thoughts on spec work

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

Just thinking about speculative work and what opinion people have about doing it.

I'm not just talking about clients posting on places like DevArt anonymously asking for "samples" or setting up "competitions" but also having a client look at your art, dither about hiring you and then offering you the chance to compete with other artists by submitting work for a project and they'll pay the person whose work they like but not the other artists. Has anyone ever done such a thing in a rewarding way? Am I correct in my first reaction, which is to politely inform the person that I do not do speculative work? In most advice I've read for artists in the past, they warn again doing speculative work as many people use that as a way to get free art. And most of the advice I see around here is based on the concept of "some form of payment up front before any work is done."

Thoughts?