The brainchild of Sinclair Sexsmith and Dangerous Lilly, this network will serve as an online meeting grounds for sextoy reviewers to gather and swap out their items. The network is located on ning.com, which allowed us the most flexibility with design and the ability to make it private. This network isn’t private just so that we can control who gets invited (and leave people out), but more so that we can protect our privacy from prying unwelcome eyes.
The more trustworthy sex-positive people we have here, the happier we’ll all be with swapping our toys, so have fun and help our group grow!
Who: Not limited to just sex bloggers, this is for anybody who reviews adult products and has an overflow of things that are good quality but just “not your thing” or have been replaced by a new reigning champ. If you have a blog or a profile on a sextoy retail site as a reviewer, you are welcome to join! We would like to keep this network closed to reviewers and not lurkers, due to privacy and trust issues. In order to swap, one must give out their home address and many of us are anonymous bloggers. Unless you can be personally vouched for by a long-standing member, you should be a blogger or reviewer for a company (like EF) due to privacy concerns. Retailers are not eligible to join.
What: For insertables, swap only items made from materials that can be sterilized, if the toy has been used (and keep it to an item used only once or twice for review purposes). If unused, then anything goes. Consider swapping massage oils and candles, lubes, restraints and other BDSM gear, books and DVDs too! I prefer not to see jelly toys up, but by becoming a member and willingly and knowingly swapping/receiving a jelly rubber toy or other porous material, you take full responsibility for whatever that material might do to your body. ToySwap is just the network meeting grounds.
How: The network and your profile all look an awful lot like Facebook or Fetlife. Anything you do will be listed as a notification on the group page, as well as your personal page. You can list out the current items you have to swap out as a paragraph in your profile. Members will contact each other privately on the network site to say “Hey! I would like to try that, let me know if I have anything you’d swap it for!” and then exchange addresses. This part does require a mutual community trust factor that the addresses and names we give out to swap partners are kept in the strictest of confidence. Our network will be private – nobody will see a thing unless they are a registered member of the group.
Why: Why not? We all know what materials are safe to sterilize and we know how to do that. I don’t know about you but I’ve got numerous items that I think are great but they’re not getting used in my bedroom – but maybe they could get a lot of use in yours!
Precautions and Common Sense:
* We’re all adults, so there will be no moderator here. We’re simply providing the meeting place. All swaps are your responsibility to follow through with.
* Trade with people you know or with those who have established themselves as trustworthy.
* If you do not “know” someone, ask for references! Likewise, don’t be offended if someone asks for yours.
* Leave comments on other people’s pages when you trade.
* Establish a timeline that is agreeable to you both, and stay in touch. Don’t take on more trades than you can handle, use your head.
* Keep in mind that you each pay to ship out your stuff – setting up a lot of trades back-to-back might get a little heavy on the wallet. Even though money is always a concern, you should ship intelligently. Use the postal service – you can insure the item, add on delivery confirmation, etc.
* Not all of us are located in the US, so please be mindful of that when swapping. Never shipped something to Canada before? It’s easier (and cheaper) than you might think. Overseas shipping isn’t always affordable, however.
* The name is Toy Swap Network – while I won’t fully prohibit selling items, that’s not exactly why it was created. I can understand we all can use extra cash but this is a swap meet type of deal, not flea market. Also there is probably some sort of legalities to the sale of used sex toys that I don’t want to have to deal with.
If you would like an invitation to the ToySwap Network, please send an email to: dangerouslilly(at)gmail.com with your information.
~Lilly
