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Book Cover for: The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: The Amazing Story of How America Lost Its Mind Over a Plush Toy--And the Eccentric Genius Behind It, Zac Bissonnette

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: The Amazing Story of How America Lost Its Mind Over a Plush Toy--And the Eccentric Genius Behind It

Zac Bissonnette

Paperback
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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.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Portfolio
  • Publish Date: Mar 15th, 2016
  • Pages: 272
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.40in - 0.80in - 0.70lb
  • EAN: 9781591848004
  • Categories: • Corporate & Business History - General• Industries - Retailing• Teddy Bears & Stuffed Animals

About the Author

Zac Bissonnette wrote two acclaimed bestsellers before his twenty-fourth birthday: Debt-Free U and How to Be Richer, Smarter, and Better-Looking Than Your Parents. He has contributed to the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe Magazine, the Daily Beast, and Bloomberg, among others. He lives in New York City.

Praise for this book

"Enlightening.... He writes fluently and has structured his tale artfully.... Most impressive of all, Mr. Bissonnette refuses to gratuitously trumpet his story as an emblematic critique of American culture, human folly or entrepreneurial greed--though of course it is all that and more."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Thanks to Bissonnette's balanced and thorough reporting, the account of Ty Warner, founder of the Babies, becomes a portrait of a creator obsessed with perfection, making money in a business he loved, in a company built on his dreams."
--Booklist

"Bissonnette offers a crisp, investigative and presumably unauthorized biography of creator Ty Warner, 70, and a look at the rise of Beanie Babies and their swiftly ensuing three-year consumer craze... A spicy portrait of a taciturn toy magnate made entertaining with sensationalistic testimonial."
--Kirkus Reviews

"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 Prize-winning author of Lords of Finance

"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