I mean, there is the black market, but why go through that trouble? Too much risk of theft and, in extreme cases, death. One might sell it online, I suppose. Perhaps a bait-and-switch where it is portrayed as a classic fine good, then its rarity is privately revealed to serious buyers. This thing's "illicitness" makes it rare and thus, more, not less valuable.
Maybe something like a penny auction, where it starts at an absurdly low price (still a rather high amount, in general), but at a dollar per bid - and there had better be lots them - even more would have been made on it than if it were sold at regular price.
There is the idea of auctioning it off at an exclusive house or something. I dunno. Do you know where the richy-rich buy their stuffy stuff? I don’t.
The wealthy are a strong force, but the public are, too, in their numbers. Financial numbers at least, and ideological sway at most. So I thought of maybe not distancing the public, but involving them. Enter, crowdfunding.
But the crowd does not want to buy this thing. Besides, it's not exactly something you can piece up and send to different people. (So, no, it's not foie gras.) No, they'd rather you didn't sell it, maybe even destroy it so you couldn't sell it. Some want the latter because it’s what’s “right”, but then some would want that because they really want to buy it but can’t afford it, or at least want the money but don’t have the commodity. Hence, if they can’t participate in this transaction, no one else should. A lottery bypasses this with the illusory charms of lucky chance.
Now, let's suppose a sort of wager between the public and the very wealthy. Let’s add in that the public faces off against one another with forces of luck, and the wealthy against one another with their strong bids. A crowdfunding-lottery auction wager… thingy.
If a certain bidder matches a high-dollar reserve amount, the seller exchanges this bidder’s sum for the thing. Each bidder must pay a moderately high, nonrefundable fee before bidding. A percentage of the winning bid will be donated, because donating is good stuff.
In order to participate, the public must raise enough cash before a certain time to match the highest bidder’s current amount. The public agrees that their contribution is nonrefundable. The contribution wouldn’t be an amount worth missing, but it wouldn’t be a dollar-lottery, either.
During this time, an ongoing poll will be administered as to whether the seller's thing should be a) destroyed or b) granted to a random contributor by lottery. The poll will end by the aforementioned “certain time.”
If the public ends up raising equal to or more than the highest bidder, whatever they decided in the poll happens. A percentage of their money is donated, because crowds like that, and the rest, of course, kept by the seller… even if the thing is destroyed. The nonrefundable bidder-fees are distributed piecemeal to random members of the public who did not win the thing.
Both groups, the crowd and the bidders, have a so-and-so time limit to have beaten one another and finished polling. But if either group reaches a set reserve amount before this deadline, the time limit will be considerably reduced. Of course, there are endless ways to rig this, to tweak numbers and add extensions in order to intensify the determination of both the public and the bidders.
I guess it depends on how truly the public wants what they voted for. The rich, on the other hand, don't exactly need the thing. But they can be convinced they need it, especially when there are other bidders wanting it, and a whole lot of people wagering against their power.
About me: Just a student who happens to have dabbled in sales here and there. Some MLM, a sales rep stint, a bit of door-to-door - nothing much. I got pretty good, but I liked my studies too much to go further with that. I guess it's relevant that I have personally known what some call... "hustlers"? But that was before I decided I wasn't and didn't want to be around that kind of person. I do like coming up with business ideas, though. This one here might be more of a scheme. I don't know. It's all in good... well, interesting fun.