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The Great Beanie Baby Bubble
It’s all about the eyes. If you want to move plush, you need to get the eyes right.
Ty Warner, who created Beanie Babies, was controlling and meticulous. In addition to obsessing over the toy’s eyes, he selected every cut of fabric and every tuft of hair that adorned his stuffed animals.
From furry beginnings, Beanie Babies became a fad, then a craze, then a bubble. Like all bubbles, it eventually burst. What started as a children’s toy, ended with speculation. Some profited. Many lost. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Zac Bissonnette’s book The Great Beanie Baby Bubble details the rise and fall of Beanie Babies and their creator. When I first read the book in 2018, it felt dated. eBay was dominant. The dotcom boom was on. So was an impeachment. Reread through the lens of 2021 — stonks, SPACs, another impeachment — it feels prescient.
Brush a Head to Get Ahead
Warner founded Ty, his eponymous toy company, in 1985. It was a terrible time for plush. The industry was well past its prime. Yet Warner was undeterred. He wanted to create cuter, softer stuffed animals. Through fastidiousness, hard work, salesmanship, and lots of grooming, he succeeded.
Warner stumbled into Beanie Babies. Initially his toys were full sized. As Bissonnette recounts, Warner…
