Sex toys can be ridiculously expensive, and for many people, it’s not really an option to allocate a big budget to them.  I will try to review as many affordable toys as possible, but here are a few tips to help you along:

• Don’t buy on eBay or Amazon. You may pay less than with actual sex toy retailers, but those websites are full of counterfeit products, and you may be putting yourself at risk by using those toys. If you find something that really looks legitimate and is significantly cheaper than anywhere else, shoot the vendor a message: they might be liquidating a stock. Make your decision based on their answer, and when you get the toy, be honest with yourself. If you suspect it might be fake after all, get rid of it. Other important note on Amazon: Amazon throws all of their identical products from different sellers into one bin. When you order a toy that’s shipped and handled by Amazon, their employees go into the big bin and pick one of the toys at random. If any of the sellers whose products are in that bin sell counterfeit toys, you might get one of those, even if your seller is honest.
  
  
• Be on the lookout for people selling secondhand/demo toys. Obviously, only ever buy body-safe toys. They’re the only ones that can be sanitised. Many sex bloggers will regularly sell their reviewed toys to downsize their collection. Be on the look-out for that! Bloggers are generally very careful and perfectly sanitise their toys before selling them, so it’s perfectly clean and safe. If you’d rather not buy a used toy, however, demo toys have only come into contact with other people’s hands and, at worst, the tip of their noses. If you know a secondhand website, have a look on there: a sex toy consultant may be stopping their activity and sell their demo toys (that’s how I started my collection, actually). It’s even better if you personally know a blogger or consultant who’s selling their stuff. But be careful in any case: write back and forth until you’re sure they can be trusted, inform yourself of their STI status, and thoroughly test and sanitise the toys upon arrival.
  
  
• Pay attention to sales and discounts. Sign up for the newsletters of your favourite companies to be informed when they have a sale. Many companies offer discounts when you sign up to their newsletters, or first-order discounts. Some will even give you a discount for birthdays or anniversaries!
  
  
• Read reviews. First off, many big bloggers have discount codes for several companies. By using them, you can save money and support bloggers at the same time! Secondly, and even more importantly: by reading reviews, you will get a clearer idea of a toy’s quality and of whether it may work for you. This may prevent you from buying stuff you’d be disappointed with. Just Google the name of the toy you covet followed by “review” and you should find quite some information.
  
  
• Check companies’ returns/refunds policy. Many companies will let you return toys, but most companies (understandably) limit returns to unused toys in their sealed, original packaging. Some companies do accept used toys, though! And if a toy doesn’t work when you get it, almost every company will pay you back. Such policies can save you a lot of money, so definitely pay attention to them. 
  
  
• Check the warranty. If a company only offers a few months of warranty, this should raise doubts about the quality of their products. Chances are they won’t last you very long, and that’s just wasted money.
  
  
• Don’t compromise on the materials. Unsafe materials can have a whole lot of unpleasant or even dangerous consequences. Covering them with a condom isn’t even sure to help, and besides, you could just invest the money you won’t have to spend on condoms in an actual body-safe toy.

I’m a student. I know the struggle of wanting ALL THE SEX TOYS and not being able to afford them. One of my main missions on this blog is to help you with that: I have a category of toys for under 30 euros that you can check out if you’re looking for cheap toys.

I learned a lot of the information about Amazon from Erika Lynae and Dangerous Lilly.