In the annals of consumer crazes, nothing compares to Beanie Babies. With no advertising or big-box distribution, creator Ty Warner - an eccentric college dropout - become a billionaire in just three years. And it was all thanks to collectors. The end of the craze was just as swift and extremely devastating, with "rare" Beanie Babies deemed worthless as quickly as they'd once been deemed priceless. Bissonnette 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 most extraordinary craze of the 1990s.

The world is full of people telling you how to live your life. Sometimes the advice-givers fall ever-so-slightly short themselves.
Bestselling author Zac Bissonnette has gathered more than seventy-five jaw-dropping gems, including risk-management advice from the man who triggered the world's largest hedge fund collapse and tips from gay-prostitute-patronizing pastor Ted Haggard on how to build a marriage that lasts a lifetime. The result will keep you smiling while you glean all the wisdom you need to build the life you want . . . if only you can follow it better than the people who gave it.
- "When you know what you are talking about, others will follow you, because it's safe to follow you." --Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld, 2006 - "I think the most important thing is restore a sense of idealism and end the cynicism." --future Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, 2002 - "The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuse, that's the day you start to the top." --O.J. Simpson, 1975