TigerTrade, the Princeton online auction network formerly known as pBay, has almost everything: from computer parts, sandals and toasters to textbooks and video games, all available for purchase by student bidders. But, nestled among the traditional auction items, one can find some rather more offbeat offerings.
Edward Shin '05 developed the "Dating/Companionship Service" in an attempt to offer a service to rival "mundane things like cell phones or clothing."
The service is designed to provide "a distinctive service for the discerning members of our Princeton community," according the TigerTrade post.
Shin offers the companionship of four male Princeton students, whose identities he could not reveal, to TigerTraders willing to purchase it.
Hourly rates depend "on the student or individual and what they could pay," Shin said.
He might, for example, charge graduate students more than undergrads.
"The guys are good-looking and tall and athletic," Shin promised. Despite their eligibility, though, "There's not much business right now. It might be that it's an odd concept, girls paying guys for a date or something," he said.
Shin's idea took root in his readings about a Japanese custom. "Professionals — adult men — pay high school girls to go out with them," he said. "I just think I got the market all wrong and everything."
Princeton shoppers perusing TigerTrade's other listings will find clothing including beige and washed blue jeans, a pant suit, a polo-collar dress, Sketchers and sweat pants.
One item unique even among the plethora of Princeton regalia is the Princeton Beirut tee shirt, selling for $20 apiece.
The baseball tee post is an extension of a project Peter Ryan '07 began in December, when he ordered the shirts from an Internet company.
"I've been really lazy — that's why I put them on TigerTrade, so I didn't really have to do anything," Ryan said.
Thus far, Ryan has earned back $700 of the $800 he originally spent on the shirts.
Meanwhile, Joanne Coupet '05 has made a profit on the bottle of Sprite she posted — 25 cents, to be exact.
"No one really wants [the Sprite] because we don't drink soda in the room, so we thought we'd put it up there," Coupet said of the new, unopened bottle, originally taken from a study break.
The post, titled "bottle of good drink for cute boy," is part of a plan to get good-looking guys to visit Coupet's dorm room.
"We were hoping to get a cute guy to bid," she said. When he came to retrieve the bottle, she and her roommates — seniors Erin Langley, Jordana Rothstein and Rebecca Stewart — would greet him.
"We really love TigerTrade. We look at it all the time," Coupet said. Now, she said, "We're using it as a way to meet people."
Stewart agreed. "Princetonmatch.com isn't doing it, for some reason," she said.
The Sprite bottle sale has yet to close, leaving some hope for any other bidders who meet the criteria.
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