Foot Fetish for Taking Shoes and Socks Off and Putting Them Back on Again
Content Alarm: Explicit names of sexual practices, which some may observe distasteful or triggering.
The discovery
It began innocently plenty. I was trying to make some extra money selling my clothes on eBay, the become-to marketplace for anyone who's ever racked up a credit carte debt, is moving overseas, is going overseas, is saving for overseas, or in my case, has developed an unhealthy obsession with Lululemon that frightened both my wallet and myself.
I was surprised so, when scrolling through in-app messages nigh my activewear items, to see a message from a male request whether I sold any sports socks. After a few messages back and forth it was understood that yes, he wanted to buy my used, worn socks (unwashed was fine), and no, he didn't want to tell me why.
I sold three pairs for $40.
His side by side message after receiving said socks? "Do you take any thousand-strings I can buy?" I ended the conversation at that place. Partly out of respect to my partner, but more often than not because I didn't know anything nearly this man – other than he was a frequent buyer of used socks co-ordinate to a cursory glance at his buy history.
I'm not naïve, I'thousand aware of the multi-billion-dollar industry funded by those with a soiled panty fetish and driven past those who are expertly able to resist changing their underwear for total weeks at a time. Hell, Orange Is The New Black developed a whole narrative arc around it, where some inmates were the 'providers'.
And who could forget the used panty vending machines in Japan? They were largely found in the back alleys of Akihabara until police found underage girls with fake IDs were selling their own underwear and school uniforms. Now, the vending machines target tourists with the word 'used' in English language and a disclaimer of how they aren't really used in fine impress and in Japanese.
But worn, dirt-covered socks? As a tool for sexual pleasure? Now that's a community I wanted to larn more near.
eBay's fetish underground
Unfortunately, the heir-apparent who graciously purchased my filthy-soled socks back in May of 2016 no longer uses his original buyer proper noun on eBay. What's more than, as eBay notified me, "the system but keeps a record of a list for lx days", and after that information technology's "deleted from the arrangement."
Withal, a quick search for "used socks" listings on eBay showed the ownership and selling community is live and well.
Beneath the guise of the website which launched in 1995 to innocently and safely let transactions of collectors' items like Pez dispensers and signed Nirvana vinyl, is an underbelly of "panty people", indiscreet sexual practice toy pedlars and, every bit it turns out, dingy sock fetishists.
One list noted the status of the socks as "Well worn, unwashed."
Another wrote in the clarification: "Worn to gym, piece of work, and show rehearsals."
Another listing for stockings wrote: "Well worn, unwashed dancer stockings. Worn for a whole season of shows unwashed. Happy to negotiate amount of wears for price."
eBay'due south net acquirement is roughly US$10.83 billion a year, and with US$ii billion coming from its adult e-commerce sector (with $140 million coming from Hello Kitty vibrators alone) used socks could be big business for the shopping giant.
Still, they'd never reveal but how large the used sock business organisation is.
eBay is non impressed
eBay told The Brag that selling used socks on their platform is strictly prohibited.
"For wellness and hygiene reasons, we don't allow the sale of used underwear, including socks, on eBay," a spokesperson told The Brag. " Nosotros do frequent sweeps every week across the platform, and have boosted action on accounts who are circumventing the policy.
"Users should ensure items they list follow our guidelines," the spokesperson added. "Items that are against our policies will be removed and sellers may be discipline to a range of other actions, including ownership and selling restrictions and permanent business relationship intermission."
When I was sent the above statement I immediately remembered the instructions I was given from my sock buyer. He had told me that in order to make the sale bachelor to him, I would demand to tell him when I would make the listing public and then reach out again with a link when the listing was live.
A weekly sweep from eBay won't exercise much to catch sellers whose listings are purchased mere seconds later on they go on sale; especially when all 'auction' negotiations are handled via individual DMs.
Encounter used sock heir-apparent 'UnusualOddity'
In a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Annihilation), a user named 'UnusualOddity' titled his thread: 'I buy guys (sic) used socks on Ebay, AMA!'
"I simply like the smell of them," he wrote.
UnusualOddity, who declined to be interviewed by The Brag, revealed through the AMA that he is in his mid-twenties, heterosexual, simply only interested in menswear.
He said the fetish sparked when he was a teenager, and that he doesn't discriminate when it comes to the condition the socks are in.
"When I was younger and effectually sweaty/smelly feet and/or socks I plant that I actually liked information technology! Weird, I know.
"[I] adopt them to exist more than used, definitely smelly. Athletic are cool but so are apparel socks. Holes are fine also!"
Let's talk specifics. What is a sock fetish?
Olfactophilia is the correct proper name for the fetish of used socks. Psychology Today defines Olfactophilia as: "a paraphilia in which individuals derive sexual pleasure and arousal from smells and odours."
Pamela Supple, who has a Masters of Health Science and has spent the last 25 years equally a Sexual practice, Relationship and Wellbeing Therapist, said "all fetishes are wide and varied and differ greatly for each individual."
When asked what buyers of used socks are specifically doing with them after the buy, Supple said: "[They would be] smelling them, putting them on, getting sexually aroused past them, fantasising. Some would get aroused by images of used socks and imagine dissimilar smells and odours."
Pamela Supple said that while pes and sock fetishes are separate, they can intertwine.
"Specific odours are produced by foot sweat which is odourless, but combined with certain bacteria – which are part of our man flora – are one of the most wide spread forms of erotic olfactory arousal for some," said Supple.
"[…] It is a real erotic stimulant of the olfactory senses. In other words the aroma/odor is the 'plough on' and sometimes can be accompanied by erotic images," she added. "Podophilia is the correct proper noun for a sexual fetish specifically for feet. It is considered the most common grade of fetishes for otherwise non-sexual objects or body parts.
"It is more unremarkably seen among men," Supple noted. "These tin can exist very separate fetishes for some but some combine both [human foot and sock fetishes]. It'due south completely up to the individual and their ain preferences."
In fact, Supple pointed to a 1994 written report printed in the Comprehensive Handbook of Psychopathology , which noted simply 45% of people with a specific foot fetish get aroused by evil-smelling used socks. "Non all foot fetishists accept a fetish for used socks," she said.
Meet used sock seller, 'TeamYMD'
Perhaps one of the virtually viral Reddit threads on the auction of socks as fetish items is from Redditer 'TeamYMD'. Posted over 7 years ago with the title 'IAmA guy who made thousands of dollars selling used socks on eBay AMA', this seller received almost 2,000 comments on his call-out for questions.
He said he would predominantly have to wear the socks for a calendar week for his clients.
"I'chiliad really a clean freak and then that bothered me. I would use a mix of parm cheese and water sometimes to brand them stinky if they wanted them that way," he wrote.
A self-professed "totally straight college kid looking to make extra $$$", the seller said he had to build up his reputation in gild to proceeds repeat customers.
Later in the AMA, he said his success had little to practice with luck: "I recollect it's having the balls to try something totally creepy and realise y'all're making money off of other people'southward fantasies, and it really has nothing to practise with me. I separated myself totally from it."
The seller mentioned eBay's crackdown on the market meant he had to be "discreet" with his selling arrangements.
"Yous had to be real slick," he said.
"They took downwardly auctions where pics were above the knee," he said, indicating eBay's policy effectually nudity. Granted, the same 'Adult eBay' allows nude images and sexually oriented (merely make clean) items to exist sold. However general eBay'due south larger user base offers more than potential for a higher turn a profit.
When answering questions from other Reddit users, the seller explained his strategy to get around eBay's policies: "They took down auctions that were too descriptive (tin't put actions like "played a rough Lacrosse game in these sweaty socks..etc.") Yous take to put "cleaned per eBay standards" in all auctions," he wrote.
"Basically, they knew information technology was a fetish thing and didn't mind hosting the auctions in the 30 department," he wrote. "Only you never got the exposure that you did on the normal eBay site and so anybody fought to keep it in the open."
So merely how lucrative was TeamYMD's foray into the resale marketplace for used socks? He revealed the most he'd sold a worn pair of socks for U.s.$125 (AUD$184).
When offer communication to those wanting in on the revenue stream he said: "Merely expect around at the completed listings. See what's going at present and for what. [You] need to build up a rep and then it will take a while. First at $.99. Focus on clothes socks."
Conversely to the sock realm, the business organization of used underwear online has go an accessible economic triage for panty fetishists. Websites like ebanned.net, Craigslist in the U.s.a., Used Panty Portal , and CulotteHog are all legitimate and condom resource. Use sock fetishists and sellers seem to have slimmer pickings; hence the gravitation toward eBay and Facebook Marketplace, and the ensuing conscientious navigation of prohibitive policies.
Ane thing is clear though, to find success in the currently united nations-cornered market of used sock selling, you need to follow the advice of seasoned entrepreneurs similar TeamYMD: "Keep the dream alive! You lot can exercise anything yous put yous listen to… Keep 1 pes forrard."
Illustration past artist and animator Erin Sutherland. See more of Sutherland'southward work at @ezose.png on Instagram.
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Source: https://thebrag.com/i-sold-my-used-socks-on-ebay-and-discovered-a-fetish-underground/
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