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An HP printer with the text "Everything is a subscription"
Why subscriptions make everything more expensive
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Taylor Swift concert wide shot with the crowd
Why concert tickets are so expensive — and who's to blame
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A bowl of ultramarine blue pigment
How the world's most expensive color is made
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A whisk stirs a bowl of matcha
Why US demand for Japanese matcha is straining the $3.5 billion industry
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Customers walking by several Hudson News stores in the airport
Why everything at the airport is so expensive
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Gold prices continue to break records
Why gold is more expensive than ever
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Video game boxes for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, $60, and Mario Kart World, $80.
Why Nintendo is more expensive than ever
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Colorful Pantone swatches fall behind an animated businessman.
How Pantone built a color monopoly, from Tiffany Blue to Minion Yellow
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Thousands of yuzu being dropped into a sorting machine.
The demand for this expensive Japanese fruit is skyrocketing. Here's what makes it so special.
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A close-up of a $9.39 grocery store price tag in front of an egg carton.
The real reason eggs are more expensive than ever
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Geoducks in a watertank
Why are geoducks so expensive?
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Hands holding a large rough emerald.
The fight for the $150 million emerald industry in Colombia
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A pile of embroidered Canada Goose logos.
Why Canada Goose is so expensive
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Freshly cut oxtail is stacked on top of itself to reveal the cross section.
Why has oxtail become so expensive?
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A machine dips red colored pencils in a red varnish coating.
Why professional colored pencils are so expensive
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A close-up of an open mangosteen fruit.
Why mangosteen, the viral TikTok fruit, is so expensive
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An oboe craftsman sands cork pads for the instrument's keys.
How experts craft 14 instruments from around the world
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A Mount Everest Sherpa guide crosses a crevasse on a ladder.
Why climbing Mount Everest is so expensive
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A pile of Lego minifigure heads
How Adult Fans Saved Lego
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Maple syrup being lifted and stirred
6 of the world's most smuggled foods
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Tubes of pink chalk move down the assembly line in Hagoromo's South Korea factory
Why mathematicians are obsessed with this luxury chalk
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A bag of white flower shiitake mushrooms being poured into a metal chute.
How Japan's priciest shiitake mushrooms fuel the $740 million global shiitake industry
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Gamtae is pulled from the mudflats in South Korea.
How Korea's gamtae seaweed won over Michelin-starred chefs around the world
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A bare foot pushing into a ball of black ink.
4 of the world's most expensive calligraphy tools
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Water being poured over black ink on a traditional Japanese inkstone.
Why calligraphy inkstones are so expensive
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A worker cuts a piece of wood off of a cricket bat
Why English Willow Cricket Bats Are So Expensive
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A forklift carries a giant French oak wine barrel called a foudre
Why giant oak barrels are key to making some of the world's most expensive wine
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Yellow liquid cement being poured through a funnel into a tile mold.
Cement tiles used to be affordable, but they can cost 10 times more than subway tiles
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A pile of red togarashi peppers in snow.
Why less snow is threatening Japan's expensive Kanzuri chile paste
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A watchmaker uses needle-nose pliers to place a gold tourbillon mechanism.
Why this obsolete mechanism makes watches more expensive
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A Seeing Eye dog trainer takes their puppy out for a walk to learn the ropes.
Why Seeing Eye dogs are so expensive to breed and train
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A worker adjusts the bottom of a pedal harp.
Why pedal harps are so expensive
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Two climbers crossing a ladder over a gap in ice.
Why some Sherpas say there won't be any guides on Everest in 10 years
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Pastemba Sherpa waves to the camera while climbing Mount Everest.
Every piece of gear you need to summit Everest, according to a Sherpa guide
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A porter carries a large load on his back.
Inside the hidden hotels that keep Mount Everest running
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A man at Everest base camp points to a container used for collecting human waste.
What happens to Mount Everest's over 110,000 pounds of waste?
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Strands of red and blue cotton weaving together
Egyptian cotton sheets can cost $900, but the internet is filled with fakes
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A close-up of a hand holding shea butter
10 African businesses making the world's most expensive products
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A quality-control expert checks the inside of a hot-air balloon for leaks.
Why Hot Air Balloons Are So Expensive