🧸 Beanie Babies: The Cutest Boom, Bubble & Bust | 35

Summary

The Best Idea Yet: Beanie Babies – The Cutest Boom, Bubble & Bust | Episode 35 Summary

Release Date: June 10, 2025

In Episode 35 of Wondery’s The Best Idea Yet, hosts Nick Martell and Jack Crevici Kramer delve into the enchanting yet tumultuous history of Beanie Babies. This detailed exploration uncovers the strategic maneuvers, bold risks, and charismatic personalities that propelled these plush toys from modest beginnings to a global frenzy, ultimately leading to one of the most iconic economic bubbles in recent history.

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Introduction: Navigating Economic Bubbles

Nick Martell opens the conversation by reminiscing about various economic bubbles they've witnessed over the years:

"Think back to our youth... Y2K, the dot-com bubble, pets.com, laundry.com, fishfood.com all." [00:10]

He continues, drawing parallels to less traditional bubbles, setting the stage for the story of Beanie Babies—a product that mastered the art of perceived scarcity to skyrocket in demand.

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Ty Warner’s Early Days and Founding Ty Inc.

The episode introduces Ty Warner, the eccentric and visionary salesman who would become synonymous with Beanie Babies. Starting in the 1980s, Ty Warner worked for Dakin, a stuffed toy company, where his flair for sales and unique personality made him a standout performer:

"Ty's arrogance and main character energy doesn't go over well with his colleagues. But as long as his sales numbers are strong, his bosses at Dakin don't care." [08:12]

After being fired for selling competing toys on the side, Ty refuses to apologize or regret his actions. Instead, he channels his passion into founding his own company, Ty Inc., amidst a challenging economic climate marked by high inflation and unemployment.

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Introducing Beanie Babies: From Struggle to Innovation

In 1993, Ty officially launches Beanie Babies, introducing characters like Legs the Frog and Squealer the Pig. Initially, sales are sluggish despite Ty’s aggressive sales tactics. The turning point comes with the involvement of Lena Trivedi, a sociology graduate and telemarketer for Ty Inc., who introduces two pivotal ideas:

1. Personalized Tag Poems: Lena suggests adding poems and birth dates to each Beanie Baby’s heart-shaped tag, giving each toy a unique backstory. For example:

   "Stripes was never fierce nor strong, so with tigers he didn't get along. Jungle life was hard to get by. So he came to his friends at Ty, born on 6/11/1995." [21:43]

   This humanizes the toys, fostering emotional connections with consumers.

2. Early Online Presence: Despite the infancy of the internet in 1995, Lena pioneers one of the first business-to-consumer websites for Beanie Babies. This innovative approach not only boosts sales but also integrates Beanie Babies into the burgeoning e-commerce landscape, with eBay playing a significant role in the secondary market.

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Strategic Scarcity: Driving Demand Through Limited Supply

Ty Warner employs several savvy marketing strategies to create a sense of urgency and scarcity around Beanie Babies:

• Limited Supply: Restricting the number of Beanie Babies each store could purchase heightens demand. For instance:

  "Ty limits stores to just 36 of each Beanie Baby character per month." [28:21]

• Rotational Releases: Regularly introducing and retiring certain Beanie Babies keeps consumers perpetually eager to purchase the latest release.

• Retirement Strategy: By retiring certain Beanie Babies, Ty instills a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) among buyers. This tactic is encapsulated when Ty announces:

  "At 11:59pm on December 31, 1999, all Beanie Babies will be retired." [34:05]

These strategies not only drive initial sales but also bolster the secondary market, where collectors could flip Beanie Babies for substantial profits.

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The Internet and eBay’s Role: Amplifying the Phenomenon

The advent of the internet and platforms like eBay were instrumental in the Beanie Babies craze. By 1997, eBay was auctioning $500 million worth of Beanie Babies, surpassing Tye Inc.'s primary sales. This symbiotic relationship fueled both the primary and secondary markets, embedding Beanie Babies deeply into internet culture.

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The Bubble Peaks: Insatiable Demand and Soaring Sales

By the late 1990s, Beanie Babies reached unprecedented heights:

"In one year from 1995 to 1996, sales for Tye Inc. went from $25 million to around $250 million. By 1998, they were at $1.3 billion." [32:14]

Two-thirds of Americans reportedly owned a Beanie Baby, driven by both emotional attachment and speculative investment. Collaborations with giants like McDonald's, where special Beanie Babies were included in Happy Meals, further entrenched the toys in popular culture.

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The Bubble Bursts: Overproduction and Market Realization

Despite meticulous strategies, the Beanie Babies bubble was unsustainable. Ty Warner's aggressive expansion led to overproduction, and consumers began to realize that the sky-high prices in the secondary market were unsustainable. Key factors that caused the bubble to burst include:

• Arbitrage Awareness: As information became readily available online, buyers recognized the inflated resale values were not sustainable.

• Overlapping Supply: Ty’s release of 24 new Beanie Babies at once and the eventual decision to stop retiring certain toys disrupted the perceived scarcity.

• Changing Consumer Behavior: The initial emotional and speculative buying gave way to a realization that the investment potential was a mirage.

By the early 2000s, sales plummeted by over 90% from their peak, leading to a rapid deflation of the Beanie Babies market.

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Aftermath and Lessons Learned

Post-bubble, Ty Warner emerged wealthier but more reclusive, grappling with legal issues and a tarnished reputation. Conversely, Lena Trivedi capitalized on her success, transitioning into a successful marketer and software engineer.

Key Takeaways:

1. The Buzz Lightyear Effect: Assigning human-like characteristics and backstories to products can foster deep emotional connections, driving consumer obsession.

   "These little touches, they made these toys feel like more than just stuffed animals. They had identities, they had lives of their own." [38:18]

2. Importance of Idea Sharing: Lena’s innovative ideas highlight the value of fresh perspectives from all levels within an organization.

   "An idea not shared is a missed promotion." [38:54]

3. Sustainability of Scarcity Strategies: While perceived scarcity can drive demand, overreliance on such tactics without sustainable growth models can lead to eventual market collapse.

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Best Facts Yet: Beyond the Bubble

The episode also shares intriguing anecdotes about Ty Warner's domineering business tactics and quirky legal battles, such as:

• Legal Warnings in Catalogs: Ty’s early toy catalogs included outrageous legal disclaimers threatening the ownership of souls for copying designs.

  "Warning, if anyone dare copy our creative designs and patents without written permission, ownership of your eternal Soul passes to us." [40:01]

• Trademark Disputes: Legal pressures from figures like Jerry Garcia affected the value and perception of certain Beanie Babies.

  "When Ty renamed their bear Garcia to Peace, the value of the original Garcia Bears shot up." [40:34]

These stories underscore the complexities and controversies behind Ty Warner’s Beanie Babies empire.

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Conclusion: The Legacy of Beanie Babies

The Best Idea Yet concludes by reflecting on the enduring impact of Beanie Babies, emphasizing the emotional connections and innovative marketing strategies that made them a cultural phenomenon. Despite the eventual bust, Beanie Babies remain a testament to how creativity, strategic scarcity, and emotional marketing can create one of the most memorable product booms in history.

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Notable Quotes:

• "The best companies and the smartest bosses are the ones who listen to fresh ideas from anyone at any level." — Nick Martell [39:23]

• "Ty turned the toys into companions. And that emotional connection helped spark the obsession." — Jack Crevici Kramer [38:41]

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of Episode 35, offering listeners a vivid portrayal of how Beanie Babies became a phenomenon through innovative strategies and charismatic leadership, ultimately serving as a cautionary tale of economic bubbles.

Transcript

[Nick Martell]

Wondery subscribers can listen to the best idea yet, early and ad free right now.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

[Nick Martell]

Wondery. I don't want to date ourselves here, Jack, but impressively, or maybe not impressively, we've lived through a lot of bubbles, man. Think back to our youth.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Y2K, the.com bubble, pets.com, laundry.com, fishfood.com all.

[Nick Martell]

Right, so there you survived that first bubble. But then a few years later, we got the 2008 housing bubble that was.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Much more painful for us because looking for jobs after college was rough. Because of the subprime housing bubble, the.

[Nick Martell]

Guy who read your resume was laid off the next day. It was not a pretty situation if you were graduating right then.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Not to mention the NFT bubble and the meme coin bubble that we're currently in.

[Nick Martell]

And Jack, remember when we were kids, one of the biggest, most notorious bubbles in economic history? We're not talking 17th century Dutch tulips or that crypto token, NFT. Your buddy Timmy keeps on pitching.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

We're talking about one product that perfected the art of creating demand through perceived scarcity. At least for a while.

[Nick Martell]

This was a cuddly bubble, one made of fabric, velvet and black beaded eyeballs.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Supporting characters include Legs the Frog, Squealer the Pig, and Pinchers the lobster. Because today, we're diving headfirst into a bargain bin of cute critters to bring you the story of Beanie Babies. A Beanie Baby is a small stuffed animal that fits in the palm of your hand. You almost feel like the Beanie Baby is a little person.

[Nick Martell]

Beanie Babies, they are small, they are soft, and they are full of beans.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Plastic pellets, actually.

[Nick Martell]

Fair point, Jack. But they were also at the beating heart of the biggest toy craze ever. In 1998, the height of Beanie Baby mania, Beanie Baby's maker, Tye Inc. Claimed to have made $700 million in profit. If true, that would be more than Mattel and Hasbro's profits for that year combined.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And that's just in the primary market, because Tye Inc. Was selling those Beanie babies for just $5 each. But collectors were flipping them for hundreds or thousands of dollars on a brand new thing called the Internet.

[Nick Martell]

This mid-90s beanie bubble coincided with the rise of the worldwide web. Tracking down a rare Claude the Crab. It may be the reason your mom signed on to AOL for the very first time.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

EBay, the first major e commerce company had its first major moment thanks to that online Beanie trading frenzy.

[Nick Martell]

And at the center of all of this was a mysterious eccentric salesman named Ty Warner. Part soft toy scarface, part plushy P.T. barnum. And while the Beanie Baby craze saw thousands of people lose their minds and millions of dollars, Ty Warner came away from it with over $5 billion.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But the beanie Baby boom bubble and eventual bust is a textbook economic tale worth snuggling up with.

[Nick Martell]

Today. We'll tell you how the Buzz Lightyear effect can spark deep conn consumers and products.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And why you need to speak up about your best ideas, even if you're just the summer intern.

[Nick Martell]

And how selling my first edition Bucky the Beaver Beanie Baby in 1998 for zero dollars. Yeah, true story. Was the worst financial decision of my life.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

You could have had a yacht, man. You could have had a yacht.

[Nick Martell]

Yeties. We've been waiting to tell this story for 28 years.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Here's why Beanie Babies is the best idea yet.

[Nick Martell]

From Wondery and T Boy. I'm Nick Martell.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And I'm Jack Crevice Kra.

[Nick Martell]

And this is the best idea yet. The untold origin stories of the products.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

You'Re obsessed with and the bold risk takers who made them go viral. I got that feeling again Something familiar, but new. We got it coming to you. I got that feeling again. They changed the game in one move. Here's how they broke all the room up. This episode of the Best Idea yet is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Amazon.

[Nick Martell]

Shopping on Amazon is one of the easiest ways to streamline your shopping so you can get time back to do the things you actually want to do. Like listening to this podcast.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Save the Everyday with deals from Amazon.

[Nick Martell]

My name is TJ Raphael. I'm the host of Liberty Lost, a new podcast about who gets to be a mother and the control of young women hidden behind the veil of faith. Follow Liberty Lost on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. A white Rolls Royce, silver Shadow glides up to a hotel entrance. The door opens and out steps a man. He's in his mid-30s, but he has a youthful elf like aura. What stands out, though, is his fur coat, his top hat, and decaying that he starts twirling as soon as he springs onto the sidewalk like he just stepped out of a 1920s gangster flick. He's got a briefcase in his hand. Maybe he's about to make some kind of shady backroom deal. Except when he flips open the case, it's not filled with cash or stolen jewels. It's crammed with stuffed toys.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This is Ty Warner, and he's not your typical toy salesman. And I don't just mean because of his wardrobe. In 1980, where our story begins, he's pulling in six figures when the median US household income was around $20,000. Tai's making well over $1 million in today's money, all from selling stuffed animals to toy shops.

[Nick Martell]

But, Jack, it's not just the money that Tai loves this guy. He's about the attention. And he's realized something pretty important. Being the most flamboyant guy in his sales district makes him unforgettable, and that makes him very, very good at selling stuff.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And honestly, that tracks with his past.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah, because he's always wanted to be center stage, Literally. Before the Rolls Royce and the fur coats, he was an aspiring actor. He grew up in Chicago, spent a year studying drama at Kalamazoo College, but he dropped out and moved to Hollywood to make it big in the movies. Instead, though, Tai waited tables, parked cars, even sold vacuum cleaners door to door, and after five years of rejection, packed it in and headed back home to chi town.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

That's when he lands a sales job at Dakin, a company that sells stuffed toys. You probably haven't heard of Dakin, but they were big from the 1960s to the early 80s. Their standout product is a line called Dream Pets.

[Nick Martell]

I'm looking at the picture now, Jack. Dream pets are like a velveteen covered stuffed animal. They're colorful, dare I say, even a bit trippy, Like a cabbage patch kid who got stuck at Woodstock for too long. They look heav they are because their stuffing is made of sawdust and wood chips, literally. And it's packed so tightly that these things are basically rock solid. They're less of a bedtime snuggle, more of a makeshift weapon against nighttime intruders.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But these zany looking, brightly colored bears, turtles, octopi and tigers, they suit Ty's sales pitch. His over the top personality, honed in Hollywood, grabs his customers attention every time. Let me tell you my favorite story about when Ty was selling vacuums door to door. As soon as the homeowner would open their door, Ty would throw a handful of dirt onto the floor in front of them, like inside their home on the hardwood floor, and then immediately vacuum it up with the vacuum that he was trying to sell.

[Nick Martell]

The one vacuum sale was worth the 50% of the time the homeowner calls the police.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But Ty has another skill. He has a unique talent. That his toy shop clients love. Ty has an almost supernatural ability to know which toys are going to be hits.

[Nick Martell]

This, along with his tenacity, means that he can close more deals than anyone else at Dakin.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

In fact, Ty makes more in a month selling to toy stores than he did in a year as an actor. Some years he's even earning more than Dakin's CEO is. I mean, Ty missed out on his.

[Nick Martell]

Chance to join the Hollywood brat pack, but now he's got a starring role at a top toy company. Not too shabby.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Unfortunately, though, the fame goes to his head. Ty's arrogance and main character energy doesn't go over well with his colleagues. But as long as his SAL numbers are strong, his bosses at Dakin don't care. Until Tai crosses a line.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah. In 1980, after more than a decade, as Dakin's deal closer, one of Ty's customers tips off the company. Turns out Ty isn't just selling Dakin toys. He's selling his own plush line on the side.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

We don't know where Tai was sourcing these toys or even if he was hand stuffing them himself. But that didn't matter to Dakin when they found out.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah, side hustling his own toys that compete with his employer. And not even My Little pony could forgive that. So Ty's bosses, yeah, they fire him. But does Ty regret it? Apologize and never, ever, ever pinky swear, do it again?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Nope. Ty doubles down and starts his own plush toy company.

[Nick Martell]

But for the first time in his life, the market, it's actually moving against Tai. It's 1980. Inflation spikes, unemployment soars, and Americans, they're more focused on buying milk and bread than teddy bears.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

In just a few months, Ty goes from king of plush to. To having the stuffing knocked out of him. This guy has built his entire life around selling fluffy bears and cuddly monkeys. So struggling to sell these toys, it's bigger than a financial hit for him. It's a full on identity crisis. Without those soft toys, Ty Warner is nothing.

[Nick Martell]

So he does what any exhausted American who got a $1 million bonus last year would do. He flies off to Italy's Amalfi coast for some R and R Italia and Diablo. The scent of lemon trees and sea salt drifts through the air as Ty Warner weaves his way through the winding clifftop alleys of Sorrento, Italy. He came to this small, beautiful shoreline town to clear his head. But despite the Mediterranean sunshine, Tai is still in a funk. But then something catches his eye among the hand stitched Leather purses and delicately shawls. In the markets. He sees a stuffed cat. He picks it up. The fur is soft, almost weightless. It's floppy, not stiff, settling naturally right in the palm of his hand. He presses the paw and he feels tiny plastic pellets shifting about like small little beans. Ty looks down into the cat's glossy, strangely expressive eyes and smiles. He feels his mood left and a new sense of purpose fills his entire body.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Remember, Ty's special power is spotting toy trends before they're toy trends. To the casual shopper, this floppy Italian feline is cute, but nothing special. But Tai sees them differently.

[Nick Martell]

Remember those Dakin dream pets that he used to sell? They were cute, yeah, but basically sawdust crammed into velveteen. They were stiff, they were rigid, more for display than for play. Kind of like a taxidermied animal.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But these cats, they're soft and they're floppy. They bend, slouch and settle into your grip. You can flop them over your shoulder and it feels like they're snuggling with you.

[Nick Martell]

And this is Ty's key insight. These Italian toys are only half filled with stuffing. Typically, doing something halfway would seem the cheap thing to do. But in this case, the half filled toy is actually more satisfying, more engaging, and maybe ironically, even more premium.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

In that moment, Ty sees his future. This could be his chance to outshine his old employer, the guys who fired him.

[Nick Martell]

But Jack, this is the mid-80s, and although the economy's picking up, it is actually a terrible time to launch a new soft toy business.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

In this moment, plastic toys are booming.

[Nick Martell]

That's where the money is.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

There's huge cartoon tie inside, like the Care Bears, the transformers, and he man. And although Barbie launched way back in 1959, she's still riding high, rocking big hair, big shoulder pads and big sails.

[Nick Martell]

But if there is one thing Ty believes in more than these stuffed cats, it's himself. So he puts all the money that he saved up into founding his new toy company, which, true to his ego, he names Ty Inc.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This is probably the first time you're realizing this, but the letters T Y on the heart shaped tag of your beanie baby, that's just the first name of the founder.

[Nick Martell]

His thought position, Ty as a high quality toy brand. His attention to detail, that is what will set him apart from all the mass produced toys out there.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ty is so confident, he leaves Italy and flies straight to Asia to find a production partner. He spends months making sure that every detail of his new line of cats is exactly how he wants them from the color of their ribbons to the precise distance between their eyes. This man is meticulous.

[Nick Martell]

Well, these cats that Ty is making, they're not Beanie Babies yet. They have a similar look, but they're bigger, about the size of a real cat.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Also, unlike the Beanie Babies we know today, they only have plastic beans in their paws. The rest of their bodies are filled with regular toy stuffing cotton. It's just less cotton than other toys use, making them floppier, which Ty likes.

[Nick Martell]

Once Ty finally perfects the cat, he makes one more strategic move. He decides to give the cat a name. A specific name. Now, we'll come back to why that's important in a bit, but in the meantime, he names his prototype toy cat Cashmere after his favorite Led Zeppelin song.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ty has emptied his piggy bank in perfecting and producing these cats. But there's more on the line here than money. These cats are Ty's way of proving to himself and to the world that he is still the best toy salesman on the planet.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah, but one final question, Jack. Is anyone actually gonna buy it?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Let's chat about our presenting sponsor, Amazon Yetis.

[Nick Martell]

A little inside scoop on how Jack and I record the show. We call it Big Tuesdays.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Because here's the thing, we have a daily show as well, the best one yet.

[Nick Martell]

So on Tuesdays, we spend three hours in the studio to record the best.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Idea yet after we already spent two hours recording our daily show beforehand.

[Nick Martell]

Big Tuesdays, they remind us of the double sessions we used to do as athletes. You gotta hydra.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

You also gotta be efficient. So we don't have time to run an errand for milk or hit up the pharmacy for cough drops.

[Nick Martell]

That's why shopping for everyday essentials on Amazon is part of our daily and weekly routine.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

As we realize we need something. Pasta, paper towels, light bulbs, Boom. We add it directly into the cart.

[Nick Martell]

Especially on Big Tuesdays. Jack, last week I ordered a microphone on Amazon. I didn't even tell you it was a write off. I figured, what the heck.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Now for the non podcasters listening, you probably got your own version of Big Tuesdays.

[Nick Martell]

A back to back afternoon of meetings. It's the worst. But it happens.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

With Amazon, you don't need to drive anywhere or hit up multiple stores.

[Nick Martell]

Save the everyday with deals from Amazon. There are few experiences more intensely specific in life than an industry. Trade show. Car shows, swimwear shows, even hot sauce shows, where every possible permutation of a particular product is on display and everyone acts as if this is the most important event on the Calendar. Right now we are at a toy trade show down in Atlanta, Georgia where Ty Warner is laser focused. As he sets up his stall, he meticulously plucks the eyebrows of his 10 long haired plush cats. All identical except for their color. A few moments later, the doors swing open and the crowd flows out. Ty shifts instantly from silent perfectionist to magnetic showman. His reserved intensity giving way to a.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Full throttle sales performance.

[Nick Martell]

And Jack, how are we looking over there?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

In the first hour, Ty closes $30,000 in toy sales. That is $500 in toy cats sold every minute.

[Nick Martell]

And Ty, he sees dollar signs. So he works that trade show circuit it hard, trying to take his floppy toys from cute idea to big money. Ty is back, baby. From now on, Ty lives. He breathes and he speaks soft toys.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ty quickly expands his product range. They're still not Beanie Babies as we know them yet, but there's something crucial they all have in common with Beanie Babies. Each of these toys has its own name. There's Wally, Walrus, Freddy Frog, Clover, Cow Peepers the Chick and Hooters the Owl.

[Nick Martell]

Okay, I feel like that one's just on the nose. But still, these are not just funny names. These are a way to give each toy an identity. The strategy here is to make something more for kids to bond with.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

It seems counterintuitive to name each toy, but it's all part of Ty's three step plan. Big move number two is to limit the supply. You might think Ty is eyeing expansion. Like Genghis Khan, he wants to conquer every toy store that he can. That's not the case though. Ty actually refuses to do business with the big stores like Walmart and Toys R Us.

[Nick Martell]

That shocked us because the big money that's in aisle six over at Target, the big box chains have the largest customer base by far. So that's where you want to be.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But Ty does the opposite. He only sells to small mom and pop toy shops. Ty thinks it's worth it because selling to smaller toy stores gives Tai more control.

[Nick Martell]

Ty can build one on one relationships with with each of these owners who then will give him valuable feedback.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And most importantly, he can dictate exactly how the store should display and sell his toys. Ty thinks customer perception is 2/3 of why people love his toys. So he wants to be able to micromanage every detail. And Walmart, they're not going to let them do that.

[Nick Martell]

Now, Jack, there is one more detail in particular that Ty becomes obsessed with. Tai starts enforcing strict limits on how many of each of his toys a store can buy. Because in Tai's years as a salesman, he noticed that people are more likely to buy something if they feel it might run out.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

A shop owner might be planning to buy, let's say, eight toys from Ty. But then Ty tells them, we have a customer limit of 12 per order. You can't order more than that. If he tells you that, Nick, you might be like, oh, damn, I guess I should get 12.

[Nick Martell]

Give us the maximum. We'll take 12. So Ty ramps up the pressure even more. He starts rotating his toy lineup. He cycles toys in and out of availability, which creates an even greater sense of urgency, because if a shopkeeper doesn't grab what they can now, there's no telling if or when that toy will ever be back.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

What Tai's doing here is the true genius of his business empire. He is creating the perception of scarcity.

[Nick Martell]

All right, let's talk numbers here, Jack. Is this strategy paying off for Ty and his bottom line?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Big time? By 1992, sales topped $6 million, and Ty's personal income is over $1 million. So financially, Ty's doing pretty fantastic right now. But guess what? He's just not satisfied with how the business is doing.

[Nick Martell]

Basically thinking, a million dollars is nice, but I want a billion. These toys, they just haven't taken off into the phenomenon the way Ty envisioned yet.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ty wants a smaller, more affordable toy, A way to break into more retailers. His strategy? The $5 toy. Wholesale them for $2.50, with stores selling them at 5 bucks a piece.

[Nick Martell]

And this is Ty's big move number three. Price them at a consistent, nice round number, five bucks a piece. That makes them the perfect pocket money, impulse buy kind of toy. And that is when he introduces this brand new design, starting with a small green frog who he calls Legs. And it's not just the size that sets this frog apart, because with legs, the. It's what's on the inside that counts. Legs has no stuffing inside, only those plastic pellets that feel like beans.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

If Kermit the Frog in a hacky sack made a baby. Yeah, Legs the frog would be it.

[Nick Martell]

Sorry, Miss Piggy. And Jack, we know how Ty works. He doesn't stop there. He sits down and he designs eight more of these toys. We're talking Brownie the Bear, Spot the Dog, Chocolate the Moose Patty, the Platypus, Pinterest, the Lobster Squealer the Pig Splash the Whale Flash the Dolphin. That is quite a starting lineup right there.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And in November 1993, Ty officially introduces Beanie Babies.

[Nick Martell]

But I gotta ask, how does the world react?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The world says.

[Nick Martell]

So. Initial sales of Beanie Babies, they're actually sluggish. Ty tries adding new characters like Ally the alligator, Inky the octopus, Humphrey the camel. But no matter what he does, it's just not working.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Then one day there's a knock on his office door and in walks Lena Trivedi. Lena is in her early 20s, a sociology grad who paid her way through college working as a telemarketer for Tye Inc. And she's about to bring two ideas to the table that are going to help take Beanie Babies from a struggling novelty toy to a cultural phenomenon.

[Nick Martell]

Beanie Babies all come with a heart shaped card tag. On the front it says Tye Inc. And has the logo. And on the inside, the Beanie Baby's name appears, along with space for people to fill in a to and a.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

From Lena's first big idea. Why don't we use those tags to give each Beanie Baby a little extra charisma, a hint of backstory to inspire kids imaginations? Here's her suggestion. Add a poem and a birth date to each and every Beanie.

[Nick Martell]

And then she hits him with one she just whipped up for Stripes the tiger. Jack, could you give us a little rendition of the very first ever Beanie Baby poem?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Stripes was never fierce nor strong, so with tigers he didn't get along. Jungle life was hard to get by. So he came to his friends at Ty, born on 6 11, 1995.

[Nick Martell]

Not exactly Walt Whitman, but we can work with it, man. With that origin poem, Ty's supernatural sense for a viral idea tingles. It is right in line with giving each toy a human like identity. The type of relatable personality that stands out in a commoditized market of mass produced toys. It feels less like a toy and more like a pet.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

So Ty says to Lena, okay, you wrote a good poem. I'm convinced. Now I need you to write a poem for every Beanie Baby. Here's the catch. We have a new shipment of Beanie Babies coming in later this week. So you have to write a poem for each one of them by then.

[Nick Martell]

Well, what does Lena do? She cracks open a case of Red Bull, dips a feathery quill into some ink and cranks out, get this, 86 poems in days.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This was an inflection point. They catapult Beanie Babies into a whole new dimension of sales, by the way. Later, when the bubble really takes off, those tags become an essential part of the product's Value.

[Nick Martell]

In fact, if you have a mint condition legs, the frog, but the tag is bent, well, you've already lost 50% of the resale value right there, which at the peak of the bubble means thousands of lost dollars.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

As for Lima's next idea, she pioneers an entirely new dimension to sell Beanies a website.

[Nick Martell]

Now, we should point out Ty has no idea what Lena's talking about. Lena actually has to lug a desktop computer and one of those giant beige monitors up into Ty's office just to show him this new thing called the Internet.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Remember, it's 1995. At this time, only 1.4% of Americans are online. Most people have no idea what the sign on their keyboards are even for.

[Nick Martell]

Bellina once again confidently stands up in Tai's office in front of his commanding desk and convinces him to let her build a website for Beanie Babies. And this turns out to be one of the first ever business to consumer websites ever built. Lena is an early, early, early adopter.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

One benefit of being so early is that they're easily able to snag www.ty.com. that tie URL goes on every Beanie Baby tag from this day forward. And as sales take off, so do visits to the tie.com website.

[Nick Martell]

Now, Jack, at this point, I feel like we got to put Lena up in the realms of like, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, because the website isn't just a website. She even decides to make it interactive. It features a blog that is run by Lena, although no one calls it a blog back then because the term blog hasn't even been invented yet. And Lena's also inventing something else at the time. She's inventing content marketing, because instead of.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Just listing Kai's products, Lena creates narrative content through the voices of the Beanie Babies themselves. And that drives engagement, which drives more visitors, more interest, and even more sales.

[Nick Martell]

In fact, at its peak, the Beanie Babies website is pulling in over a billion visits a year. A billion. But Jack, hold on to your Bucky the Beaver, because while the Internet stoked interest in Beanie Babies, there is one more ingredient that is going to take Beanie Baby's stratospheric. And that ingredient is four little letters. F O M O fomo. So Beanie Baby sales are picking up thanks to these new tags and the website. Ty is still limiting the number of toys that a shop can purchase, which also helps drive demand. But Tai is about to double down on this scarcity strategy.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

One day, Ty gets a call from one of his suppliers in China. It's bad news that will become really good news. Actually stick with us here. This supplier makes a floppy little sheep named Lovey the lamp. But the supplier tells Ty they can't source the materials for Lovey anymore. Basically, they tell Ty Lovey is done. It's death by supply chain.

[Nick Martell]

When Ty starts telling his customers that Lovey's been discontinued. Well, those retail stores, they actually get angry. Lovey is one of their best sellers of all. They feel like Ty is just cutting them off for no good reason. So Ty digs back into those Hollywood acting roots of his, and he starts telling them something different. Ty doesn't tell his customers that Lovey is discontinued. No, no, no, no, no, no. Lovey is, in fact, retired. That one word, total game changer.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Discontinued means, oh, well, they stopped making it. But retired makes it sound like the toy has been elevated.

[Nick Martell]

So when people hear that a toy is being retired, they start snatching up every last one of these retired toys that they can find.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ty connects the dots and he hatches a plan. What if I start sending certain Beanie babies into early retirement?

[C]

Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast, Against the Odds. In each episode, we take you to the edge of some of the most incredible adventure and survival stor in history. In our next season, it's 1980, and in the Pacific Northwest, the long dormant volcano Mount St. Helens is showing signs of life. Scientists warn that a big eruption is coming, but a restricted zone around the mountain is limited by politics. On May 18, hikers, loggers, reporters, and researchers are caught in the blast zone. As the volcano erupts, they find themselves pummeled by a deadly combination of scorching heat, smothering ash, and massive mudslides. The survivors have to find their way to safety before they succumb to their injuries or face another eruption. Follow against the odds on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge the entire season ad free right now only on Wondery. Plus, start your free trial in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify today.

[Nick Martell]

You hear that? That's the sound of Beanie mania sweeping America.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

We just heard how Ty realized he could stoke demand for Beanie Babies by retiring them to make people think if they don't buy one right now, they may miss out on the chance forever.

[Nick Martell]

He spreads the word with his customers, the toy shop owners, who in turn then tell their customers, yeah, that one's retiring in like, two weeks. And then they tell each other, creating a whole tsunami of phones.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ty ratchets up the pressure even more by limiting stores to just 36 of each Beanie Baby character per month. Another limitation to the supply to drive up the prices.

[Nick Martell]

Meanwhile, Lena Trivedi realizes that the Beanie Baby blog is the perfect place to drop cryptic clues about which Beanie Baby is next up for retirement. And that pushes the frenzy even higher.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Uncertain about which Beanie Baby might be retired next and potentially skyrocket in value if it does, people become obsessed with collecting them.

[Nick Martell]

All stores carrying beanies start getting hundreds of calls daily from desperate buyers. Lines start to form outside before the stores even open just to catch the latest deliveries. Suddenly, a trip to the toy store goes from a bonding experience with your toddler to squid game with soccer moms.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Because here's the thing. This frenzy isn't being driven by kids so much as their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Adults initially bought Beanie Babies for the kids in their lives. But pretty soon, they're buying rare Beanie Babies as a financial investment. It's speculation.

[Nick Martell]

Baby suddenly mystic. The unicorn is what's in your 401k. Forget Wolf of Wall Street.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

These are the predators of plush. Some adults are even putting their savings and get this, their kids college funds into buying Beanie Babies, believing that they'll get huge returns.

[Nick Martell]

Besties the Beanie Baby bubble has officially arrived.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Collectors start paying hundreds, even thousands of dollars for individual Beanie Babies. If you had one Brownie the Bear, you could sell it for up to $2,500.

[Nick Martell]

At the height of the bubble, Peanut, the royal blue elephant was going up to 5000 bucks. In the secondary market, that is a 1000x return. And these investors, they're putting some serious skin in the game. They now have a financial incentive to keep the market for Beanies hot.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Specialized magazines and websites spring up with prices, pictures, news, and rumors of what Beanie Baby is going to get retired next.

[Nick Martell]

And as that collector's market takes off.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Or the secondary market, in economic speak.

[Nick Martell]

So do Thai sales of Beanie Babies, the primary market. And get this, at the height of the craze, ty is shipping 15,000 orders of these toys every single day.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This is huge, especially when you consider he's put strict limits on how much each store can buy. And remember, they're only small mom and pop stores that he even allows to buy.

[Nick Martell]

He's a hard no on big box stores. He's passing on licensing deals to get into Saturday morning cartoons. Ty even turns down the master of movie magic himself, Steven Spielberg, for a Beanie Babies film.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But there's One partnership that Ty actually says yes to.

[Nick Martell]

McDonald's.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Why McDonald's? Ty thinks putting Beanie Babies in Happy Meals could help introduce them to less affluent households. So in 1997, Tye Inc. Partners with McDonald's to make 100 million Teeny Beanie Babies for a special Happy Meal promotion. It's meant to last five weeks, but all 100 million toys they produce are gone in just two.

[Nick Martell]

And it's because some customers are ordering tens, sometimes hundreds of these Happy Meals. And then asking the server, just keep the food.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

All I wanted was the Beanie Baby.

[Nick Martell]

Turns out the real Happy Meals meal isn't the food. It's Iggy the iguana who's waiting inside the box. So, Jack, we just saw peak Beanie obsession. People are biting arms, tearing limbs. I heard one dude got pinned at a Toys R Us just to get one of these things in the store. But I gotta ask, Jack, what kind of numbers is Ty actually doing? Thanks to all these counterintuitive strategies, in.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

One year from 1995 to 1996, sales for Tye Inc. Go from $25 million to around $250 million.

[Nick Martell]

That is 10x growth in one year.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The following year, sales hit $400 million. And the year after that, 1998, they're at $1.3 billion.

[Nick Martell]

Around this time, two thirds of Americans polled say they own a Beanie Baby. Full disclosure, I had 28 of them.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And all of this buying and selling of Beanie Babies comes at just the right time for a new auction website called ebay.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah, that ebay, the shopping site, actually launches in 1995, and it rides the wave of Beanie mania. At its height in May 1997, eBay is auctioning $500 million worth of Beanie Babies. Ebay is doing more in used Beanie Baby sales than TIE Inc. Is selling of new Beanie Babies.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

By the time eBay goes public in 1998, Beanie Babies account for 10% of its total sales.

[Nick Martell]

Beanie Babies didn't create e commerce, but, man, did they help fuel its rise.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

As for Ty, all this craziness has proven that his instincts were right. And you'd think all this success and validation might help mellow him out a little bit. But if anything, it gets him even more controlling, even more secretive, maybe even more cruel.

[Nick Martell]

Remember how Lena Trivedi helped Beanie Babies explode with the tag poems in the website? Well, at this point, Ty's still only paying her 12 bucks an hour.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

That's absurd.

[Nick Martell]

And when she walks into Ty's office one day, and she asked Ty for a raise. Guess what he says?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

He says no.

[Nick Martell]

And for that reason, Lena walks. But through all this craziness of Beanie Babies selling on ebay for thousands of dollars, Ty resists the urge every entrepreneur would have. He doesn't raise prices.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Keeping beanies affordable at $5 a piece keeps the frenzy thriving and keeps demand at a fever pit, at least for a while.

[Nick Martell]

The ka ching of all those $5.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Sales and 50% profit margins is enough.

[Nick Martell]

To get Ty on 1999's Forbes rich list with a $4 billion fortune. He started as a millionaire, and he finally became that billionaire. But as Beanie's bubble starts to deflate, as all bubbles eventually do, our guy Ty overplays his hand. So Ty basically makes three wild, unexpected moves that just. Just burst the bubble like a pinprick. That scarcity he's been carefully cultivating for years. He blows it by releasing 24 new beanies all at once. And then, in a desperate attempt to reinflate the bubble, Ty doubles down on his scarcity strategy.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

He posts a message to the company's website saying that at 11:59pm on December 31, 1999, all Beanie Babies will be retired.

[D]

For years, nothing's been hotter than those.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Cuddly little animals with cute little names. But abruptly this week, Ty Incorporated announced.

[D]

Over the Internet that it's over.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The company says every last one will be retired. As everyone's worried about their computers crashing on Y2K, Tai is mongering fear of another extinction level event. And it does not go down well with the Beaniacs.

[Nick Martell]

Oh, then it gets worse, Jack. Because then Ty backpedals. The Beanies aren't going the way of the dinosaurs after all. Instead, he lets the fans decide in an online poll, asking if they should keep going point. And the fans, of course, vote yes. Beanie Babies will live on. But then, at that point, the brand whiplash just kills the mania.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The bubble pops right after Christmas, and By the early 2000s, sales are down over 90% from their peak. Turns out you can only manufacture scarcity for so long before people catch on. In irrational asset bubbles, they rely on two key forces.

[Nick Martell]

First, there's the psychological aspect. The foam. That gut feeling that if you don't buy now, you're going to miss out forever.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The second key ingredient to irrational bubbles. Arbitrage. As more people get online, the market gets flooded with information. Price guides, auction listings, and data on what Beanies are actually selling for.

[Nick Martell]

Suddenly, buyers got smarter. They see that Most people aren't willing to pay those sky high prices after all. And once that realization spreads, then the demand from collectors, it just dies down.

[C]

Down.

[Nick Martell]

And when that happens, so do the prices.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And for anyone left sitting on a storage unit full of Beanie Babies, let's just say they weren't retiring early. And as for Lena Trivedi, despite being frozen out of the money and recognition that she deserved, she moves on to become a successful marketer and software engineer. And she eventually sells an AI writing tool for over a million dollars.

[Nick Martell]

Love seeing Lena's hard work and creativity pay off. But Ty, he's still worth billions. And Ty, any. Yeah, they keep on making Beanie Babies. I just saw one at Walgreens the other day. But Ty himself, he's become even more of a recluse. He's a complex guy who's made a lot of questionable choices along the way.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

In fact, he's basically turned the city of Santa Barbara, California into the Beanie Baby capital of the world.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah, it really is.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

If you visit the town, you'll see Beanie Babies everywhere you turn. And Ty's weird ways continue.

[Nick Martell]

Yes, they do, Jack.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

He narrowly avoided prison over a $100 million tax evasion case involving a Swiss bank account.

[Nick Martell]

And Jack, did you see that Ty even created a Beanie Baby that came in a three piece suit. Naturally, he named it Ty after himself. So, Jack, now that you've heard the story of Beanie Babies and deeply regretted not purchasing a dozen of them, what is your takeaway?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

My takeaway is the Buzz Lightyear effect. The reason you love the movie Toy Story is because the toys have human characteristics. Buzz, Woody and the gang. They have personalities, feelings, and more importantly, backstories. We connect with them like they're real. Because Buzz isn't just a Space Ranger. He's trying to reconnect with Stark man to protect the galaxy from the evil Emperor Zerg.

[Nick Martell]

Ty Warner, thanks in no small part to Lena Trivedi, did the exact same thing with Beanie Babies. He gave them names, birthdays, origin story, poems. These little touches, they made these toys feel like more than just stuffed animals. They had identities, they had lives of their own. They felt almost human. Bucky the Beaver. Yeah, he was my buddy.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ty turned the toys into companions. And that emotional connection helped spark the obsession. Because consumers love to buy figurative mirrors products they can see themselves in.

[Nick Martell]

And that's the Buzz Lightyear effect.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

What about you, Nick? What's your takeaway?

[Nick Martell]

An idea not shared is a missed promotion. Lena Trivedi, she wasn't some high powered executive. But she saw something others didn't. And she pitched her idea of adding poems to Beanie Baby tags, making each one feel unique and collectible. She even introduced Tai to the power of the Internet, helping launch Beanie Babies into a global phenomenon.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Now, in this particular case, she didn't get the promotion she deserved from her boss. Boss. But her story does show that just because you're not in charge, your insights and your ideas do matter.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah, the way we see it, the best companies and the smartest bosses are the ones who listen to fresh ideas from anyone at any level. Although, if you think your boss is the kind of person to take your idea without rewarding you, maybe you should look somewhere else to work.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Okay, before we go, it's time for my absolute favorite part of the show. The best facts yet.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah, it is. These are the hero stats, the facts and the surprises we discovered in our research. But we just couldn't fit into the story. I mean, Jack, there so many great crazy and bizarre Ty Warner stories we just couldn't squeeze into today's pod. But one of my favorite stories is the illegal disclaimer that Ty put in his early toy catalogs.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Here it is. Warning, if anyone dare copy our creative designs and patents without written permission, ownership of your eternal Soul passes to us. And we have the right to negotiate the sale of said soul. Furthermore, our attorneys will see to it that life on earth as you know it, is not worth living.

[Nick Martell]

That may cross a line. That may cross a little legal boundary there, Jack.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Here's another one. In 1997, Tye Inc. Came under legal pressure from the estate of Grateful Dead singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia over a tie dyed Beanie Baby named Garcia.

[Nick Martell]

Now, when Ty renamed their bear Peace the value of the original Garcia Bears, oh, it shot up. But now, sadly, the price has shot down and you can find them on ebay for just around 10 bucks.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

I guess the eyes of the world are no longer on Beanie Babies.

[Nick Martell]

If you know, you know. Oh, and by the way, Jack, Bucky the Beaver. You want to know what happened to my little guy?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

I've been dying all episode to find out.

[Nick Martell]

Okay, so I was at a sleepover and I traded him for a cupcake.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

You traded Bucky the Beaver for a cupcake?

[Nick Martell]

Now in my defense, Jack, the terms of the deal were never clear. Clear in my honest, humble, non legal opinion. But I believe there is a young man on the Upper west side who still owes me the fair market value of 263 bucks for that Beanie baby.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And that is why Beanie Babies is the Best Idea Yet. Coming up on the next episode of the Best Idea yet. Start revving your V12 engine and waxing your racing red bodywork because we're gonna.

[Nick Martell]

Put the pedal to the metal and race headlong into the storage of Ferrari. If you've got a product you're obsessed with but wish you knew its backstory, drop us a comment right here and we'll look into it for you.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Oh, and don't forget to rate and review the podcast. That's how we grow the show. Hey Chicago, we're doing a live show on July 23rd and we want to see you there.

[Nick Martell]

That's right, this is Nick and this is Jack and you know us from this show, the Best Idea Yet. But we also host the best One yet, a daily show that serves up the top three pop business news stories you gotta know every day.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And we're doing a live show on Wednesday, July 23rd at the Vick Theater in Chicago.

[Nick Martell]

This is like big Live. Jack and I are going to be on stage with you, breaking business news stories, our signature takeaways, plus a sit down interview with the surprise legendary CEO.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

It's going to be a live show like nothing you've ever seen before.

[Nick Martell]

So if you love our weekly product deep dives that we serve up here on the Best Idea yet yet, we know you're going to love our daily news show too.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

So grab your tickets now and bring your Chicago crew. We want to see you there.

[Nick Martell]

We dropped a link in this episode description, so snag your tickets and make it a T, boy.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Follow the Best Idea yet on the Wondery app, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to every episode of the Best Idea yet early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

[Nick Martell]

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey the best idea yet is a production of Wondery hosted by me, Nick Martel.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And me, Jack Crevici Kramer. Our senior producers are Matt Beagle and Chris Gautier.

[Nick Martell]

Peter Arcuni is our additional senior producer.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Our senior Managing producer is Nick Ryan and Taylor Sniffin is our managing producer.

[Nick Martell]

Our producer and researcher is H. Conley.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This episode was written and produced by Adam Skierce.

[Nick Martell]

We use many sources in our research, including the Great Beanie Baby Bubble Mass Delusion and the Dark side of Cute by Zach Bissonnet and Behind the Beanie Babies, the Secret Life of Ty Warner in Chicago Magazine by Brian Smith Sound.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Design and mixing by Kelly Kramerek Fact.

[Nick Martell]

Checking by Erica Janik Music supervision by.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Scott Velazquez and Jolina Garcia for Freeson.

[Nick Martell]

Sync our Our theme song is Got that Feeling Again by Black Alack. Executive producers for Nick and Jack Studios are me, Nick Martell and me, Jack Revici Kramer. Executive producers for Wondery are Dave Easton, Jenny Lauer, Beckman, Aaron o' Flaherty and Marshall Louie.

[D]

In the first half of the 20th century, one woman changed adoption in America. What was once associated with the shame of unmarried mothers bec not only acceptable but fashionable. But Georgia Tann didn't help families find new homes out of the goodness of her heart. She was stealing babies from happy families and selling them for profit. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US History. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. And in our latest series, a young adoption worker moves to Memphis, Tennessee and becomes one of the most powerful women in the city. By the time her crimes are exposed decades later, she's made a fortune and destroyed hundreds of families along the way. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery. You can join Wondery in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today.