As with any other way of getting freebies, some of these ways to get free toys may take a bit more legwork than others. Either way, using these options, you’ll get toys at no cost to you.
Once you get them, you can give ’em to your own kids or kids of family and friends. If you don’t have any kids around you, you can always giveaway toys especially during the holidays either directly or through programs like Toys for Tots.
Here are ways you can get totally free toys.
1. Become a toy tester
You may be able to get toys for your child to test out for free.
It sounds too good to be true, but testing out toys is totally possible.
Many toy companies hire kids to be toy testers. They send your child a toy to review, and in exchange for this review, you get to keep the toy.
There are a few ways to find toy testing work:
Follow toy manufacturers on social media
Follow toy companies big and small on social media. Often, companies post on their social media profiles that they’re looking for kids to test toys.
A few top brands you should follow are:
Step2: Facebook
Hasbro Gaming: Facebook
Mattel Imagination: Facebook
Spin Master: Facebook
Sign up for newsletters
Most toy manufacturers send out weekly/monthly newsletter where they give subscribers the latest news as well as exclusive discounts and promo codes. Some will also send you sample toys in the mail for free so you can test out and give feedback.
Here are a few newsletters you can sign up for free:
Fisher Price Family Club
Lego VIP
Get an online presence
A lot of people get product recommendations from blogs and social media.
And companies want to use that to market their products.
So, if a toy company sees that you have an active online presence and a large following, it’s more likely to send you toys to review.
You should set up a blog, YouTube channel and social media accounts if you don’t have them already.
The bigger the online reach you have, the more likely you are to be selected as a toy tester.
It’s a good idea to review the toys you already have and post your reviews to your blog. You can then use your blog as a portfolio to show companies that you can write good reviews and are able to thoroughly review products.
2. Email companies directly
Sometimes all you have to do is ask!
Just email toy companies directly and ask about opportunities. You could email your contact information, as well as your child’s name and interests to Fisher-Price, for example.
Visit the website of your favorite toy companies to get their contact information.
Here are some of the top toy makers:
LEGO
Hasbro Gaming
Mattel
LeapFrog
Little Tikes
Spin Master
Step2
Melissa and Doug
Playskool
Brio
All you have to do is ask. It won’t cost you anything but a few minutes of your time. If they send you toys for free, great, if not, move on to the next one.
3. Get free toys in exchange for Amazon reviews
This is a little on the gray side. You see, sellers on Amazon can’t directly ask you for feedback in exchange for giving you free stuff. But there are ways to get free stuff in exchange for feedback.
You can sign up with review sites
Join review sites
There are sites that are specifically set up to bring sellers and buyers together where sellers will either giveaway 100% free products or give deep discounts in exchange for your reviews. We have a big list of Amazon review sites here.
Join Amazon Vine
Amazon Vine is Amazon’s own review program where you can get free stuff and exclusive deals and discounts for reviews. You can read “how to get free stuff on Amazon” for details and tips about the program.
Unfortunately, Amazon Vine is an invitation-only program. You can’t just sign up. In order to be invited, you’d have to have a lot of existing reviews (positive or negative) that other customers have found helpful.
So, if you haven’t yet, start leaving detailed and helpful reviews for every item you buy on Amazon. Maybe one day you’ll be invited. And even if you’re not invited to the Vine program, many sellers will actually contact you directly and offer you freebies in exchange for your detailed reviews. It’s a win-win!
Amazon’s own Vine program is a great example. You sign
4. Browse Freecycle
Freecycle is this great website where people can give away stuff for free and get free stuff too.
It’s an awesome website because anyone can use it to get their hands on the stuff they need at no cost.
Freecycle offers items in lots of categories. So, you may be able to find toys that people are giving away on there.
5. Look on Craigslist
The next place I’d recommend looking at is on Craigslist. Sure, a lot of people sell stuff on Craigslist. However, there are also lots of people who give away free toys and other products.
You just need to find the free section for your city.
Lots of cities have a section for free stuff, like:
Craigslist Bronx
Craigslist Manhattan
Craigslist San Francisco Bay Area
Craigslist Boston
Craigslist Chicago
Craigslist Los Angeles
I saw free stuffed animal toys on the LA free section, for example.
Now, you won’t always find people giving away toys at no cost. However, you sometimes will, so having a quick browse of your city’s free section on Craigslist is certainly a good idea.
6. Get free gift cards for toys from Swagbucks
I think that anyone who’s looking to get anything for free should be using Swagbucks.
If you haven’t heard about Swagbucks before it’s a website where you get rewarded for doing really easy tasks.
Yes, you read that right.
Swagbucks will pay you to do tasks that are easy and, in many cases, fun too!
I’d highly recommend using the site.
Here’s what it will pay you for:
Shopping online
Playing games
Watching videos
Browsing the internet
Completing offers
How great is that?
When you do these tasks, you’ll be rewarded with points that are called SB. You can then use your points to get money sent right to your PayPal account, cash on a Visa card, or gift cards.
There are lots of different gift card options available as well.
You can find gift cards for lots of retailers who sell toys, such as:
Amazon
Walmart
Target
So, basically, you get free money or gift cards you can use to get toys at no cost!
7. Share your opinion for free cash to spend on toys
Survey websites will pay you for sharing your opinion.
Simple, right?
Signing up is totally free too. So, this is a great way to make some extra cash that you can use to buy toys.
Most survey sites will give you points that you can exchange for money or gift cards.
Here are some awesome survey sites to sign up to:
Vindale Research
LifePoints
Pinecone Research
You can use this cash you make from surveys to get toys cheaper or completely free!
8. Browse the free section on Letgo
Letgo is a website where people can buy and sell stuff locally. While it is a place where people can buy and sell stuff, Letgo also provides a free section.
You may be able to find free toys on there if you have a browse through.
There’s also an app available too:
Download the Letgo app for Android devices here.
Download the Letgo app for iOS devices here.
9. Get paid for trying new apps
You could make some extra cash and use it to get toys for free by trying out apps.
These apps will pay you when you test out new apps:
AppBounty: Desktop and Android
Appdown: Desktop, iOS and Android
Whaff Rewards: iOS and Android
AppKarma: Android
FeaturePoints: Android
All you need to do to get paid is install apps on your phone. You don’t even need to keep these apps on your phone for long to get paid.
Use the money you make to get toys at a discount or even for free.
10. Use coupon sites for money to spend on toys
Buy toys using coupons, and you could get a huge discount. Using coupons in general for shopping is awesome too, as you can put aside the money you save and use it to buy toys for free.
There are lots of coupons available online for Amazon, Walmart, and plenty of other places that sell kid’s stuff.
Here are some coupon sites that we’d recommend:
Rakuten (Formerly Ebates)
RetailMeNot
Coupons.com
11. Get money back when you shop for toys through cashback websites
You can actually make money the next time you shop with cashback websites.
Cashback sites give you back a percentage of what you spend.
You could get anywhere from 1% to 70% or more cashback.
This means if a site offered you 20% cashback, you’d get $4 back if you spent $20.
So, you can get a big discount on toys. Or you can wait for your cashback to add up and use that money to get toys at no cost!
Here are some cashback websites to try:
Mr.Rebates
TopCashBack
Pennyful
12. Automatically save money on toys with browser extensions
Did you know that you could automatically save money when you’re shopping for toys online?
How great would that be?
Just download one of these awesome browser extensions:
Wikibuy
Extrabux
Honey
With these extensions, you can get coupons applied to your order automatically.
I know when shopping online that sometimes coupons don’t work. If you’re in a rush, you don’t really have the time to try loads of different coupons until you find one that works.
What’s great about these extensions is that they will find you coupons that actually work, saving you time and money!
Some also give you cashback!