{"product_id":"book-bhid","title":"The Great Beanie Baby Bubble","description":"\u003cb\u003eA bestselling journalist delivers the never-before-told story of the plush animal craze that became the tulip mania of the 1990s\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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. Beanie Babies were ten percent of eBay’s sales in its early days, with an average selling price of $30—six times the retail price. At the peak of the bubble in 1999, Warner reported a personal income of $662 million—more than Hasbro and Mattel combined.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe end of the craze was swift and devastating, with “rare” Beanie Babies deemed worthless as quickly as they’d once been deemed priceless.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBissonnette 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.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49334467494192,"sku":"BDbhid","price":17.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/147422-bhid-Square.jpg?v=1733900822","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-bhid","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}