Starting with a few Beanie-crazed housewives on a cul-de-sac in Naperville, Illinois, Beanie Babies became the first viral craze of the Internet era. A single Beanie Baby sold for $10,000 in 1998, and on eBay the animals comprised 10% of all sales. More than any other consumer good in history, Beanie Babies were carried to the height of success by a collective belief that their values would always rise.
Just as strange as the mass hysteria, was the man behind it. From the day he started in the toy industry, after dropping out of college, Ty Warner devoted all his energy to creating what he hoped would be the most perfect stuffed animals the world had ever seen. Through first-ever interviews with former Ty Inc. employees, Warner’s sister, and the two ex-girlfriends who were by his side as he achieved the American dream, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble tells the inspiring yet tragic story of one of America’s most enigmatic self-made tycoons, who most recently made news when he pleaded guilty in one of the largest offshore tax evasion cases in US history.