Apple's online store is running a rare sale on Beats headphones

Apple stuff doesn't go on sale often, and it almost never goes on sale at Apple's own stores.

As a luxury brand of sorts, Apple usually sells its products for exactly its "MSRP," or manufacturer's suggested retail price, especially in its own retail stores.

But Apple is breaking that tradition with a sale on Beats, Apple's audio-focused brand. MacRumors reports that three Apple products are on sale online and at stores, with some discounts as high as 25%.

Apple's own site lists the prices as "special."

Here are the discounted products:

• Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker - $199.95 (down from $229.95)
• Beats EP On-Ear Headphones - $99.95 (down from $129.95)
• Beats Solo2 On-Ear Headphones - $149.95 (down from $199.95)

Apple is reluctant to discount its own products. For the past few years, it hasn't run Black Friday specials, and its back-to-school season, in August, usually includes free Beats headphones or a gift card, as opposed to straight discounts.

Note that the three Beats products on sale are not the latest or most high-tech. Apple launched a new Pill and Solo headphones that pair more easily with Apple products last fall, so those products have been largely replaced in the Beats lineup. The EP headphones are the entry-level pair that was introduced last September.

While the online Apple store has a section called "Refurbished and Clearance," or "Special Deals," it's focused on refurbished products, at a price around 10% off.

Apple's head of retail, Angela Ahrendts, comes from a luxury background, and is unlikely to be pushing a heavy discounting strategy. The last sale Apple stores offered was discounts on Apple's own dongles and computer monitors, in reaction to consumers who were upset about the lack of port options on the new MacBook.

Regular discounts have, however, become a staple of other retailers like department stores, whose customers have shown they won't buy unless something is marked down. This Apple sale could be the start of a new retail strategy - or Apple could just have some older Beats it needs to get rid of.