Buckyballs. Are. Everywhere. It’s inexplicable really, but somehow Zoomdoggle, the company behind Buckyballs, has managed to convince the entire gift industry (and some design stores, too) that selling a package of 216 “Powerful Rare Earth Magnets” for 30 bucks a pop is a shrewd business move. And maybe rightly so, because customers have agreed! However bizarre and unexpected the product’s success has been, these things are damned addictive: once you get started it’s literally impossible to put them down.

The craziest part is that we were recently offered the chance to distribute a similar product. And even though we already knew about Buckyballs and ergo wouldn’t come second to market, we found ourselves wondering if we would had ever risked a substantial amount of money on a product that has no immediate and obvious selling potential. (Here’s where we offer a long and genuine hat tip to Jake Bronstein of Zoomdoggle for having the foresight to invest in these tiny little balls.)

Even answering from a hypothetical standpoint, our answer across the board was “no”. It would have been half-baked to think that we could take a bunch of overpriced industrial magnets (like the ones found in cell phones and other electronic devices), put them in some fancy packaging, call them magical, sell them everywhere, and then have magazines like Rolling Stone and Wired name them the “2009 Toy of the Year.”

That being said, let’s take a look at three possible explanations behind Buckyballs’ mysterious success.

1. People are generally ADD and like to have objects in their hands (like a pen) to play with at all times — this in an effort to distract themselves from otherwise menial and monotonous tasks that often consume the day.

2. Turning a bunch of tiny little magnetic balls into cute little designs stimulates the right-side of the brain. This is applicable to both creative and non-creative types. The former thinking they are so creative they can turn magnets into a Van Gogh on the fridge; the latter simply being excited to accomplish something with their hands, even though their creations usually come out looking like the adult version of a kid who could never color between the lines.

3. Everyone is easily amused by things that are absurd and encourage procrastination. Buckyballs are essentially the real-life version of the Internet.

All in all, the simple fact that a product like Buckyballs can make such an enigmatic impact on our industry is why we love making things in the first place. So good for them. They broke the mold and produced a bonafide hit product out of thin air.