May I ask, who are these 'people' wiling to try luck with a 1000 bucks virtual comodity... Who are these newcommers pushing the price up?

I use:
offlineimap + mutt + mstmp

Use offlineimap to create a local MAILDIR. Launch it as a daemon, or make a cron job for it.
Then hook any respectable mail application to the MAILDIR.
Then hook any respectable desktop mail ailert to the maildir.
Then configure mstmp.
Then configure mutt to use mstmp.

You'll need some magic if you don't like the passwords resting in your home as plain text. I found that not worth of my time.