I agree and had the exact same situation in our launch last June. I had a guy with a 10k list pull in more sales than several with 40-60k lists.

It is more about how "abused" the list has been, how many junk offers it gets sent every week, and how old it is...

My ideal partner would be someone with a list that they don't market to constantly, with a NEW list that isn't years old, but just a few months (maybe obtained through a product launch), and also ideally if possible, a BUYERS list, rather than just a list of people who subscribed for a free gift - buyers are just much more responsive.