I’m not sure what to make of Bideo, a new site that purports to be an “auction house for newsworthy user generated photos and video.”  The site “was created for ‘right‐place‐right‐time’ citizen journalists as a profitable alternative to giving away their exclusive and often amazing images to publications for free.”

Most of the offerings look like poor-man’s TMZ — Megan Fox Undresses for LAX security! Janice Dickinson looks anything but happy to be grocery shopping! — and none of the 28 videos up for auction as of this morning has an actual bid, but the site does have one very interesting piece, an amateur video of Marilyn Monroe, Billy Wilder and Tony Curtis on the set of Some Like it Hot, one of the funniest films ever.

The 2 1/2-minute video itself, which can be viewed on the Bideo site, is not really dramatic, with Marilyn interacting with the cast, crew and fans in between takes of a beach scene.  But the history of video is interesting.  Presumed lost for decades, the original 8mm reel recently resurfaced in Australia when the creator’s daughter discovered it among his belongings. In 2008 it was sold to an anonymous collector in Melbourne for $14,624.00 USD.

According to Bideo, plans to commercialize the video never materialized, and the current owner is hoping to find it a more suitable home by selling the full copyright and original reel through the Bideo platform.

The $14,000 starting bid might be a little steep, but there may be a big Marilyn collector or studio that might want to take a look at it.  I hope that as the site, which launched in January, grows, it moves towards these kinds of “found in the attic” pieces and less towards the “celebrity leaving the supermarket” junk that is hardly “citizen journalism.”