Our local police department will accept gently used stuffed animals that are in good condition. Animals cannot be oversized, medium sized or smaller. The officers put 2-3 in their trunk and whenever they have to deal with a child that is separated from their parents for whatever reason, they offer them a stuffed animal to comfort them. So, about once every 4-5 years, I get a yard trash bag and the kids have to go through and fill the bag. They can pick the ones that they like less to put in. I watch them and ones that are not in good condition don't go in. But the only animals that not in good condition are usually ones that are special to them and they aren't willing to put them in anyways. It works out pretty naturally.

This way the kids get their fun and we don't get overrun with animals. The one caveat is that I call the police department each time to see if they are still accepting the animals. If the police department doesn't take them, try the fire department. Not all departments take them, but there are a number that do. If your local jurisdiction doesn't, you can also try calling the police/fire departments of adjacent jurisdictions. From talking with other families who do this, we have found that smaller jurisdictions or county (vs city) jurisdictions are more likely to take them.

Anonymous wrote:Meaning, it doesn't matter what they do, it will pick up a toy X number of times.

The big ones are. The smaller ones typically aren’t. That being said with the small machines you can tell after 1 or 2 plays if you have a “good” machine.

We go to an arcade in Wildwood that still has 25 cent small machines. Once you find a good one or two, you can easily walk out with 5+ prizes. The bigger ones are a crapshoot because of the programming. But it’s still a lot of fun! We used to do about $20-30 per kid and spend tons of time there. Such good memories.

I don't think I've ever given my kids money for those machines. They look at the quality of toys in the machine and prefer spending more money to buy a specific toy they prefer. Which I'm fine with.

Meaning, it doesn't matter what they do, it will pick up a toy X number of times.

You know those machines are pre peogrammed right?

Zero. Get them a claw machine off amazon.

My son has probably 30 stuffed animals and would definitely notice if I took one away.

Your question is about money but I think its really about how many stuffies are too much. Two different questions. You can spend the money and not keep thr prizes if you wish.

Uh, you're at stuffed animal hoarder territory. If each play is $1, I'd give them $2. If they win they should give it away to a nearby younger kid.

I occasionally take one out so they don’t notice. Or say I’d you want to play again you need to give a couple away. We spend a couple hundred in arcade places.

We have more than enough stuffed animals at home to collect dust. Both kids love to play clawing machines, and arcade games to earn points to redeem for cheap plastic toys. We do that at ocean city (once a year), and when we hit our local mal/dave & buster. They tend to spend a lot more money on clawing machines than those machines that give out tickets, and they sometimes may get nothing at the end because the claw is loose. How much would you spend normally on each kid ecery time?

DH thinks those stuffed animals are trash. Kids love them on their bed even thougn each kid has like 20 plus stuffed animals on each bed, and 15 plus in living room & 10 plus in my bedroom because no where to go.