The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: The Amazing Story of How America Lost Its Mind over a Plush Toy--and the Eccentric Genius Behind I

＂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.

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.