Sex toy deals: how to tell a real discount from a staged one

The reference price is chosen, not discovered

A percentage off is arithmetic performed on two numbers, and only one of them is what you pay. The other is a reference price set by the seller, and in this category it is frequently a figure at which the product has rarely sold. Set the reference high enough and any price becomes a bargain, permanently.

Several jurisdictions have rules about this, generally requiring that a struck through price be one actually charged for some period recently. Enforcement is uneven and the rules differ by country, so the practical position for a reader is that a reference price is a claim, not a measurement.

The other half of the mechanic is the perpetual sale. A shop whose banner has read forty percent off for eleven months is not discounting, it is pricing. The tell is simply time: a price history is the only thing that distinguishes the two, and it is the one thing the page itself will never show you.

The patterns worth recognising

• The permanent sale. A countdown that resets, or a banner that has not changed in months. The discount is the price.
• Bundle padding. A real toy packaged with a cleaner, a sachet of lubricant and a storage bag, with the bundle valued at the sum of the retail prices of the extras. The extras are inexpensive to produce and the implied saving is mostly in the valuation.
• The coupon page that adds nothing. Sites that rank for a brand name plus the word discount frequently list a public code, or no working code at all, and exist to capture the last click before purchase. The commission is paid on that click whether or not the reader was helped.
• Site wide percentages on a category that rarely discounts. Premium brands protect their pricing, so a very large discount on one is more often a discontinued model, a grey import or a counterfeit than a generous retailer.
• The freshly inflated reference. A price raised a fortnight before a sale event and struck through during it. Visible only in a price history, which is why the next section is about finding one.
• A deadline with no date. Ends soon, today only, last chance. A genuine event has a date, and a date can be checked against a calendar.

When the real events are

There is a genuine calendar, and knowing it is more useful than any list of offers. The late November weekend running from the day after the American Thanksgiving through to the following Monday is the deepest and widest discounting of the year across almost every market this site covers, and it is when stock clearance of previous generation models happens.

Around it sit smaller reliable moments: the mid year sale events run by the large marketplaces, the January clearance that follows the holiday period, and brand specific anniversaries. Valentine February is an exception worth knowing, because demand in this category rises then, which makes it one of the weaker times to expect a discount even though it is one of the heaviest for advertising.

The most useful consequence is that a desirable product is rarely at its best price at the moment you first want it, and the gap between now and the next real event is usually weeks rather than months.

When a discount is still a bad buy

• A material you would not accept at full price. Porous plastics do not become body safe at half price, and this is the one factor where a discount should carry no weight at all. The body safe materials guide says which plastics those are.
• An app dependent toy from a brand with no track record. The software is part of the product, and a cheap toy whose app is abandoned loses the feature you bought it for.
• A discontinued model with a proprietary charger. The saving is real and so is the day the puck is lost and no longer sold.
• Something stronger than you want. The most common regret reported by owners is a first setting already too intense, and no discount improves that.
• A bundle where you want one item. Paying less than the sum of the parts is not a saving if four of the parts go in a drawer.