The Great Beanie Baby Bubble
Zac Bissonnette
  • Published: 3 March 2015
  • ISBN: 9781101606988
  • Imprint: PEN US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble

Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute

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“Fascinating, strange, sad, funny, and entirely engrossing, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble is a smart, engaging book that’s as much about the odd saga of these plush toys as it is about the nature of obsession and desire.”
—SUSAN ORLEAN, author of Rin Tin Tin
 
New York Times bestselling author Zac Bissonnette explores what happened when a $5 stuffed animal took over America and turned a college dropout into a billionaire. Now a major motion picture starring Elizabeth Banks and Zach Galifianakis, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble tells the story of the most extraordinary craze of the 1990s.
 
In the history of consumer crazes, nothing compares to Beanie Babies. With no advertising or big-box distribution, creator Ty Warner – an eccentric college dropout – became a billionaire in just three years. But the end of the fad was just as swift and extremely devastating, with "rare" Beanie Babies deemed worthless as quickly as they'd once been deemed priceless.
 
Bissonnette explains how and why the Beanie Baby craze rose and fell, and explores the rise of ecommerce and eBay. Through first-ever interviews with former Ty Inc. employees, Warner's sister, and the two ex-girlfriends who were by his side as he became the richest man in the history of toys, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble tells the inspiring yet tragic story of one of America's most enigmatic self-made tycoons.
 
Perfect for collectors, investors, and fans of marketing and business books, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble explores the mass hysteria that captivated America.
  • Published: 3 March 2015
  • ISBN: 9781101606988
  • Imprint: PEN US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272
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Also by Zac Bissonnette

A Killing in Costumes
Good Advice from Bad People: Selected Wisdom from Murderers, Stock Swindlers, and Lance Armstrong
How to Be Richer, Smarter, and Better-Looking Than Your Parents
Debt-Free U
See all

Praise for The Great Beanie Baby Bubble

"Equally heartwarming and heartbreaking, this accessible work will captivate."
--Library Journal, Starred review

"Bissonnette (Debt-Free U) does a masterful job of tracing the rise and fall of the Beanie Baby phenomenon of the 1990s . . . This cautionary tale of elevated consumerism, with collectors fretting over what they didn't have rather than taking pleasure in what they did, serves as a useful history lesson for today, told with wit and subtlety."
--Publishers Weekly

"The spectacular story of the strangest speculative bubble there ever was and the man behind it. A must-read for anyone looking to understand how manias start and markets go insane."
--LIAQUAT AHAMED, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Lords of Finance
"Fascinating, strange, sad, funny, and entirely engrossing, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble is a smart, engaging book that's as much about the odd saga of these plush toys as it is about the nature of obsession and desire."
--SUSAN ORLEAN, author of Rin Tin Tin
"In spare, elegant prose, Zac Bissonnette tells the riveting story of how Ty Warner ruthlessly built Beanie Babies into a mania as misguided and regrettable as the 1637 Dutch tulip craze and
mortgage-backed securities in 2008. You won't be able to put this book down."
--WILLIAM D. COHAN, author of Money and Power
"The amazing story of the time the world lost its mind over little beanbag critters named Punchers, Humphrey, and Wingless Quackers. Zac Bissonnette takes us on a journey into the secretive world of the man behind the mania, Ty Warner."
--BILL DEDMAN, coauthor of the bestselling biography Empty Mansions