Interested in owning a pair of Tricia Wilds' sexy panties? Me, too. But actually getting your mitts on ?em is quite the challenge, I must say. Barring actually becoming Ms. Wilds' significant other, one cannot just walk up to the beautiful starlet and expect her to slip ?em off and hand them over, no matter how politely you ask.
But there are possibilities. You can A) Gather your devious buddies together, a la Ocean's 11, to craft an elaborate scheme for breaking into Wilds' home to steal a pair from her dresser drawer; B) Invite her to a game of strip poker and hope she's a lousy card player, or; C) Avoid jail time and public humiliation altogether and log on to eSTARBIDS (www.estarbids.com).
It's a cool December afternoon and Wilds' fuchsia-colored underwear (worn for the Candy Dreams photo shoot) is on the auction block for $51. The panties went up for bidding a few days earlier. Now, four bidders are locked in a war of money and desire, driving up the price, each keen on winning the prized underwear (and an 8x10 autographed photo).
Three days, 18 hours, and six - make that five - minutes remain until all bids are final. With a dazzling, full body photo of Wilds wearing said panties posted next to the product information and bid history, it's hard to resist not pushing the bid to $52. I want those panties. I need those panties. I wait and I watch.
Much like eBay (www.ebay.com), the Internet garage-sale-cum-behemoth-Web-corporation where people buy and sell just about anything imaginable, eSTARBIDS presents surfers a stripped-down variation, with sexually-themed products ranging from lingerie worn by Playboy models to custom photos of gorgeous porn stars.
Launched in November 2001 with the adult consumer in mind, eSTARBIDS was designed to "facilitate the sale of high-quality adult memorabilia," as reads the "eSTARBIDS approach" found on the site.
"The idea came from discussions I was having about providing auctions for Danni.com," says Samuel Agboola, director of business development, marketing, and PR for DHD Media/Danni's Hard Drive (www.danni.com). "I looked at the adult market and realized that any successful new venture would further increase competition and that, as in the mainstream, probably only a couple of auction venues would survive and prosper, with one clearly dominating the market.
"From that we decided to build a forum which all adult vendors could use and put together a 'category killer' from the outset."
According to the Website, selling items to customers and fans via eSTARBIDS can provide a "significant stream of additional revenue" for adult Webmasters and adult performers. According to Agboola, top customers on eSTARBIDS spend more than $50,000 a year.
"For consumers, it offers genuine, unique, and exciting products from the biggest names in adult entertainment and glamour modeling," he says. "And for Webmasters and performers, it offers a venue in which to auction adult memorabilia to a precisely targeted group of collectors."
Powered by marketplace service provider edeal (www.edeal.com) with DHD Media's transaction processing, Agboola has positioned the Web venture as a practical adult substitute to eBay. "eBay has shied away from adult material by making it very hard for people to access," he says. "By making a forum that only allows content producers and talent to list items, we can go a long way to eliminate fraud." Also, "By making the network adult focused, we can lower the barriers to entry and don't need to worry about minors coming into contact with adult material inadvertently. There's no nudity on the network at all."
With companies like Wicked Pictures, Vivid Entertainment, D�j� Vu, Danni's Hard Drive, and the infamous Bunny Ranch providing exclusive auction items, users can browse a variety of merchandise divvied up into sections such as "apparel," "events," "memorabilia," "extreme getaways," and "exclusive offers." Registration is free with no monthly fees and no obligation to maintain membership.
There are four selling alternatives for auction items: The "Open Auction," like the method for bidding on Wilds' panties, is the classic auction where there is no reserve price and the seller must sell the item to the highest bidder; the "Reserve Price Auction" allows a seller to set a minimum price for an item; "InterActive Classified," where sellers post fixed-priced ads for up to 30 days and each bid is considered an offer to buy the item; and the "Fixed Price Sale," where items are listed at a fixed price set by the seller and buyers choose to buy the item at that price. Fixed Price listings remain active until item is sold.
Authenticity is a key issue when dealing with memorabilia, an issue Agboola says eSTARBIDS has a good handle on. "Almost everything sold comes with photo documentation, and we work with people who take pride in being honest and trustworthy," he says. "Ultimately, the market is the harshest judge - if we receive complaints from buyers, we investigate them as fully as possible. If we suspect a seller's being dishonest, we'll remove them from the network."
Like any good garage sale or even inside Sotheby's (the world's richest auction house), the underlying theme here is value and how much someone is prepared to shell out in order to procure a desired item. "The primary goal is the sale of product," says Agboola. "We believe that taking an approach which is sales-focused will ultimately make the site better respected and better loved than a lot of the 'shell games' out there. The aim is to be the premier adult auction venue and to win the majority of that adult business from eBay."
Whether or not there's any intrinsic value to a g-string worn by a porn star is certainly debatable. That's neither here nor there. And it's not so much that bidding for a dinner and lap dance with Sunset Thomas in San Francisco started at $500 - the point is it's reassuring that such a financial opportunity exists. Porn, matchbooks, baseball cards... whatever. If you want it, then rest assured somebody's got it.
And while one might balk at the idea that a thong - regardless of who's been jiggling about in it - could be on the auction block for hundreds of dollars, eSTARBIDS is very much intended to lure the nouveau riche, those with disposable income and quirky tastes who are willing to splurge on these kinds of collectables (if a Wall Street tycoon wants to fritter away millions on a Barry Bonds homerun ball or a Renoir painting, then why not add Taylor St. Claire's lingerie to the collection?)
"There are multi-millionaires visiting adult sites right now," says Agboola, "and this is a way of giving them the opportunity to buy the things they want."
The history of auctions is an extensive and fascinating one, dating back centuries and evolving from a simple means of selling goods to a multi-billion dollar business. It only seems obvious and somehow necessary that the Industry of Sex have a seat at the table.
Besides, with eSTARBIDS, it's nice to know that when a sexy starlet finishes a rollicking sex scene, that pair of panties that were so casually stripped off and cast aside will have a second act in life as a piece of memorabilia for some lucky shopper.
