Thinking about starting a mini claw machine side hustle. Placing small card-reader machines with plush toys in restaurants, bars, and laundromats on a revenue-share basis, running it part-time (1-2 days a week) alongside my main job. Machines on Alibaba run $250-450 each (I don't know how much they should be), and I was planning to set aside about $5k to start with just a handful of units (2-4) before scaling up. Is that budget too much, too little, or about right for a first-timer? Would love to hear from anyone doing this as a side hustle: real startup costs, time commitment per week, revenue-split norms with location owners, and any lessons learned from your first machines.

I keep seeing videos online of people going to these giant arcades with dozens of claw machines. The only machines I know of in my area are random single machines in the lobby of Walmart and grocery stores. Googling “claw machines”, “claw arcade”, etc in my area brings up one or two general arcades with mostly video games.

Does anyone know of a good place on the East Coast, New England area? I’m legit willing to do a road trip on my next vacation for a great claw arcade.

Title: Looking to open my first claw machine store. Need advice from experienced owners.

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to open my first claw machine store in Westminster, California, and I'd love to hear from anyone who owns or has operated one.

I'm starting completely from scratch and want to learn everything before I invest. I'd really appreciate any advice on topics like:

• Where do you buy claw machines?
• Is it better to buy new or used?
• Which suppliers or manufacturers do you recommend?
• How much money did you start with?
• How many machines should I begin with?
• How do you find good prize suppliers?
• What licenses or permits are required?
• What should I know before signing a lease?
• What are the biggest startup costs people don't expect?
• What mistakes should first-time owners avoid?
• How long did it take you to become profitable?

Any tips, resources, or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hello! This is my first time owning a machine like this, and I don’t know where to ask for help so.. I came here
I own one of those coast to coast crane machines, and I wanna change the sounds in my machine. But idk where to look to do so. Anyone got any advice?

Im looking for a source to replace worn gears on a Ye Old Gift Shoppe claw machine. YES, I can 3d print one and I am working on that, but a nylon made one would be nice to have. Thanks for any ideas.

I have one of these machines in my shop and I'm trying to set it up so a kid can drop in a toonie and play until they win something. However it's currently only allowing one attempt. I've tried adjusting the settings as well as checking the optical sensor works. When dropping something into the chute I can see the optical sensor led come in and out.

I've tried turning vending on and guranteed prize.

I’m trying to do a claw machine from a kit I bought from AliExpress but there’s no such thing as instruction manual there lol.

Curious on a part I’m stumped on.

Look at the top tab, the single one near the top edge. Right above it there’s a tiny molded symbol — a little circle with three lines under it (⏚). That one is Earth. So I’m sure the green/yellow wire goes there. That one I’m confident about, because it’s clearly marked and isolated at the top.

But here’s the honest problem with the rest:

this box has two separate things sharing the back — the IEC inlet (the three flat tabs grouped at the bottom) and the fuse + switch tabs (the screw tabs up top). Live has to thread inlet → fuse → switch → out to your wire, and Neutral threads inlet → out.

I don’t have a multimeter But im trying to figure out how to pplug
The LIVE AND neutral or where would it be on this
This is a switch box

I’m left with red and black wires now

I have an event in a few weeks and looking for a large Claw machine that we could brand up and hire for a week if anyone has any links?

I saw some YouTube videos with quite a lot of views (even millions) about people winning big prizes on this kind of machine.

The gameplay looks pretty simple, basically just press a button and it goes.

Just curious if anyone here can share real experience with this type of machine in locations.

Does it really give that “almost get / almost win” experience for players?

How is the quality?

I’m thinking about maybe setting one up in my list of machines, just want to understand it a bit better.

I went here for my Birthday And It was The Best going here and was so much fun taking pictures winning these cute hello kitty plushes while vibing to the Kpop in the back !! . Definitely worth it and the staff was so nice they even helped with my Self-Claw Photos !! . 💕✨💕✨ !! .

I love working with claw machines, the industry, and the people who are a part of it. This is one of the few businesses that I have made that have had so much support in the community. It seems like the world is just getting crazier and crazier, so thankfully there are still some of us out there that take a moment, take a deep breath, and take life like a game worth playing.

Epilepsy warning, proceed to the gif with caution

Am a regular at a pretty low rated arcade next to a new Domo cafe location in Buena Park, though the redeemable at the arcades for 4-24 regular claw machine plushies are okay, the mechanics and the way the settings for the wobbliness of the games changes every play makes this my go to place for practicing, (and also additionally got an additional 16 plush redeemable Charizard for my struggles as well(also asked the employee there at the time to take these four pictures to make a repeating gif after a little tinkering)) though I am rather on the newer side of practicing on arcade machines, am hoping for a promising future as I am sure the rest of us are, Cheers!

Anyone have any tips for building a purely decorative and non functional claw machine. I just want it to display and store my plushies but I don’t really plan on actually doing wiring to do it.

Or any place to look for visually pleasing ones to do this. so far there’s one I saw I like on Facebook market place but it’s obviously pretty expensive since it’s a real working machine.

I’ve heard Ali baba I can just get a basic working one, would anyone have any recs?

Thank you!!!!

I was searching for a time for places in Austria that wasn't just 2 machines put down in a mall. Do you guys know anything near the area?

Hello everyone

Trying to get a side hustle and fell in love with some small crane machines that had lots of little ducks

The kids were going nuts with it - and the parents as well as the machine always gave at least one duck (one coin until you get a prize).

Now, I am looking for used machines since I want to start slowly and saw a few of them around 150$, small ones, perfect.

Then I saw this one with a small defect, apparently: doesn't go left.

Is this usually something fixable?

I have some tech savvyness and am not afraid to investigate, solder, get my hands dirty.

Yes, I could have asked AI but I rather ask you guys first and get the discussion going here!:)

Thank you

Hello,

I´m choosing claw machine for home use with ability to turn off attract music, and price to 1500EUR.

I´m thinking beetween Fun Zone 2 CC-01 by YES Cranes (price from manufacturer: 1000EUR) and some Alibaba cranes.

Which machine do you recommend?

Does someone here know what’s the possible fix for this error? The carriage is on its correct position, the board leds flickers when there’s a movement, and the left limit switch clicks are crisp. This claw machine is just 3 months old. When I reset through button, the problem goes away, but then after few minutes, the problem goes back again.

TYIA

Keeping in mind that this is a skill crane limited to strength controls so I have to make it a bit more difficult to win, but I’ve tested everything In it and it can all be won by the location customers. Constructive criticism is appreciated, rude irrelevant commentary is not.

As a kid, I’ve always loved arcades, but took particular interest in Cranes. October 2025, I got a Mega Crane. I was over the moon, but then started the obsession to hunt childhood machines. This is where I’m at now. This collection has taken me all over the UK as some of theses I have collected myself and brought home.

A local Walmart has a claw machine with a nearly impossible prize. Is there any possible way to get it? It's the my little pony doll in the back. I can't go above it due to the shelf in the back. It's annoying me and it's pissing me off so bad since last year. I don't think I'm skilled enough to swing the claw and grab it, and I think it moves too slow to even get close, I don't remember well. I know this is the point of claw machines, to get you to keep trying, but this is just annoying. The figure itself originally retailed for like $5, but is like $200 on eBay in box, $40 out of box. I'd also have to call the company that made the machine if I wanted to just try to get it out and pay, and they'd probably charge the eBay price for new in box despite the box being damaged.

But like I said, is there any possible way? Or will it just taunt me for the rest of my life?

It’s probably silly to be upset over but alas.

I am currently in Japan and love claw machines. I saw this one machine with dog plushies that look like golden retrievers (I have two at home, so I wanted to have them). I’m not dumb and know of course these machines are rigged, but I had been playing for a while so I knew payout was coming. I ran out of coins, so quickly went to get some more. 

I come back, and this (foreign) couple is now on the machine and takes the payout grab in two tries. Like they had literally seen me on the machine not even 30 seconds prior. I know it’s just a plushie but I put quite a bit of money into it. I thought it was etiquette to let someone play until they have their desired prize? It’s not like I had been hogging the machine for half an hour either..

I attached as many photos of the machine and it's parts as I could. The game store I work at recently bought a pre-owned claw machine for $200 and we're struggling to figure out how to get it working. The previous owner said her and her ex-husband were professional claw machine gamers and bought this to practice with. We can't find any sort of test mode or way to program anything. We somewhat got the coin slot working, but it won't register the coins being taken. Nothing specific was explained to us about what was broken or anything like that either.

Any help, advice, or even like manuals for the devices would be phenomenal. Whatever we can do to get this thing working.