The Great Beanie Baby Bubble : : Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute

Locations
Call Number: 338.768 Bi
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	338.768 Bi	4-week checkout	On Shelf

The greatest toy show on Earth : no kids allowed -- the lower level -- Selling the dream pets -- Plush dreams -- "You can make a lot of money with a good cat." : Ty Warner -- Business and pleasure -- Patti's last stand -- New beginnings -- Ty's big idea -- A lamb named Lovie -- The first collectors -- The return -- Force multipliers -- Peanut the Royal Blue Elephant -- The $12-per-hour sociology major who made Ty Warner a billionaire -- The efficient market -- The Beanie chase -- Shovel dealers in the Gold Rush -- The point of no return -- Peak -- The feedback loop spins out of control -- Money changes people -- The P.T. Barnum of plush -- Lights out -- Limping into the new millennium -- Faith's problem -- Ty's problem -- Departures -- Endurance -- Exit strategy.
"In the annals of consumer crazes, nothing compares to Beanie Babies. In just three years, collectors who saw the toys as a means of speculation made creator Ty Warner, an eccentric college dropout, a billionaire--without advertising or big-box distribution ... The end of the craze was swift and devastating, with 'rare' Beanie Babies deemed worthless as quickly as they'd once been deemed priceless. Bissonnette draws on hundreds of interviews (including a visit to a man who lives with his 40,000 Ty products and an in-prison interview with a guy who killed a coworker over a Beanie Baby debt) for the first book on the strangest speculative mania of all time"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Chronicle of a Bubble submitted by valerieclaires on July 28, 2015, 9:51pm The Great Beanie Baby Bubble chronicles the meteoric rise and crashing fall of Beanie Babies, the small fluff-and-bean-stuffed toys popular in the mid-to-late 1990's. I had a few beanies myself, but I had no idea of the story behind them.

Bissonnette characterizes Ty Warner as an egotistical boss whose need for control both propelled the small plushes to stardom and insane collecting and caused the downfall of the company. Though Ty wouldn't speak to the author for the book, testimony and conversations with former employees, jilted lovers, and those close to Ty do paint a broader picture of his life. The inside knowledge of how the company was run and how decisions were made rounds out what happened behind the scenes of Ty, and information from and about several major Beanie Baby collectors gives light to the development of the craze and the sometimes unfriendly relationship between the company and the collectors.

At times, the story makes it hard to keep track of the timeline. Bissonnette jumps back and forth in the chronology of the story, discussing something from Ty's childhood, then jumping into his work at Ty, going back to a job he had before owning his own plush company, and then talking about what has happened since the glory days. The number of sources in the book is large, but having information from so many people involved in all facets of the Beanie Baby craze shows a more complete picture, leaving the reader with a better idea of what really happened with Beanie Babies, how they came about, and why they ultimately failed.

This book is interesting not only for the nostalgic 90's kid who remembers their own collection of beanies, but also for the mothers who wouldn't let their kids near a Beanie Baby for fear that dirty hands and playtime would ruin the plush's value. It's also an interesting study of one of the most successful fads of all time, and compelling for readers who enjoy business books and pop culture.

Interesting read submitted by SMHred12 on June 30, 2023, 12:25pm Took awhile to hook me into keep reading, but a well told story that many might not know about the story of Ty Warner and his rise to fame and fortune. A lot of good facts and explanations about how the world of collecting in general operates and how that helped make something kinda unremarkable, a stuffed beanie toy, into a craze. I came away thinking Ty Warner’s psychological idiosyncrasies just made him lucky in this particular business, rather than some marketing genius.