If someone wants an enchant or item from me and I know its for a twink my price instantly goes up x10. Most pay then swear a lot, which allows me to report them and get them kicked for a day. It's quite satisfying.

Twink buying on the AH actually helps new players gear. They don't NEED anything bought from the AH and what drops they do get sell for more gold than it otherwise wood. Selling a level 19 blue for 200g makes more sense than wearing it for three levels and being broke.

Actually, I also sell greens for cheap. Sure, bottom-scanners probably do pick up a lot, but you can't assume they do for everything. I don't buy to price up and resell, and I've picked up many items for ridiculously low prices just by chance. And anyway, especially for greens that sub level 20's would wear, the stuff you get from DE'ing isn't all that valuable. I know that when I've been on a new server with a low level char., I really could use that reasonably priced gear.

And at any rate, the argument about high-rolling twinks helping everybody just doesn't hold. The chances of getting a nice BOE blue is small anyway, even smaller for low-level players. Nice greens, sure, it's better, but still nothing to count on. Cash that low-level players can count on still comes from gathering, and that's pretty small potatoes compared to what you can earn at higher levels.