The Great Beanie Baby Bubble

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble
افزودن به بوکمارک اشتراک گذاری 0 دیدگاه کاربران 4 (1)

Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute

مشارکت: عنوان و توضیح کوتاه هر کتاب را ترجمه کنید این ترجمه بعد از تایید با نام شما در سایت نمایش داده خواهد شد.
iran گزارش تخلف

فرمت کتاب

ebook

تاریخ انتشار

2015

نویسنده

Zac Bissonnette

شابک

9781101606988
  • اطلاعات
  • نقد و بررسی
  • دیدگاه کاربران
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نقد و بررسی

Publisher's Weekly

December 15, 2014
Bissonnette (Debt-Free U) does a masterful job of tracing the rise and fall of the Beanie Baby phenomenon of the 1990s, reminding readers that in 1998, a whopping 64% of Americans owned at least one of the small stuffed animals. Although Beanie Babies creator Ty Warner designed the toys for young children, the likes of Brownie the Bear and Chocolate the Moose soon became frantically sought-after possessions among adults, who viewed them as investments that could only increase in value. Warner, a marketing master, drove up sales by periodically retiring characters, a strategy that kept fanatic collectors buying Beanie Babies in bulk out of fear that supply would dry up. At the height of the craze, the $5 plushies were selling for hundreds of dollars. This cautionary tale of elevated consumerism, with collectors fretting over what they didn’t have rather than taking pleasure in what they did, serves as a useful history lesson for today, told with wit and subtlety.



Kirkus

December 15, 2014
The inside scoop on the rise and fall of the Beanie Baby. Personal finance writer Bissonnette (How to Be Richer, Smarter, and Better-Looking Than Your Parents, 2012, etc.) offers a crisp, investigative and presumably unauthorized biography of creator Ty Warner, 70, and a look at the rise of Beanie Babies and their swiftly ensuing three-year consumer craze. A decade after the height of Beanie mania, the author became intrigued at the lack of an in-depth appraisal of the plush toys and their elusive creator. Warner, who abandoned an unproductive acting career to fastidiously peddle plush cats at toy trade shows, initially created the Beanie Baby toy animals for children in 1993, but they soon morphed into a hobby for obsessed collectors who misguidedly considered their purchase a "long-term investment." Greatly aided by eBay, Ty, Inc.'s profits crested at $3 billion in retail sales in 1998. Following that peak came a slow descent into obscurity as the reclusive billionaire channeled his own cash into the company to keep it afloat. Though never scoring a prized interview with the secretive toy creator, Bissonnette supplements his analysis with copious other interviews. Current and former company employees, collectors, dealers and Warner family members contribute consistently unflattering opinions of the toy entrepreneur, painting the so-called "Steve Jobs of plush" as a calculated businessman obsessed with plastic surgery and a womanizer whose deceptive "stage persona" and uncanny product instinct generated millions. Worse are the accounts by former girlfriends Patricia Roche and Faith McGowan about their histrionic romances, as well as Warner's sordid relationship with his own father: Much of this material feels gratuitous. The author also includes a jailhouse visit with one collector who resorted to murder over a botched transaction and the details of Warner's recent conviction on tax evasion in 2013. A spicy portrait of a taciturn toy magnate made entertaining with sensationalistic testimonial.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.



Library Journal

Starred review from January 1, 2015

In relating the tale of reclusive billionaire Ty Warner, the richest man in U.S. toy history, Bissonnette (Debt-Free U) contacted Warner himself. To maintain his privacy, Warner suggested Bissonnette interview others. The narratives here from relatives, ex-girlfriends, employees, and clients depict a college dropout and struggling actor from a dysfunctional family begrudgingly becoming a salesman at Dakin Inc. to make ends meet. Warner founded Ty Inc. in 1986 and its iconic line, Beanie Babies, in 1993. Described as persuasive, flirtatious, and ruthless, Warner introduced "poseable" plush to a market dominated by technological gadgets. He "controlled the fad" by primarily selling to gift stores, limiting their supply to create scarcity, announcing retirements to spur sales, and declining licensing deals to prevent "prostituting the brand." There are compelling accounts of mothers flipping Beanie Babies--one bought a $2,000 set from Germany and sold them in Illinois for $300,000--and an unfortunate murder over a bad deal. Bissonnette ably illustrates how market saturation, mostly from eBay sales, led Warner to his latest role as a hotel magnate. VERDICT Equally heartwarming and heartbreaking, this accessible work will captivate fans of the TV series Mr. Selfridge and Brad Stone's The Everything Store, as well as sociology buffs, pop culture enthusiasts, and anyone who has worked in retail.--Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.



Booklist

February 15, 2015
This is not just the story of a greedy, egocentric tycoon on one side and the homemaker-fans that made Beanie Babies one of the hottest, most collectible items in recent years. Thanks to Bissonnette's balanced and thorough reporting, the account of Ty Warner, founder of the Babies, becomes a portrait of a creator obsessed with perfection, making money in a business he loved, in a company built on his dreams. The stars, the author admits, aligned when the Babies arrived in the public's consciousness in the 1990s. The formula appears to be: take an inexpensive but adorable plush animal, the brilliant marketing idea of retiring older animals (thus driving up prices), the growth of eBay, and a group of suburban moms who rallied around the toys to create price lists, articles, magazines, and price guides to create a mania. The movement, in short, gained much momentum without the help of Ty Warner, college dropout, fired toy salesperson, and perennial bachelor. In innumerable interviews, the author reveals Warner as, essentially, a man without a homeand one without much love. Although his recent conviction on tax-evasion charges netted him a light sentence, Warner, in our eyes by the end of the book, becomes a man more to be pitied than envied.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)




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