GRESHAM, OR—The adult online industry lost one of its pioneers earlier this month with the untimely passing of Todd “sextoyking” Ostrer, who began his career in the industry in 1990, at a time when most people currently in the business likely did not even own a personal computer. He was 43.
According to an obituary, Ostrer died Oct. 7 in Clackamas. The cause of his passing was not indicated, but contributions to the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association are requested.
Like many adult online pioneers, Ostrer began his career with a bulletin board system (BBS), Rose City Online, which he ran from 1990 to 1994. According to a bio on privatelabelresources.com, the BBS “served millions of adult pictures to a paid membership consumer base and eventually turned into one of the first ISPs in the Portland, Oregon Metropolitan area. He also had one of the largest Internet retail stores for adult CDs with ‘xxxcd.com’ doing retail sales of adult CDs and shipping them all over the world.”
The bio continues, “From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Ostrer was one of the first to start Internet/Web based Adult Online Services with Adults.com, among many others. He was also one of the first to automate his fee based adult online services to consumers with automatic signup, real-time online credit card charging and password access.”
Starting in the late '90s, Ostrer was involved in the founding and running of two separate adult ventures, one involving online retailing in the adult novelty sector through safesexmall.com, which remains active, and the other involving the development and design of web properties through Webinc.com, which was started in order to provide “a ‘One-Stop Shopping’ website where business to business (B2B) professionals can find anything and everything they need to start, maintain, expand or support their online ventures, services and retail stores.”
According to his obituary, Todd is survived by his daughters, Mandy Jalo of Corvallis; Joecee L. Keller, Ashley Keller, Larisa Keller and Hannah Ostrer, all of Gresham; his father, Gerald Ostrer; sisters Dina Ostrer of Bellevue and Melissa Hinze of Kirkland; brother Kenneth D. Ostrer; and step brother Aaron Allina of Colorado, along with one grandson, Jayden Todd Montgomery.
As word of his passing spread among the online community, many people have posted their condolences and memories of a man who is remembered as one of the good guys, a “rare straight shooter,” or as one of his former employees called him, her “guardian angel.”
“I am forever going to miss my mentor,” she wrote.
A celebration of Todd’s life was held this past Saturday in Gresham, Oregon.
