Japanese Gachapon
I'll start here, by far Pokemon and Sanrio dominate the Gacha selection. But Gacha are so popular it doesn't even matter, shops dedicated to just hundreds of Gacha machine, each machine holding 70-120 capsules depending on ball size. Unlike store shelves every machine can have a unique item in them without needing doubles. So even if half are Pokemon and Sanrio you'll still have tons to choose from.
Now the cost can vary, this both depends on where you are in the world and the toy itself. I've seen highly detailed Gacha at $13 a play, or specialty Gacha for up to 50,000yen a play. At the same time, in Japan you can find common Gacha for 200yen a play. (For reference for a long time 100yen was usually $1 though more recently it's $.50-.70.)
As a vendor there are different challenges to Everything has pros and cons let's start with the good: the mostly plastic machines are lightweight, easy for a small girl like me to move so they're easy to take to events. They come in lots of colors, old Tomy like mine are lemon yellow and sky blue, newer Tomy are sky blue and white, while Bandai has had a number of cominations of white, dark blue, and red. Plastic makes them cheap to produce so smaller brands come in every color of the rainbow. The bigger toys are appealing to more then just kids and make them more of an attraction.
Now the bad, they're plastic, they scratch easy, don't hold up to abuse and people unaware that the coins drop into a metal container try to break into them until they hit the metal. The higher price point toy makes tokens pretty much mandatory. I've tried with quarters, you can alter the prize disk to make it require more turns giving me $0.25, $0.50. $1. $1.25, $2.50, and $5 price points but came to find people just get confused when they have to turn it more then once for a prize.
And then there's importing the capsules. Negotiating prices, if they'll be capped or not, getting it at release or someone's left overs. It's not uncommon for a "lot" of capsules to be as few as 20. Then once you think you've got everything covered and negotiated you get hit with shipping and customs. Pop sheets usually have the yen cost on them and more then once I've had a google-equipped shopper telling me "This says MSRP is 200yen so it should be $1.50, why is it $4?" The answer is simple, I've got my last shipment receipt beside me, I paid $980 in shipping after paying an average of $3 per toy and then had to buy capsules to put them in. Not to mention, I was at a convention so I have to take renting a truck and gas into account. But for someone whose got them in front of a store those costs will be different. The point is the further that capsule has to travel to get to you the more it will cost.
American Capsule Toys
These can also be called gumball machines, as vendors no matter what was in the machine we called them gumball machines. Now the 2 most popular toys for a long time have been Monkeyin' Around and 'Bling'. At times the Monkeyin' Around set can be impossible to find and vendors fight over claiming them while the 'bling' is basically any fake gaudy jewelry or teeth.
I've never seen a gumball machine over $1. 1-4 quarters is all we get and in a lot of ways that has dictated the huge difference between the American and Japanese capsule offerings. While the claw game is big enough to house a bill reader or card slot the Gumball machine has no room for one. Between that and the odd tax setup made specifically due to the lack of coins in USD the quality of toys are capped (pun intended) at $1.
Now then, as a vendor, the good! They're metal, they hold up to abuse, they're hard to break into. They can be left absolutely anywhere with little worry so long as they're chained down. The bright candy apple red is eye catching, but it can also be so common your brain ignores them. They can rail mount, so you can rack 20 in the same space as only 8 gacha. Toys are easy to get a hold of, though variety is less and they're a million times cheaper. I can spend $85 trying to get a small lot of 20 toys BEFORE shipping, but I can get a 250 piece lot of American Capsules for $85 AFTER shipping and capped. That's a big difference in profit margin, at the same time you have peddle 250 of the things instead of of 20.
Downside, they're metal and often the windows are glass. It makes them REALLY heavy, for me I cannot haul 50 gumball machines on my own and do setup. You need a team and a toolset. Setting up a rack is like working out with a bench press. The prize disk cannot be changed so for a 1/2in, 1in, or 2in capsule you need all different machines, food catch for candy or gum is also available but then you have to keep them clean. And at this point a is a quarter of M&MS like 2 pieces?
And my biggest gripe, the community. This is also likely why I got an email about this - the 'gumball' vending community is like slumlords. This isn't entirely their fault, like mentioned previously coins are big in USD, and as time goes cash in general is being pushed out. I know so many people that don't ever use cash, even at conventions any vendor that doesn't have a card swiper is at a huge disadvantage. This means the best places to put coin machines are in poor areas, around people who use cash, save every penny and aren't likely to have big credit cards. This has probably also lent to the stagnation in toy offering. Overall, the community around the gumballachine as a vendor feels scummy and I don't like it.
All in all? Both have ups and downs, Gacha toys are nicer, gumball toys are cheaper and so on. Personally, the light weight machines and community I enjoyed that made the choice for me.
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