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mallorykidd's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
Fascinating as someone who grew up just a kid who loved beanie babies. I had no idea the obsession was driven by adults. And how Ty Warner might have been his own downfall.
However, especially listening to this book, it was like 3 hours too long and sometimes felt like the choice to tell some facts not chronologically didn’t hit like the author wanted them to and just made it a little confusing.
However, especially listening to this book, it was like 3 hours too long and sometimes felt like the choice to tell some facts not chronologically didn’t hit like the author wanted them to and just made it a little confusing.
tac107's review against another edition
5.0
What a fascinating read.
You get a little economics, a little romance, a little tax evasion drama, and 240 pages of balls to the wall insanity about collectible stuffed toys. As someone who had a LOT of these as a kid and has fond memories of getting them cheaply at the grocery store, this was total madness. It was like finding out that your dad was secretly in the mafia. Very readable and fun.
You get a little economics, a little romance, a little tax evasion drama, and 240 pages of balls to the wall insanity about collectible stuffed toys. As someone who had a LOT of these as a kid and has fond memories of getting them cheaply at the grocery store, this was total madness. It was like finding out that your dad was secretly in the mafia. Very readable and fun.
taketwolu's review against another edition
This non-fiction takes us into the deep dive of the dark side of beanie babies. From a wild, eccentric CEO (Ty Warner), to the mass craze surrounding beanie babies, we witness the rise and fall of this pop cultural moment.
After dropping out of college, Ty’s sales skills launched him into beanie babies, BUT, things only picked up after some white suburban soccer moms started collecting them. As popularity rose, Ty began to create an arbitrary bubble of supply and demand with “rare” or “retiring” products to drive sales and people went nuts. Unfortunately, the bubble popped as people struggled to keep up with new releases, complete collections, and deal with lies. Worth plummeted, Ty got a reality check, and beanie babies are a thing of the past. Overall, this was fascinating and oddly satisfying to read / learn about??
tron's review against another edition
5.0
I received a free copy through the First Reads program.
I remember vividly how, in my opinion, the country collectively lost it's mind over these bean bag animals. This book does a fantastic job at dissecting the craze from beginning to end - the author really spells out how each piece of the puzzle had to appear in the right place and the right time, and why we probably won't see anything like it ever again. Well-researched (even without input from Ty Warner himself) and compelling throughout.
I remember vividly how, in my opinion, the country collectively lost it's mind over these bean bag animals. This book does a fantastic job at dissecting the craze from beginning to end - the author really spells out how each piece of the puzzle had to appear in the right place and the right time, and why we probably won't see anything like it ever again. Well-researched (even without input from Ty Warner himself) and compelling throughout.
catchthesewings's review against another edition
3.0
I have to round down on this one, because it’s a really interesting book about a really narrow topic. It grabbed me right away, and held my attention the whole way through. As someone who knew absolutely nothing about the beanie baby craze, I soaked up every detail about the toys’ rise and fall. The book is one half analysis of Ty Warner and his life; the other half is focused on the speculative bubble and the seeks to answer the question, “Why beanie babies?” Overall, I think the book succeeds in presenting both. Ty Warner comes off as a sad, but ruthless person. His need to control everyone and everything around him, as well as a fear of serious commitment, bring him success, but at the cost of anyone to share it with. The only looks at his life are presented by the people who got closest to him. Without his own perspective, it’s hard to get a full portrait of what was going on in his head. Meanwhile, the author breaks down how a culture convinced itself that stuffed animals were worth thousands of dollars in investments. Even though I knew how it would end, I nonetheless found myself rooting for the investors against history. Overall, I think pretty much anyone could enjoy this book. It changed the way I looked at stuffed animals on bookstore shelves.
motherofallbats's review against another edition
4.0
This was a ride from start to finish. I was around 6/7 years old during the height of the Beanie craze - old enough to be obsessed with them, but also young enough to be shielded from the craziness surrounding them (the fact that I had sane parents who treated them like, ya know, toys for me instead of an investment definitely helped in the latter department). I used tag protectors, of course, because that was just what you did, and I always kept a look out *just in case* our little mall gift shop happened to get a Royal Blue Peanut just lying around, but first and foremost I was just a little kid who loved plushies. Which, as I've learned, was a shockingly small amount of their fanbase.
I've heard a lot of classic Beanie mania stories in the years since - the divorcing couple who had to split up their collection in front of a judge, the guy who killed his coworker over a Beanie deal - so this book wasn't necessarily as childhood-ruining as it had the potential to be. That being said there were still some curveball moments in here (the realization that my beloved Beanie Baby Handbook was not only unofficial, but written by a pair of borderline con artists who are very ill-regarded in the Beanie collecting world still has me reeling a little). There's also a ton of good information about the plush industry in general and other fad bubbles in history that really help to tie the story together. The book's organization can get a little weird (it feels like the author started to do a "where they are now" closing section that somehow ballooned into four or five chapters) and there are a lot of pre-Ty Inc. details about Ty Warner that are glossed over that I would have like more detail about. But overall still a fascinating read.
I've heard a lot of classic Beanie mania stories in the years since - the divorcing couple who had to split up their collection in front of a judge, the guy who killed his coworker over a Beanie deal - so this book wasn't necessarily as childhood-ruining as it had the potential to be. That being said there were still some curveball moments in here (the realization that my beloved Beanie Baby Handbook was not only unofficial, but written by a pair of borderline con artists who are very ill-regarded in the Beanie collecting world still has me reeling a little). There's also a ton of good information about the plush industry in general and other fad bubbles in history that really help to tie the story together. The book's organization can get a little weird (it feels like the author started to do a "where they are now" closing section that somehow ballooned into four or five chapters) and there are a lot of pre-Ty Inc. details about Ty Warner that are glossed over that I would have like more detail about. But overall still a fascinating read.