“I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy.”
– Steve Martin
Because of my obsessive need to click every link on every website and forum that I read, I often stumble on some pretty weird stuff. Case in point, yesterday I discovered an entire subreddit dedicated to women auctioning off their used panties (for the sake of the children, I’m not going to provide a link.). Recognizing genius entrepreneurship when I see it, I’ve decided to compare and contrast the used panty industry with more conventional forms of enterprise.
Supply and Demand
To quote Wikipedia, supply and demand is:
“An economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at current price), resulting in an economic equilibrium for price and quantity.”
As time progresses certain products are rendered obsolete and their demand becomes nonexistent. In 1986 the price of a VCR was almost $300. Today that same device couldn’t be given away. In contrast, I believe that the used panty industry will remain a lucrative revenue stream until the world’s population of internet dwelling weirdos evaporates. An event that seems highly unlikely.
Investment
It’s expensive to extract oil. You have to conduct geological surveys, hire engineers, build pricey drills, set up derricks, and staff your site with trained professionals.
It is not expensive to buy lingerie, take a picture in it, and post it on a website.
When it comes to start-up costs, I think we both know who wins.
Conclusion
Stumbling on bizarre nonsense, like the aforementioned used panty trade, always re-confirms my belief that you can make money off anything. If there’s one lesson to take away from this, it’s that you don’t need to do something revolutionary to be an entrepreneur. Whether it’s running a series of websites, creating books, writing code, or 