I'd appreciate posting it here. I've been reading the archives and it's frustrating to have an interesting discussion end with "email me and we'll talk."
We can post for posterity.

How many tickets do your prizes go up to?
I would guess your volunteers go back and forth a bit if people want to buy a few small prizes rather than one big one. Is that true?
What I meant by counting is not the total at the end but the number of tickets when people are redeeming for prizes.
From what other people have said, I assumed you could manage up to three tickets per game. After playing too many games, each person would end up with quite a few tickets to count as they are redeeming them. Do you do it like that?
I do really like your idea of recycling the tickets. Thank you so much for your input.

hey if you want to email me more about this it's This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. I'm the only one that checks it so don't worry if you don't want anyone else to read it. If you want to post more in here I can help out. just let me know

Basically we pick a room with 2 doors one for enter one for exit. We take about 3-4 8f long tables and put them next to each other in a line. We start at one end with the lowest token prizes and work up. We make a sign to take hanging over the table letting kids know what token prizes are where......1 token, 2 token, 4 token etc...we put 1 of each prize out (so like the 1 token prizes there maybe like 5 things on the table) and the kids tell the adults what they want, there are boxes behind for the adults to get the prizes out of. when there is only that 1 left on the table we sell that one. we don't set up a line or anything and do like a bank so its pretty much a free for all and hectic but we have atleast 6 ppl working per 1 hour shift. We just do a pre and post inventory so we can get a better idea of what to buy the following year. We don't count tickets at our carnival because we can figure them out based on the amount of money we make on ticket sales. And we don't count tokens either because when you do the inventory afterwards you can figure out based on the amount of prizes used how many tokens you collected. We also but a box in the middle to toss the tokens into so that we can come back in there and grab them and redistribute them out to games that are running low.

Melloweer, Let me see if I understand-
you have a line entering and have six people helping out with redemption. Is it like bank tellers where they call out "next" for the next in line?
I guess you could post pictures of prizes and their value on the wall by the line for people who are waiting. That wouldn't be too tough with a digital camera.
That sounds better than the free for all I was imagining.
Do you know if you make more money by doing it that way?
Do you count the tickets or weight them?

I posted on the thread about carnival prizes in here our rundown of our redemption center this year. I prefer the redemption center because this way kids don't have to carry around a bag full of the little toys and can instead (esp for the older kids) get a really good prize. The redemption center can be crazy. Make sure whatever room you have it located in is large enought to accomidate(sp?) ppl, make sure you have 2 doors one to enter one to exit and make signs to make it clear, also make sure its spread out so the amt of kids can get up and there is no cutting, make signs clear as to the amt of tokens each section cost and only put 1 of each on the table. Most important make sure its staffed well.......we put atleast 6 ppl per hour in the redemption center. You will also want to do an inventory before the carnival and an inventory after to carnival to find out exactly how much of each prize was used this way you can keep a track of the popular prizes to bring back next year and drop the ones that barely get taken. HOpe this helps

What is more effective - A redemption booth or prizes at each game?

I can see a congestion problem at the end of the carnival with a redemtion booth, but you can get larger prizes.
With prizes at each game you avoid that, but does that effect how often people come back to play again?
Oriental Trading Company's booklet says a redemption booth will make peoeple keep playing to get the larger prizes, but doesn't say at all how to do it.
Has anyone done both? I know a lot about giving out prizes at the individual games - we do that every year at our church carnival, but that's not a fundraiser. What I want to know is if the redemption booth really does generate more money? How is it done to keep from having the kind of lines they do at Chuck E Cheese?
I have all kinds of questions on this, but let's just start with those.