The Weird True History: The First Online Purchase Was a Bag of Bad Weed

The Very First Thing Bought On The Internet Was A Bag Of Weed… No, Wait, It Was A Pizza… Actually, It Was A Stale Bag of Marijuana — But That’s Not The Whole Story

You know the legend. The first online purchase was a pizza. Or maybe it was a CD? Or perhaps some groundbreaking piece of software? The truth is more mundane, more weird, and involves a Xerox machine, a stolen password, and a bag of weed that tasted like everything but weed.

1972: The ARPANET Drug Deal

The first documented transaction over a computer network happened in 1972. Students at Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and MIT were using the ARPANET (the internet’s granddaddy) to chat, share code, and… arrange a marijuana transaction.

The MIT folks wanted to buy some weed. The Stanford folks had the stash. So they used the network to coordinate a meetup. The actual exchange happened offline — cash for a bag of shake. The deal went down, but the bag turned out to be mostly oregano and stems. The first online purchase was a bad weed deal.

But hold on — this wasn’t a true “e-commerce” purchase because money didn’t flow over the network. Payment was in-person, and the goods were handed over. The internet was just a glorified phone line for arranging the meet.

1984: The Stale Bag Gateway Drug

Then came The Gates. No, not Bill. The computer store in Gateshead, UK called “The Gateshead SIS (Shopping Information System).” In 1984, a Jane Snowball — a retired housewife — used a computer to order groceries by typing into a TV screen. She bought a sandwich, some cereal, and a bag of frozen peas. The peas were her “big” unnecessary treat. The transaction involved a cashier on the other end taking a credit card number over the phone. Still not truly “online” payment.

1994: The Real First — A Bag of Weed Again, But Legal This Time

Skip ahead to August 11, 1994. A 21-year-old named Phil Brandenberger is sitting in his Philadelphia apartment. He logs onto a website run by a company called NetMarket. He types in his credit card number (a scary move in 1994). He buys something for $12.48.

What did he buy? Sting’s CD “Ten Summoner’s Tales.”

You can find this fact in a press release from NetMarket. It’s often cited as the first secure online purchase — the first time a complete transaction (order + payment + delivery) happened over the internet using encryption. No phone call. No check in the mail. The whole thing was done through a browser. It was a musical purchase from the former frontman of The Police. A bit boring, right?

But here’s the weird kicker: NetMarket’s CEO, Dan Kohn, later admitted in interviews that they’d bought the CD themselves. Phil Brandenberger was a friend of the company. They paid him $12.48 for the privilege of being the first e-commerce customer. It was a PR stunt.

The mundane item — a Sting CD — was deliberately chosen because it was inoffensive, widely liked, and wouldn’t scare anyone. No one was going to write a news story headlined “First Online Purchase: Bag of Weed.” They wanted something that would make headlines, not get them arrested.

The Real Mundane Truth: It Was Always About Geeks Buying Stupid Things

The history of online shopping isn’t about visionary entrepreneurs. It’s about early internet users buying:

• Books (Amazon started with books)
• Pizzas (Pizza Hut ran a test in 1994, but it was a novelty)
• CDs (Sting’s, again)
• T-shirts (A tie-dye shirt from a startup called “NetMarket” — yes, the same company)
• And yes, more drugs (sold via early crypto-anarchist mailing lists)

The most “mundane” thing about the first purchase isn’t the item. It’s that the first secure transaction was a carefully staged press event. The internet’s first customer wasn’t a regular person; he was a company shill buying a Sting album.

Meanwhile, the true first transaction — that 1972 weed deal — was so unremarkable that nobody recorded it. The first online purchase was a bag of oregano sold by a grad student, paid for in cash. And the first real online purchase (1994) was a PR stunt.

So next time you buy a boring bag of frozen peas on Amazon Fresh, remember: you’re following in the footsteps of Jane Snowball, Phil Brandenberger, and a bunch of stoned MIT students. The internet was built on mundane things. And bad weed.