While it's debatable, many people considered that cannabis was the very first thing that happened to be sold through the internet.
Since the population began to realize that they can sell anything to anyone, thanks to internet, imagination is the limit.
The internet has seen the sale of the '100-ton Hammer' from City Hunter, to a signed check from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Ronda Rousey sold her event-worn, unwashed tank top, the sale of a private jet, bought by Mark Cuban, setting up a Guinness World Record, a gigayacht sold on eBay, the sale of a World War II battleship, and more.
But if going less extravagant, there are a lot of things being sold on the internet with a lot cheaper prices. Some however, involves fetish.
One example of this, is Belle Delphine, the social media star and so-called "gamer girl," who managed to use the internet to sell her used bath water.
It all started when the 19-year-old girl, an Instagram influencer with millions of followers, announced that she would be selling her "bath water for all you thirsty gamer boys."
She priced it $30 per jar.
"I am now selling my bath water! this is what humanity has come to :)" she said in a tweet on Twitter.
The post garnered hundreds of Likes, and lots of comments.
Although the sale was widely mocked, the jars that contained her bath water were sold out almost immediately.
"…So my bath water actually sold out wtf? I didn’t expect to sell so many or to have THIS many baths either LMAO," she said a few hours after posting the sale of her bath water.
According to Belle, the idea was inspired by a running joke among her fans.
"Lots of people would comment on my photos saying they would drink my bath water. I was thinking of ideas one day, and it just popped into my head. What if I actually bottled and sold my bath water?" she said.
According to people who claimed to have purchased Belle's dirty water, some said that they used it to cook food, like macaroni and cheese, vape with it, and even drink it.
To those who tasted the water, they said that it tasted "so salty," and another commented that it's "candy-like."
As buyers, they could do what they want with the water, but regardless, Belle did put a disclaimer on her website, saying that the water "is not for drinking and should only be used for sentimental purposes."
It's worth noting, that Belle managed to become an internet personality using a combination of unique approaches.
This isn't the first time Belle gained public attention because before this, she had stuck artificial eyes to a dead octopus and played with it, ate photographs of her followers and other internet personalities, like PewDiePie, filmed herself consuming raw food, and curling up inside a refrigerator, among others.
She is also known to troll her followers.
For example, she once said that she would create a Pornhub account, and would do that if the post received over a million Likes. It didn't take long until that post got more than that.
She fulfilled her promise.
But instead of uploading pornographic content, she posted a series of videos with misleading bait-and-switch titles.
Examples include a video titled "Belle Delphine gets SCISSORED" where depicts her playing with plastic scissors; "Belle Delphine gets HUGE LOAD blown on her," is just her shaking a big bottle of Coca Cola, and opening the bottle afterward; "Belle Delphine strokes two BIG cocks" is just her playing with two roosters.
"I’m lucky. I can do crazy things and get to see the world react to it, and there’s definitely enjoyment in that, even if it’s sometimes a little scary. I get a bigger reaction to my weirder content but I think that’s only possible because I also make risqué content," she said.
“I think it’s been amazing and fun, but it’s time to move on to new things. I have a diary next to my bed full of crazy ideas. I’m not sure what will top this, but I’m looking forward to seeing what will come next.”
It's also worth noting that Belle sells exclusive "lewd" Snapchat content for paying subscribers, and boasts thousands of followers on Patreon.
Belle managed to become the lube in the internet's publicity machine, by playing to her fans’ demands. She is amongst those people who successfully tapped into an online subculture by carving out a unique niche.
For many of those who know her online, many of them followed her not because of idolizing her, but followed her because of her unique approach as being an internet personality, and her porn-lite lifestyle that exists somewhere between internet pranks and erotic modeling.
While some of her actions may seem nonsensical, Belle has become part of the internet's byproduct, but successfully tapped into the specific niche, where she gained colossal social media following.
Her appeal to those people is that, they know Belle is out there, and that the things she sell, is a merchandise to remember.
She's almost like a parody of the kind of girl some people want.
It's her gimmicks that made people to return.
For what is worth, she's an entertainer.
Delphine successfully combined many of the ingredients needed for a social media success: young and beautiful, willing to appear at least half-naked, a gamer, and a troll.
"People like to make the joke that by 2019 they thought there would be flying cars, amazing medical technology, and other humankind forwarding ideas. I think stuff like that is happening constantly – but also people are buying bottled gamer girl bath water."
So here, even though more than half of the internet may not recognize her, and that she's far from becoming the most famous social media star out there, she's already something in certain corners of the internet.
"I hate, in a way, that I'm contributing to that because people can see me and see my numbers and think, 'Oh, she's doing really well so that means I can do really well,'" Delphine said.
"For every one successful girl you see, there are thousands of other girls working really hard and not earning anything."
"I think being a sex worker and doing these things can be healthy, but I think it has to come from you. I did it because I've always been a sexual person and I've been sexually open throughout my whole life. This is something I wanted to do and I like doing it."
It's worth noting that after the sale of her bath water, Belle is banned from Instagram, with the company cited a violation to its rules.
