[Music] from oil paint to poisonous puffer fish $200 melons to racing pigeons luxury goods can carry a high price we traveled around the world to find out just what makes these products so expensive our first stock is an oil paint factory in France we went to find out why some colors of oil paint can cost over $1,000 per litre and just what is it that makes this material so special oil paint is simple at its most basic it's just a mixture of oil and pigment but depending on the color and quality a litre of this paint could cost you between two hundred and eighty five and a thousand dollars so what is it that makes this paint so special and why is it so expensive oil paint has been used for hundreds of years it's made from a drying oil like flaxseed and pigment sometimes with fillers and thickeners added when mixed and crushed these ingredients bind and thicken to form a permanent paint while the rise of oil paint is associated with the Renaissance paintings using poppy seed oil have been dated as far back as 7th century Afghanistan but there's one key reason this paint hasn't ever been cheap pigments cost a lot of money so in a good oil paint you'll can be looking for a high pigment layer ding and a good quality pigment in that high pigment Lading so it doesn't know if you have loads of pigment if it's about quality pigment you're looking for light fastness so it doesn't play it and tests on light fastness that have been going on for generations in fact for some pigments so you're not going rate a masterpiece and then 50 years down the line it's completely washed out the highest-quality oil paint can be up to 75% pigment and throughout history the most sought-after pigments have been worth far more than their weight in gold and that's because they take a lot of work to discover and to make the favorite Imperial color in Roman times Tyrian purple was a bright pigment made from the glands of sea snails and it could take 12,000 snails to make just 2 grams of the color Indian yellow was originally made from the urine of cows fed only on mango leaves and in the 16th to 19th centuries mummy brown was actually made with the ground-up remains of Egyptian mummies and while the color was perfect for some flesh tones we quickly ran out of mummies to use pigments to dramatically change the cost and in professional levels you'll have series so you'll have probably a series one well up two series seven the higher the number the more expensive it is and that's due to the pigments how difficult they are to obtain where they come from and also how in demand they are as a product in the real world possibly the most valuable though was ultramarine literally meaning beyond the sea as there had to be mined in Afghanistan it was made from lapis lazuli which in its purest pigment form can still cost up to $30,000 per kilo the gemstone was used to make the pigment until a synthetic version was created in 1826 and the vibrant blue was valued so highly in the Renaissance that it was generally reserved for painting the robes of the Virgin Mary synthetic versions of many of these pigments have now been created and while this means many a cheaper some can still be difficult to produce cobalt blue for example has to be made by heating its components to 1,200 degrees Celsius and once you have these pigments they're tricky to work with winter in Newton has been making oil paints for almost 200 years and its factory in France produces over 5 million litres of paint each year in fact produce paint is like cooking so we are mixing so we are mixing components like pigments and other additives like oil we are then meaning so it depends by using different type of machines so we're using granite ceramic or steel when we are testing ok so testing the viscosity the green and of course will color the whole process is so select so for every single pigment you need to handle it in a particular way so it will need a particular amount of oil with it and that ratio changes for every pigment and you're going to need to grind it to a particular fineness and actually even with the same pigment the milling and the grinding will affect the color you have say if you over grind you might end up with something duller all with another color if you grind it very fine you might end up with a purple rather than a blue the research and testing for these colors can take months or even years to get right small samples of each color are made in a lab to measure consistency and light fastness above all else the quality of oil paint needs to be reliable as professional artists need to guarantee that what they're working on now will last for hundreds of years and despite comparatively new paints like acrylic oil still remains an artist favorite we've still got works that are still beautiful and relevant from the 15th century and it's also it's durable and it has this ability to layer where you can scrape back you can keep working you can work on a piece for years and keep on redoing it and it gives every piece this history and you know the materials themselves are expensive they're reliable they're gorgeous I mean they come out of the painting at you just nearby the Parisian fashion house ms created the Birkin bag an iconic fashion item that can now sell for over half a million dollars Hermes Birkin bags are some of the most expensive bags in the world ranging anywhere from 9,000 to half-a-million dollars the bags embody absolute luxury of course that's a very nice purse the exclusive accessories even considered by some to be a better investment than gold or the stock market and the world's most expensive bag is an Hermes Himalaya Birkin bag that sold for $500,000 so what is it that makes Birkin bags so expensive the story of the bag begins with its namesake Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London English actress happened to be seated next to the chief executive of Hermes generally de Mer Jane was known for carrying a wicker basket wherever she went and used it for everything from groceries to diapers when she tried to fit her famous basket in the overhead compartment the lid came off spilling the contents everywhere Jane complained to her seat mate but it was impossible to find a weekend back she liked dumat introduced himself as the head of Hermes and the pair spent the flight sketching possible handbag designs on the back of an airplane sick bag a year later do my present to Jane with the Birkin bag a spacious yet sophisticated leather design perfect for everyday use the Birkins pockets made it highly functional and the bag seals to prevent anything from spilling hermes makes the bags in France using premium materials like calf skin alligator skin and even ostrich skin each bag is made entirely by hand although Birkins are one of the most exclusive and sought-after backs today they actually weren't all that popular when they first launched it wasn't until the 90s that the Birkin became one of the it bags of the era now they're the ultimate status symbol Victoria Beckham reportedly has a collection of over a hundred Birkins estimated to be worth over two million dollars and Singaporean socialite and entrepreneur Jaime chor is considered to have the world's largest Birkin collection with over 200 bags but you can't just walk into Hermes and get one well there used to be a wait list nowadays all you can do is hope to be important enough or spend enough to be offered a Birkin bag and if you're offered one don't expect to be able to choose the color or size Hermes also places limits on how many Birkin bags the client can purchase per year this dedication to preserving the exclusivity of the back has certainly paid off and the disparity in demand and access has created a thriving resale market a 2017 study revealed that the value of Hermes Birkin bags has increased 500% in the last 35 years an increase of 14% per year one of the most coveted models comes from Hermes Himalaya collection which comes in three sizes often referred to as the holy grail of handbags the white Himalaya Birkin bag features 18 karat white gold hardware and more than 200 diamonds the 35 centimeter model in particular is very rare and has sold at record prices year after year most recently in 2019 it sold for over half a million dollars professional sports betting consultant David Wonka also known as Vegas Dave made the record-breaking purchase the reason I bought the Birkin bag is I love breaking records I broke all the sports betting records I wanted to break the most expensive bag record I'm all about raising the bar also it's all about supply and demand the only other one in the world is by Steve Harvey's wife so there's only two in the world not even Kim Kardashian has us so I actually bought it for a content believe it or not so I could take videos with it pictures of it getting people to talk about me the record-breaking sale actually took place over social media sell is pretty easy I posted on social media I have about a million followers I'm looking for a bag this lady hit me up Prive porter she messaged me said she'd give me the bag I realized it was the most expensive bag she said would break the record yeah and this is for sure the record five hundred thousand we close this deal about three or four days really really fast I actually do use the bag most people think I'm crazy they put it away like in a safe and then never touch again I've taken that out twice once to a nightclub in Vegas as a great piece of content it's definitely worth the cost because you could offer me a million dollars cash I wouldn't sell it my asking price is two million if not I'll just keep the damn thing it's also made with white or I'll be no crocodile skin which is extremely rare the cost of skin is painstakingly dyed to emulate the snowy appearance of the Himalayan mountains the high retail value and resale value is because these are pieces of artwork these are some strain years and mirrors to make one of these bags and they may even train 10 years or even they're allowed to make a Birkin another reason for the backs high price of course is the limited availability the total number of Birkin bags Hermes produces each year is a well-guarded secret but is estimated that there may be around 200 thousand in circulation and for the luxury resale market Birkin bags are a hot commodity online retailer Prive Porter uses Instagram and whatsapp to sell the bags on line and luxury reseller the realreal has hundreds of Birkins available at any given time many of which are priced well over the original retail cost their Birkin bag does retain and sometimes exceeds its value it really does depend on the leather the color the size of the bag you know the hardware there are so many factors that go into pricing a Birkin that it could really vary however if you do buy a Birkin let's say in 2004 and maybe to retail at that time with $5,000 you most likely will be able to sell it even if you have worn it so many times for five thousand six thousand dollars even as resellers like the real real and Prive Porter have made more Birkins available than ever the prices haven't gone down you go to Hermes you may not always get the exact color size that you want here we have almost every single option and if that means you have to pay a small premium people and our clients are willing to do even though that there has been such a saturation of these bags not one bag is the same let's say as an attained Birkin 35 with gold hardware we only have one right now and if it's sold we may not get another for a while so someone's looking for that and may be willing to pay an extra maybe $10,000 to get that bag as soon as possible and all these bags are handmade artisan craftsmanship it's a piece of artwork not one it's the same not even one stitch so if you have an extra $10,000 lying around it could be worthwhile to invest it in a Birkin just make sure that you're not falling for a fake from Canal Street in New York City to websites like eBay the counterfeit market is full of luxury knockoffs and Birkins and no exception back in 2012 Hermes sued several websites for selling fake products and won a hundred million dollars in damages that same year French police cracked down on an international crime ring that was manufacturing counterfeit Birkin bags the crime ring reportedly included actual Hermes employees only two employees were arrested but Hermes believed that several other employees could have been involved and despite all their efforts fake products continued to flood the market the quality of counterfeit bags has also vastly improved over the years making it difficult to tell whether a bag is real or fake however there are a few tricks to spotting a fake version the handle should never be too long if they look too long longer than the bag then it is most likely inauthentic the hardware shouldn't be too shiny or protrude out and the feet another big thing is one of the best things I always check is that the feet should never screw off they are hammered in the leather itself should feel very supple very luxurious and if the price seems too good to be true it probably is well many other handbag styles have come and gone it looks like the Birkin is here to stay and the bag has become synonymous with status in a way that many other luxury goods have yet to despite his popularity the bag features no prominent logos and is only recognizable to people who already know what it is in Birkin Hermes has created something that feels inaccessible and thus highly exclusive as for whether the Birkin will always be so expensive only time will tell over in the UK 28,000 Doc's gather each year for crafts and it's here that you'll find some of the world's most expensive breeds how much do you love dolls enough to spend 1.9 million dollars on them that's how much a Tibetan Mastiffs was sold for in 2014 dog breeding is a complicated and sometimes murky world but for the people involved it's a lifelong obsession so why a pedigree dogs so expensive and what is it that makes some cost so much more than others [Music] this is Crufts every year over 21,000 dogs from 43 countries compete and it's here that you can see some of the world's most expensive dogs Akitas Chow Chows lure cheon's and Samians I've had some words for over 30 years and I couldn't have any other breed there is nothing quite like them they are the most joyous cops you would like to have naughty but very nice to have they have some interesting habits and traits such as barking and digging but you can stop them doing it if you do it at an early age with all the coat that they've got they do need an awful lot of grooming we recommend ten minutes a day keeps on top of the coat but they do shed their coat once or twice a year a pedigree is proof of a dog's lineage it's a family tree showing the parents grandparents and even great-grandparents of each registered dog having healthy parents they have competes in shows or trials and drastically increase the price of the dog and this lineage is taken very seriously some owners even get their dogs DNA tested to guarantee their purebred once you've paid the $10,000 for a pedigree purebred dog they can be costly to look after vet bills for purebred dogs can be higher and certain breeds have much higher chances of some conditions Samoyeds for example can have problems with diabetes loss of vision heart conditions and even hip dysplasia breeders will also invest in pedigree pets for sponsorship deals and prize money and international shows driving their demand and price up even further dogs with certain temperaments builds or features that are likely to do better at shows can cost far more and if you have a male pedigree dog there's real money to be made as champion dogs can have stud fees of over $1000 the heritage of each breed plays a huge part - a lot of people are interested in history of breathing and and it has a lot to do with the way that the breeds will actually behave so if you have a dog that has always is from a breed that has always rounded up sheep you tend to have a dog that will round up the family so there are some instincts that we've bred into dogs over the generations which tend to come out now so if you have a dog that's always bred to be a companion something like the the Pekinese or some of the other toy breeds then they will naturally make good companions because that's what they were bred for breeding can also save vulnerable breeds of dog the Lochan a tiny breed worth up to $10,000 has been around since about 1440 - but by 1944 they were extremely rare breeder Madame Bennett brought them back from the brink of extinction and in 1971 the lurch and Club of America was formed there are understandably less of them around though which means they could be more expensive than other breeds but at the same time as saving some breeds the owners market can put them in jeopardy it was reported in 2018 that thousands of Tibetan Mastiffs were being abandoned in China once the most sought-after dogs in the world costing up to 1.9 million and prized for their rarity and status there was a complete collapse in demand the dogs were suddenly worthless and many are even slaughtered for their meat or fur it'd all become a breed becomes very popular then we just can charge a lot more and they're obviously a lot very very good breeders out there who care lots about their animals and are breeding them to the best of their abilities but if they're unable to get enough puppies out there for the demand then that's where the unscrupulous Tweedles breeders will come in and unfortunately they can make an awful lot of money possibly impure welfare for the [ __ ] and the the puppies and we see this suddenly at the RSPCA the Inspectorate do come across poppy harms and you know it's pretty horrific but they're they can make an awful lot of money out of it these sudden booms in popularity for certain species spike the price and what's fashionable or photogenic plays a big part Instagram is flooded with Tibetan Mastiffs Huskies Shiba inus Chow Chows and Akitas often bred to accentuate their cute features I think a lot of the flat faced dogs ones with no nose the brackets phallic you know they they are very cute so they're seen on all the social media and stars and all the rest got these dogs and so people want to have them as well and there's no doubt that we're seeing more and more of them but they have been bred to such an extreme that they they have so many things I could tell you about wrong with their Airways their tongues are too big their soft palates are too big the extremes of breeding that we can see some you know things that you know some of these animals will die [Music] regardless of what you think of pedigree dogs demand and price is growing with a 7% rise in the number of registered puppies in the UK in 2017 [Music] you'll find it across the world but mined in Pakistan pink Himalayan salt has become hugely popular recently and is said to offer a range of health benefits but just how true of the claims this is pink Himalayan salt it may look pretty but a pinch of this stuff will cost you and a hundred grams of pink Himalayan salt can cost up to twenty times the price of generic table salt so why is it so expensive [Music] pink Himalayan salt has gathered a cult following its supporters claim that it helps with everything from weight loss reducing aging regulating sleep and even increasing your libido and while the pink salt itself can cost $10 per kilo the products made using it can be far more expensive but what actually is the difference between types of salt and where of these claims come from to get an idea of what makes pink Himalayan salt different we need to look at the different types of salt in the industry table salt is often made by drilling into underground sea beds pumping out the salt water and then refining it in purification plants natural minerals like magnesium or potassium are taken away sea salt is made by evaporating seawater using the Sun or indoor heaters unlike table salt it normally has no extra chemicals added and its natural minerals stay intact rock salt is different in certain regions of the world varied hundreds of feet below the ground but the remains of evaporated seas this mineral halite gets harvested by drilling the rock face crushing the salt and splintering it into pieces pink salt can only be found in very few places from the Murray River in Australia to marys in Peru but the supply is far from limited the majority of pink salt mines in the world are in Pakistan at the base of the Himalayas and the kara salt mine in Pakistan produces 350,000 tonnes per year so is pink salt healthier the salt has an estimated 84 different minerals in it which give it its pink color but these minerals only make up around 2% of the salt so apparently it's reported you can get around 84 different trace mineral elements however it's such a very small percentage of the salt makes up these minerals that you are highly unlikely to get any real benefit or any trace of them in your regular serving of salt its and I hate to be the bearer of disappointing news but it's pretty similar nutritionally pink salt suppose it benefits aren't just about eating at them and many people claim it has healing properties when either inhaled or even when users are lamp I can see why trends come about so for instance there's a lot of different homeopathic remedies that can seem very very appealing but actually because they're not grounded in evidence a lot of the time a small hint of something having a promise can get blown out of proportion especially when it comes to the media especially in terms of beautiful looking items and I think pink salt of course is a lot more appealing for a lot of people when you compare it to your regular white salt so Himalayan salt doesn't have the health benefits plate but it's still marketed as a luxury salt and global salt consumption is forecast to be worth 14 point 1 billion by 2020 so does it taste any better for the price I think it takes myself but I don't know if I just think it tastes nicer because I know it's meant to taste nicer it doesn't taste that different it's a bit less harsh on the palate doesn't sort of like burn your tongue as much which I guess is a good thing I couldn't really tell too much for difference between them to be honest if I was cooking with them but in lemons dish I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them it just kind of tastes like so there's one other big thing that's led to pink salts popularity Instagram it's because Instagram is an image based platform so if you think about it it's more attractive to take pictures of something that's pink naturally or something that's bright green it's more I would call it aesthetic food so looking at how food appears rather than it being a miracle benefit and I think if you are looking at social media on a whole it goes in seasons and it goes in whatever is the most photographed item I don't think it will be around forever [Music] over in Japan 10,000 tons of deadly puffer fish is eaten each year the fish is often airlifted across the country and requires years of training to prepare safely you've probably heard of fugu the deadly pufferfish delicacy served across Japan the Japanese eat 10,000 tons of the fish every year but in high season it could cost you two hundred and sixty five dollars per kilo so what makes this dish so expensive this video contains footage of a fish being killed there are over 120 species of pufferfish 22 different kinds are approved by the Japanese government for use in restaurants but one is more prized and more poisonous than the others Toro fugu or tiger puffer fish while Toro fugu is often found at high-end restaurants where it served as a perfectly thinly sliced sashimi deep fried and even used to make hot sake called heroes RK Yama die has been serving pufferfish for over a hundred years their fugu is caught in southern Japan and airlifted alive to their Tokyo restaurants sourcing the fish can be tricky inhe Damari market the fugu is auctioned off using a bag and hidden hand signals each potential buyer puts their hand in the bag and makes their bid secretly for a successful bidder is chosen when selling such a dangerous food safety is paramount in 2018 when a supermarket accidentally sold five packets of the fish that hadn't had the poisonous liver removed the town used its missile alert system to warn residents the tetrodotoxin found in fugu is more toxic than cyanide and each year about 20 people are poisoned from badly prepared fish it takes a lot of skill and training to prepare the fish safely and know which parts are poisonous cut away it up blue scenes all and more oh Jesus quirky morph console [Music] little one creditably me [Music] the poisonous parts can vary by species and hybrid species are appearing now they're even harder to tell apart one of the hardest things to distinguish between can be the female food booze ovaries which are extremely toxic and the male's testicles which were delicacy the Japanese government tightly control who can prepare fugu and chefs need to take an extensive exam before they're legally allowed to serve the fish this rigorous regulation means that while the fish can be lethal far more people die from eating oysters than fugu each year [Music] [Music] the Navy also University dinner - chicken the talk was Tokyo by the talk his opinion is a Simeone D'Amato Sir Tom it's me who's a no City what directed through you did a cuckoo the cable skin mean Akira Morin all of the skill and training that goes into preparing this fish increases its price the fish is killed seconds before preparation and while the process looks gruesome as the muscles continue to spasm the fish is technically brain dead [Music] when Casey so callously yeah Morita did sing karaoke used to cut up the other day she was there it's not only come out today if Graham nice Lauren so he was still a focus babe they should begin specimen name of this method of killing the fish means that the meat stays fresh for longer and at Yama diet the fugu is aged for 24 hours before it's served so what does it actually taste like how transparent it is identically expect it to have such a chewy texture it really is much truer than I expected but it's really very subtle tastes it's just a really fresh sort of clean taste and really really nice there's another reason tiger fugu is getting more expensive overfishing tiger pufferfish is near-threatened and in 2005 the Japanese government limited its fishing quotas and seasons and another popular edible species across Japan the Chinese pufferfish has declined in population by 99.9 percent over the last 45 years farmed versions of these fish are much cheaper and many more affordable chained fugu restaurants are starting to appear but the farmed version is difficult to raise and Japanese consumers say it just doesn't taste as good wild fugu high price guarantees that it's safely prepared by an expert chef and when you're dealing with a potentially deadly fish that price is reassuringly expensive [Music] it's not just the fish that are expensive in Japan luxury melons can cost you over $200 each and every single one of these fruits is treated with incredible care this melon costs $200 but that's nothing compared to the price that some can reach and in May 2000 and nineteen two melons from Hokkaido sold at auction for five million yen that's just over forty five thousand dollars so what is it that makes this fruit so expensive [Music] from the Yubari King to the Andes the he go green melon and many more melons are grown up and down Japan and they're serious business the fruit isn't traditionally something you'd pick up as a snack in Japan but is a luxury that often plays a big part in Japan's gift-giving culture and they're not just admired for their taste but for their looks as well crown melons are one of the most renowned varieties go into a high-end fruit store in Tokyo and you're likely to see their signature stickers the melons are only grown in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan and can cost you over $200 each unlike the five dollar mass-produced melons you're likely to come across in a Western supermarket crown melons take constant care and attention to grow for Miyoshi to Joe's family has been growing these melons for 60 years at his farm near fook Arroyo Kanto esto taco Beth Beth today Demento or Demento Kilohana state school Noah starts today Jinju shukaku or stay not to demo a few demo Idina when i do another or she adds another yoni choreographer towel still the farmers give the melons constant attention and care each melon takes a hundred days to grow and the fruit is grown all year round there are 20 slightly different varieties of crown melon seeds grown depending on the season the raised beds allow the farmers to control the amount of water each plant gets exactly an air conditioning and heating keep the temperatures constant year-round ground melons have four grades Fujiyama Shiro and Yuki any melons with even minor defects and marked as your key in the top three grades are marked on their sugar content and perfect appearance 55% of the melons make Shiro great the third grade 25% a yama and any naught point one percent or one in a thousand of all melons harvested upgraded as Fuji the highest grade possible after around 50 days the plants begin to flower and baby fruits start to appear but the hard work has only just begun zucchini pocket a new home kizomba Ohio Nova stock the more issue cameras Rudolph Ensemble no no no Homer Allah it even Catalina II kitsune an I so miss Kate a shutters the Impala Guinea stop Stottlemeyer it's my monoski novice has an estate you a suit what an aside I know dr. Domo this work is all done entirely by hand and it isn't just about getting the taste right but perfecting the appearance - as the fruits get larger in each plot they are carefully wrapped in white paper to protect them the Panamera not x-tornado savendonate OVA dere Omo No Coco Co you Vitolo vedas coat a gin quote a guinea a domino hadassah set a NATO dust Eau de cologne 8 Oh No okey Resciniti hajima need a musical cue Makena 10 colo henkka demo o OG volatile a derogatory Yolo today madoka got a contour Sudama dis Mimoza she cut a sureno pono jidoka numero uno cyber insider no Mousasi tenets of our democracy and Adamo Kakaako date a guru mano a mano maryland algorithm Oh get it to him robot child [Music] once this net patent has developed each melon is even massaged and polished by hand is then covered to protect it from the Sun for its final growing period the farmers can wear through multiple pairs of white gloves polishing these melons yeah we have the reason why Inter Milan is such expensive sir each farmer have to take you're very carefree you know they're even the one mistake of amount of water on one day that makes the Merle deteriorate they have to take care every day every time and Jay take your weather temperature and take kind of talking with each metal trees how how they are or the leg each day they grow the meal like the sons or daughters [Music] but the work of the agricultural cooperatives also keeps their prices high the Shizuoka crown melon company oversee the distribution and checks on melons from over 200 farmers they ensure that the quality remains high and that the prices aren't undercut the resulting taste is undeniably incredible each fruit has a complex balance of flavors and is perfectly juicy and sweet but you'll have to decide for yourself whether the high price is worth it for the taste despite the cost there's a big market for these fruits across Japan consumers are willing to pay to ensure that their gift is perfect especially knowing the work that has gone into producing them the melons are often sold in individual presentation boxes sitting on silk or hay or tied with a ribbon and when choosing the perfect gift the high price is often seen as a signifier of quality so what about those forty five thousand dollar melons at the start of the season the perfect first fruits are auctioned off and are often sought after as a trophy for local businesses to bid on a new record is set for the sale of these fruits almost every year and it doesn't look like their price is going down anytime soon with the right skills and dedication bonsai trees can live for hundreds of years and cost thousands of dollars we visited Chaco Yamamoto the only female bonsai master in Japan [Music] bonsai is an art form that requires years of training and centuries of dedication at the 2012 international bonsai convention a tree was on sale for 100 million yen just under a million dollars and many more of these trees are considered completely priceless so what is it that makes bond size so expensive [Music] bonzai is the art of dwarfing a regular tree to create a perfect miniature representation of nature in a small pot it has a long history originating in China the practice of creating tiny trees and landscapes appeared as far back as the 6th century the trees growth is restricted by years of pruning wiring repotting and grafting and the plants need to be checked on and often watered every day the skills required to grow these trees plays a huge part in their value they are often bent and twisted into shape positioned around rocks or even placed with other trees to simulate a tiny forest many of these techniques require years to master and any errors made can result in permanently ruining the shape or even killing a plant that has been growing for centuries Chiaki Yamamoto is a fourth generation bonsai master based in central Japan she's been creating and selling bonsai for the last 51 years and one of the hardest skills to master when growing these plants is patience never over [Music] you gonna go right at Karenga Duvalier Murata victim cocora Hanna three kitties Canova new bond angle a so the California at Eppley edit okay so nam OU consider a Sukkah Rama Nana mocha at econo the movements Eric article this unit sorry was even know I thought of a candidate Karthik so it's more intestine I want a conveyor carafe and testimony given no audio kakete do you know the records demo atarashi nude Sutra some name a car the car no GU named Lara vehicles demo vehicle staccatos matsumoto-san and guna in Kakinada [Music] the time and devotion this process requires is unlike almost any other form of our work while the work is almost a form of sculpture the plants are living things and will always react in their own way San Nova mama the gonna not even become Naga katana did occur so that the it's museum card so the gang money man the corner scary kata shuttle cannot sorry was choco boutique their continuity ski kotteakos mucho okay so Cerritos even a single rupee shop sort of all kinds will not be cut apart euros good night it's more it's more so fingers so no cake on the Sudan I got her now like is now no cake color vehicle like the extraordinary time this process takes means that the just aren't that many trees around some of the most valuable bonsai are over eight hundred years old and so the supply isn't going to increase anytime soon Dada Bhosale wa watashi de on de Uyuni eponym at animated sinister Nevada sir neither is under caca day it's cooked a conic Arriba Dickie nine-day my token the coping I don't do any margosa he dictated all day mr. costigan died at the moment the email was over cut the meat in Okayama Dori Sara tokars Sanjana Yong Jun a cockatiel it's cooked a making America the more immature our attorney human eye opener para como sorry God has enough with the cut the cut or other factors can contribute to the cost the bonsai pots and the tools use are often handmade and can cost thousands of dollars themselves certain types of tree and also harder to grow or require certain techniques and may fetch a higher price but more than anything these trees are works of art valued for their beauty and the vision of the artist [Music] Scutaro kanuto Nana Chowk on Naruto medicine on a second later a smoker seen on Sonya Yuri a second ago scanner on the German line that's tonight then Anglican on June Cogan so you koto de Yoker yada cava tequila dance epidemic Damon non-genic Akita Tess no mo da da da caravaggio commercial so you really bond say no Ned and acaba smoke recipient Luka someone else on the committee meeting ethically neither category 9 liquor me name is kagetomo Dominus [Music] real manuka honey is only made in New Zealand but getting the real thing can be tricky in a world of counterfeits so how do you know that what you're buying is real this isn't just any old honey it's manuka honey and in its purest form it can cost up to $99 per hundred grams that's more than a hundred times the price of normal honey so why is it so expensive [Music] manuka honey is known for being earthier richer and more viscous than many other honeys it comes from the nectar of the flower leptospirosis Cap areum also known as manuka which is only native to New Zealand and manuka in fact is a Maori word the fact that it comes from New Zealand that gives it a premium just to start with because the bee travels after about six kilometres to collect to this honey and so this honey is representative of the environment and that environment as of New Zealand Otero the plant itself and the honey is very very rare out of all the honey's in the world it probably represents 1% of all the world honey's it's difficult to harvest it's only a two to six week harvesting period and the flower is only open for you for 12 days and in New Zealand we have wind and we have rain and all the rest of it so there's a lot of luck involved and getting the bu or a lot of effort from the beekeeper and for some years there are no there is no honey production for some beekeepers and we have to go to the big extent also I'm using helicopters to collect this honey although manuka bushes can also be found in Australia New Zealand accounts for almost all of the world's production with exports worth 204 million dollars and expected to quadruple to 800 million by 2028 New Zealand's honey is protected by a quality standard there's safeguards manuka special properties this honey is an expensive honey and anything that is expensive people will try and copy people will try and mimic or people will try and cheat so a lot of the cost here isn't actually in the protection of it all the research so we know it's unique we know it's from New Zealand we can identify we fought labs around the world to be able to do this identification the New Zealand government has set up a standard to say what is mono granny so how does the grading system work and what exactly are you looking for in manuka honey we spoke to dr. Adrienne Charlton from vero science a lab in the north of England where manuka honey is tested to identify two unique compounds as standard we will test for dihydroxyacetone which is DHA Rafael also known as mg oh and I don't see me feel fuller for all HMF these are the basic tests that we we would undertake to make sure that manuka honey contains the antimicrobial characteristics that the consumer would expect we could detect them but we can also measure the concentration of them and that's done using UV light to detect a particular wavelength individual compounds each compound has slightly different prophecies but because of the issues in the past with potential fraud this is the suite of other tests included in the test first compounds such as lept sparin which is a marker this unique to the nectar developed spoonski Parian we can trace then the honey back to its its botanical origin the plan that it came from when you pick up a jar of manuka honey the markers can be confusing so how do you know that it's the real deal so in some cases their labeling for the concentration of a compound so mg o 300 would indicate 300 milligrams of method well tool in that particular pots of honey per kilogram 2 NPA which is non peroxide activity alas that's related to the methyl groups of concentration but it's a more direct measure at the antimicrobial activity of the honey other other marks such as UMF a quality mark that if you can see a particular stamp on a product that has been tested and assured to a certain standard so that's different to actually labeling it with the concentration of a particular compound another factor that's driving up the price is the use of manuka honey in health and beauty products its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties are said to soothe and nourish the skin and it's also said to help with blemishes and acne isn't that really the case there's been a number of studies that have tried to determine the health benefits of manuka honey and there are some very positive results and certainly in terms of antimicrobial activity we can show that that the manuka honey has antimicrobial activity in the laboratory but those clinical trials over a long period of time not have not been undertaken today as of yet but there are lots of reports that indicates the new honey has benefits so the jury's still out on maneuvers medicinal properties but that hasn't stopped its popularity and manuka honey is serious business the prices and demand for the honey is so high that the New Zealand police have received hundreds of reports of bee hives or honey being stolen and even reports of bees being poisoned so if you do manage to get your hands on a jar does it actually taste different from normal honey that was delicious the flavors really strong it's very like very thick compared to normal honey it's got a kind of chest naughty flavor it's not as sweet as usual honey it's really smooth the taste is pretty similar to what I'm used to the texture is really interesting it's very very thick always like creamy is manuka honey really worth a hundred times more than other honey that's for you to judge but what's for certain is that no other honey in the world is so rare and unique that it needs to pass by a lab before being sold pigeon racing is a sport that's been practiced for thousands of years and from London to New York breeders still raced their birds hundreds of miles for cash prizes racing pigeons aren't the typical bird you'll find on the city streets and these pedigree birds can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars in March 2019 Armando the racing pigeon sold to a bidder in China for over 1.4 million so what is it that makes racing pigeons so expensive pigeons are some of the oldest domesticated birds they've been kept for thousands of years and used for food sending messages and entertainment they're appreciated not only for their speed but for their looks too and there are over 800 breeds of pigeon many bred specifically to be exhibited it shows messenger pigeons were used across ancient Egypt and rose and their high-value isn't new in his book Natural History the Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote that many persons have quite a mania for pigeons building towns for them on top of their roofs and taking pleasure in relating the pedigree and the noble origin of each and in about 50 BC a single pair of pigeons were sold for 400 denarii almost twice the annual pay of a Roman foot soldier at the time and right up until the invention of the Telegraph in 1844 homing pigeons remained the fastest way to send messages across long distances the birds could fly a thousand miles and reach 90 miles per hour over shorter distances they even played a big part in the world wars thousands of pigeons were used in the first world war alone and submarines minesweepers and tanks often carried pigeons onboard to send urgent messages back to base their role in the war wasn't limited to delivering messages though in 1907 Julius nubra a German pharmacist who used the birds to deliver medicine invented a miniature pigeon camera and this camera was used briefly in the war for aerial reconnaissance these days you won't see many pigeons delivering messages but the birds are still used in races across the world our birds are like pedigree dogs and cats down my father's cut we we have the same family of birds for the last 40 50 years from you know generation to generation grant great-grandchildren from the pigeons my father had 40 50 years ago come on Annie get inside Annie come on I got one in here I call a Murray after my wife when I was racing hood she's to follow me all over the roof come on girl get inside come on get come on digger girl listen to me get inside [Music] it was a simple thing to have down the garden it was a way of racing I used to gamble on them whereas if you had horses to cut room there's a lot more involved you only needed is some very small garden a tiny loft and you could raise pigeons anything else you couldn't do it and I think that's why it became so popular after the war the sport became a pastime of the working-class and affordable to many but in recent years it's transformed its rising popularity in China and the huge surge in wealth there has led people to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in the birds and the prize money for winning some of these races can be equally high Chinese bidders have spent millions of dollars on pigeons over the last few years often buying them in from Belgium and armando's value rose to 1.4 million only because of a bidding war between two wealthy Chinese buyers despite reaching this record price the bird is likely to never race again and instead be used for breeding while the number of British pigeon fanciers has fallen from 60,000 in 1992 about 21,000 today there are now a hundred thousand fanciers in Beijing Taiwan alone has half a million fanciers and these numbers are rising the sport is even rapidly growing in a rack where a pigeon recently sold for 93 thousand dollars this recent surge in value has caused problems in 2018 two men tried to win the prize money at a pigeon race by smuggling their birds on a bullet train and in Taiwan five members of an organized criminal ring were arrested for kidnapping valuable racing pigeons and holding them at ransom this new expensive world of pigeon racing across Asia has changed the reputation of the sport and for those with the money to buy the prize winners these birds are a status symbol but for those who've been doing it for years it's not about the money but the dedication and love of the sport and nobody can really tell what's going to breed a perfect pigeon you could pay a fortune for a pigeon I think there's one been sold in China the chances are it may never breed a decent pigeon who knows where you could buy two pigeons for ten pound each they hit on and they could breed your winner after winner that's what makes it so fascinating I mean I had one bird my fault my Hall of Fame hen she flew a thousand miles in three weeks I put her in a 200 a 250 and a 500 the best race I ever won was the 500 mile race with my Hall of Fame hen she come home a quarter after 9:00 at night and the dark like a bat I'm waiting and waiting and waiting and all I heard was the whispered a wish home she hit the coop I jumped out of my shoes [Music] lobsters are known as a sign of luxury but it wasn't always this way so how did the shellfish go from cockroach of the sea to decadent meal it's no secret that lobsters a pricey and a standard lobster dinner in a restaurant can set you back 38 dollars or more lobsters are considered a gourmet dish today but there was a time when they were known as the cockroaches of the sea and even served to prisoners so when did lobsters become such a delicacy and why are they so expensive [Music] there are a lot of species of lobster but we're interested in the recognizable clawed lobsters you might see on the mega Palmer is americanus and Homer is gammarus better known is American and European Lobster these two species are very similar the biggest difference is their color we went to Ed's lobster bar in New York City to speak to someone who has a lot of experience buying preparing and cooking the crustacean so one of the hardest things about working lobster is truthfully it's the price range of lobster and it fluctuates greatly and from year to year and the price increases and the yield when you clean a lobster is very low so you could buy a pound and a half lobster I think this is what most people don't understand is it a pound and a half lobster there's probably only four ounces of meat out of a hardshell lobster so you there's not much yield that comes out of the lobster so when you're cleaning a lot to yourself to make lobster rolls it really turns into a very very expensive product to fully understand what makes lobsters so expensive we need to take a look at its history because it wasn't always as revered as it is now lobsters history varies across the world but for a long time it was a source of food for many of the poorest in society during the Viking era lobsters as food became much more popular in Northern Europe as boats more suited to deep-sea fishing became available and by establishing meat-free days for certain religious holidays the church also increased demand for seafood including lobster across Europe lobsters became associated with status and a lavish lifestyle and they were often featured in paintings to show wealth but the value of lobster remained low in North America Native Americans use lobsters as fishing bait and crop fertilizer a practice that European colonists later copied during the 1600s American lobsters with dirt-cheap because they were so plentiful lobster became known as the poor man's protein among European settlers and the shellfish was often served to imprisoned and enslaved people that reputation in the US didn't turn around until the advent of railway transportation in the mid-1800s lobster started to be served on trains across the country and passengers soon became fans of the exotic seeming dish for a better taste chefs began cooking lobster alive which they still do today unlike many other foods lobster wasn't rationed in the United States during World War two and the lack of other meat options led many more people to discover this delicacy the shellfish is surging popularity reduced the stocks of lobsters and drove up the price and lobster became a gourmet dish often associated with living the high life even when the supply of these crustaceans is high the price doesn't drop due to the logistics involved successfully catching lobsters is no easy task they're caught using traps which have to all be baited and dropped to the ocean floor even if the traps are full when the lobstermen returned they might have to throw a lot back due to regulations the crustaceans are put back if they're too big too small or if they're female lobsters carrying eggs the ones that make the cut have their claws bound and are placed on ice before being taken back to shore they then kept in saltwater tanks and shipped live they need to be kept cool and moist as well as get enough oxygen to survive the journey all of which increases the cost to distribute them a commercial lobster farm could help reduce costs but it's very difficult to successfully farm American or European lobsters out of 50,000 eggs only two lobsters typically survive to reach a legal size and if the lobsters don't get enough food they become cannibalistic they're also highly susceptible to contagious diseases particularly in confined spaces on top of all that they grow very slowly it takes around seven years for a lot to mature to the required harvesting size regardless lobster caches have been increasing since 1980 and wild lobster populations have been holding steady possibly thanks to global warming climate change has led to warmer waters and therefore longer life cycles and higher fertility for lobsters even when there's plenty of lobster to go around it's still expensive in 2017 the price of Maine lobster increased because of the high demand for lobster rolls despite a record catch the year before the wholesale price for lobster can fluctuate anywhere from eight to ten dollars depending on the season per pound so right now market price at EDS lobster bar we charge thirty eight dollars for a pound and a half lobster and our lobster roll is thirty four dollars for a 4 ounce lobster roll and if we all stop and move out of the way the lobster deliveries going to come in [Music] Ed's lobster bar gets daily shipments of 150 to 200 pounds of fresh Maine lobster all of our lobster shipments are for a day or a day and a half max nothing ever sits in the restaurant over two days so the reason why you want to cook lobsters laws is number one because a dead lobster is not going to be good when the lobster is dead the the meat is going to turn to mush it's going to smell bit and you really can't eat it it kind of disintegrates inside the shell and if you actually served or ate that you're definitely gonna get sick so you always want to make sure the lobster the law I've been kicking before you cook it lobsters have become a favorite summertime treat on a busy night Ed's will sell 150 lobster rolls you know summer is definitely the season for lobster rolls it's when it's everybody's thought process here in New York City everybody's coming in the summer that can't get down to the beach because they want to get their Lobster all fix people just can't seem to get enough Lobster but a shortage in the u.s. may be coming soon lobster fishers use herring as bait and there's about to be a lot less of them because of concerns about overfishing the New England Fishery Management Council last year voted to limit fishers to about 46 million pounds of herring this year in 2014 fishers caught two hundred million pounds of herring with so much less available to buy the price of herring would likely rise which would in turn make lobster even more expensive and will people be willing to pay even more for their Lobster you know I'm very concerned about lobster prices rising it it seems to be the bottom just keeps going higher and higher every year I don't believe the consumer is willing to continually absorb the price increase that we have to absorb as restaurant owners selling lobster walk around any big city and you're likely to see the supreme logo and the street where giants popularity shows no sign of slowing so why would anyone pay three and a half thousand dollars for a hoodie scream baby just bought a faux fur jacket $4,000 so people want to know hey look that guys wearing supreme but people also make a living off it too so these two jackets are nearly identical both made by the North Face and both using gore-tex technology this one on the Left cost three hundred dollars the one on the right is currently selling for nearly thirteen hundred so what's the difference this one just happens to be a North Face collaboration with supreme so why would someone pay nearly a thousand dollars more for basically the same jacket and what is it that makes supreme so expensive [Music] from the eye-catching logo to the limited product releases and artist collaborations over the past 20 years supreme has transitioned from a small skateboarding store in New York to a 1 billion dollar street wear company but for its fans supreme is more than just a brand it's often an obsession and an entire subculture of its own since its origin supreme has maintained an image of being authentic founded by James J beer in 1994 supreme started as a skateboarding store in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan the store started out selling hoodies and sweatshirts aimed towards the burgeoning New York skate scene throughout the 90s and early 2000s supreme functions as a skate ramp catering to both skaters and those interested in the emerging street wear style The Supremes limited releases and attitude has pushed them far beyond their beginnings the most iconic supreme design is their box logo originally simple white italic lettering over a plain red background this design so closely echoes the work of conceptual artist Barbara Kruger that is hard not to see it as a direct copy and copyright theft is something that's in Supremes DNA Supremes appropriation of images is one of the keys to its popularity pop cultural imagery and logos are copied and adapted in a way that makes the designs feel more like contemporary art or graffiti than a big fashion brand Supremes first branded t-shirt was simply a photo of Robert De Niro in the film taxi driver along with the iconic red and white logo and the company's use of often unlicensed imagery has led to supreme being served cease and desist letters from Louis Vuitton the NHL and the NCAA the more we being exposed to a brand the more likely we are going to be developing an association a familiarity almost and a sense of connection with it with supreme there's no elements of status and they weren't completely for what a love should be all about standing out being identifiable the recognizability is key to Supremes power as a brand but the items are also purposefully difficult to get a hold of and their products are kept in high demand by very limited releases Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. you go to the supreme website you enter your basic information your name email phone number and credit card number then they'll send you a text later in the day to let you know if you've been selected to stand in line then on Wednesday they'll send you a text telling you the time and store to report to and on Thursday you go to the store at the time that you're given there's a 1 there's a 1 limit per style rule in supreme so what that means is if a shirt comes out in black red and gray you can only get it in gray so if I want it in black and red I need to get two other people to get it for me so they need to stand in line for me a lot of the people who do stand in line are standing in line for someone else supreme only sells their merchandise at 11 brick-and-mortar stores across the world as well as their online store it was around the mid to late 2000s that supreme really started to pick up speed this success was partly due to what's been dubbed the Kearney effect in 2006 supreme released their supreme blazer SB a collaboration with nike the shoes retailed for around 150 dollars with resale prices ranging from three hundred to four hundred dollars in July 2007 West was pictured wearing the shoes at the Grammy Foundation starry night party after the photos were released the resale price of the shoes doubled to $800 similarly the teal box logo sweatshirt worn by Tyler the Creator in his XI music video originally priced around one hundred and fifty dollars sold for 3500 but not everything from supreme is going to end up being valuable sellers like Kris have to decide what's going to be popular and what items will give them the best return so how I decide on what I think is going to resale is based mainly on what I would wear you can also go to these Instagram accounts and they'll have instagram polls Twitter polls talking about oh like you can upload this you can download this and it's kind of it's this crowdsourcing tool to understand the market better and find out oh this one's gonna resell or this one is really popular the most money that I've made off of one supreme item is the 2017 fall/winter collaboration with the North Face and it was a mountain parka I bought it for three hundred ninety-eight dollars and I sold her for nine hundred and fifty this incredibly limited release means that buying and reselling supreme items is where the real money is when you look at the prices of supreme items in store they aren't as outlandish as you may expect they retail for around $38 for a t-shirt to 138 for a sweatshirt but it's once these products have sold out that they can reach 30 times their original price many other big brands are now adopting this method of very limited releases to generate hype around their products from trainers to other street wear brands these releases make people feel like they're part of something exclusive the more we make a consumer work for their a particular artist or product then what alluring these services and products are becoming so I think supreme know very well hard to make something incredibly accessible and sexy by allowing us to jump through as many hoops as possible to make it relevant for thing but there's something about supreme that's different could any other company get away with selling a brick or a branded crowbar what is it that gives you premium such a devoted following I think it's the height it's a name brand and name brands affect anybody have been in New York especially Talaash Street we're so like people want to have that like exclusive idols exclusive items so I feel like supreme they they keep their quantities very low because of the high demand people will pay that price if it's something they like supreme I think the thing that really causes people to spend money and wait in line is kind of the it factor that it has right they've done an amazing job of limiting quantities and under producing to the demand so that way they're their market of people that they're people that would want to buy the product it isn't just people that are interested in the product but it's also people that are interested in making money and that demographic is way bigger than people that are just interested in street wear so when there's an opportunity to make money then there's going to be a huge line of people around the block regardless if they want to wear the product supreme has managed to somehow keep their cool alternative and exclusive image despite their expansion and has still maintained its skater credentials despite selling a 50% stake in the brand to a private equity firm with more and more people wanting their products for now it looks like supreme isn't going anywhere Wagyu beef imported from Japan has become a staple luxury of restaurants across New York so what makes this beef so special this is Wagyu beef one of the most expensive meats in the world produced in Japan and prized for its rich marbling and buttery taste high-grade Wagyu can cost up to $200 per pound and the cows themselves can sell for as much as $30,000 but what is it that makes the meat so expensive [Music] the term Wagyu literally translates to Japanese cows and it generally refers to four main breeds these cows were bred for physical endurance giving them more intramuscular fat cells the fat is distributed more evenly throughout their muscle which is why Wagyu beef looks pink and taste so tender and the Japanese government tightly regulates Wagyu production to protect the value and quality of the meat Wagyu is graded on two main factors how much meat can be yielded and the quality of the mottled fat only a three to a5 Wagyu is certified for sale in Japan and the higher the grade the higher the price where GU beef has gained almost legendary status and there are many myths about Wagyu farms and the way the animals are treated from getting daily massages to being fed beer but these often aren't true the cows are raised very differently in each region and by different farmers but they're often raised by a breeder until they're about ten months old and then sold at auction to a fattening father by the time the carves are sold at auction they can already fetch 40 times the price of us cattle the fattening farmer will keep the animals in small pens and feed them a mixture of fiber and high-energy concentrate made from rice wheat and hay they're often fed this three times a day for almost two years until the animals are almost 50 percent fat only the pregnant cows and breeding cattle are allowed to graze on pasture the length of the fattening process and the import prices of the huge amount of concentrated feed increases the cost of the beef and over this fattening period each cow will eat five tons of feed if and when a cow goes to auction it can sell for as much as thirty thousand dollars comparatively black angus cattle which are considered the cream of the crop in countries like the united states and australia typically don't sell for more than $3,000 and depending on the kind the Wagyu can fetch close to $200 per pound high marbling is the common goal but the approach varies by farm and area while there are more than 300 varieties of Wagyu available the most notable cuts come from ten regions one of the most expensive cuts is Matsusaka Wagyu from me a Prefecture made exclusively from virgin female cows and highly prized for its tenderness in 2002 one Matsusaka cow sobbed for 50 million yen or roughly $400,000 however the best-known cut of Wagyu is Kobe beef which comes from the city of Kobe in Kyoto prefecture and is made exclusively from steers or castrated bulls although Kobe is commonly seen on us restaurant menus customers should be wary of items like Kobe burgers as authentic Kobe beef is - tended to be formed into a patty several us restaurants are actually serving hybrid wangus beef from domestically raised Wagyu and Angus cows the highest-ranking Wagyu is a five miyazaki a two-time winner of the Wagyu Olympics a five Miyazaki will cost you $100 or more per pound at Sakura in New York City is the Wagyu of choice the restaurant is best known for serving it in an $85 katsu Sando a popular Japanese style sandwich on a busy night we probably serve about 25 of them at $85.00 [Music] because walking so it finds in the u.s. yes we do have a number of customers coming to us just to try the Wagyu sometimes two top will come and just order the sandal by itself there are a lot of tariffs and quotas on Japanese beef imports and it's actually not allowed to import live cattle so it is very difficult to source Wagyu so is it worth it we decide to have our team give a five Miyazaki Wagyu a try and there might be something even more sought-after than the a five miyazaki hell does the rarest steak in the world Oliver who comes from cattle raised on pressed dry dalek peels mixed into their feet it was developed in 2006 by a Japanese cattle farmer named Misaki issue only about 2200 of these cows were slaughtered in 2018 and they all live on the island of shudder Shima home to Japan's oldest olive oil plantation this special Wagyu is said to be extra tender and can cost anywhere from 120 to over 300 dollars for a steak while waggish popularity grows worldwide the domestic picture is a little different where G's popularity in Japan is actually slumping slightly and the country imported more US beef than any other country as of 2017 the value of Japanese exports of Wagyu has risen over 200 percent in the past five years and as Japan's population ages farmers are struggling to keep up with the increased global demand raising prices even more but the high cost hasn't discouraged international sales in 2013 Japan exported five billion yen worth of Wagyu last year exports hit twenty four point seven billion yen and many producers are now getting halal certifications for their slaughterhouses so they can export to Muslim countries however Japan may eventually have some competition when it comes to producing high-quality Wagyu countries like the US Australia and the UK have been working on breeding their own Wagyu usually relying on crossbreeding most British American and Australian Wagyu are only 50% purebred but that may be changing soon in the UK for example the Wagyu breeders Association now registers DNA verified full-blood Wagyu Bulls and certifies authentic British Wagyu new methods and increased regulation may result in a product as good as the original which means that as soon could be a lot more Wagyu that cost a lot less four years and across the world Air Jordans with a shoe to have despite a bumpy road their popularity has endured and the sneakers are now more expensive than ever this is the Jordan one retro fragment it originally retailed for a hundred and eighty five dollars in 2014 but today a pair can resell for up to two thousand dollars and this is the Yeezy boost 350 v2 core black red which retailed at two hundred and twenty dollars in 2016 and now resales for nine hundred the fragments resale value more than doubles its competition these shoes were both sold in limited releases so why did Jordans become so much more expensive [Music] it all has to do with the value of the Jordan Brand and how it makes and markets its iconic sneakers in fact that it's made in China where the tariffs are higher made in the best factories made with more material basketball shoes tent that use more material than a running shoe and then trying to be as close to the original product are all things that have driven prices up there according to Matt's research the average price of a basketball sneaker is about 110 dollars while Jordans average price is about 145 to understand why Jordan Brand can charge more let's go all the way back to the beginning before the Jordan one was introduced before the 1984 to 85 season Nike signed an unproven MJ to a five-year deal worth more than three times the Rich's contract to that point but that wasn't the only unusual decision Nike made while launching the Air Jordan brand the Air Jordan one swapped the standard white upper for a black one which violated the NBA's uniform policy and resulted in a $5,000 fine per game on September 15 Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe on October 18th the NBA threw them out of the game Nike recognized this unique marketing opportunity and footed Mike's tail as he went on to win Rookie of the Year playing every game in his band namesake sneaker they just showed that he was rebellious and it was something that people gravitated to him they wanted to wear them too it was like the first sneaker that really shook up sneaker culture I think it's the shoe that catapulted sneakers to where they are today because it was the first shoe that people saw and wanted more than the average shoe Mike's success as a rookie made a big impact on Nikes bottom love the original Jordan one hit stores across America in March 1985 priced at $65 and at the end of the year the Air Jordan franchise had made a hundred million dollars in revenue the Air Jordan 2 wasn't as successful after just 18 games in his new design jordan suffered a season-ending broken firm reports surfaced about Mike being unhappy and looking to jump ship to a D dice the Air Jordan 3 became a crucial crossroads for Jordan and Nike enter Tinker Hatfield today he's known as the architect of modern sneaker design back then he was known for innovating Nikes airmax technology his Jordan 3 design became legendary it pioneered the first ever mid car basket ball sneaker includes elephant print overlays and immortalized His Airness in the Jumpman logo and tinker incorporates his Air Max technology into the soul those three things I think brought its cultural importance because it was a statement shoe right so now you're actually making a statement by wearing a basketball shoe which wasn't necessarily the purpose of wearing a basketball shoe off for the company's rollout of the Jordan three was equally as legendary as the design Nikes marketing team connected Jordan with Spike Lee for what would become some of the most memorable commercials in history you know I get up for my game do you know do you know do you know that's right Air Jordan Air Jordan Air Jordan you really saw the Jordan Brand become a luxury brand in the United States it was our designer sneaker and it made the shoes very visible and that's a big part of the conspicuous consumption is to be able to look across the room and see that that person's wearing $100 shoe in order $300 shoe in today's parlance during all this the price of Jordans had jumped to $100 significantly higher than the top basketball sneaker at the time converses weapon jordan market is its sneakers as a luxury product to match MJ's talent and style and in the process creates the cultural phenomenon bringing sports apparel into the mainstream he was a very marketable figure with a great smile and a big hoop earring and people wanted to look like him and so you started seeing this face all over the world but the brand priced out kids from low-income families who wanted them the most and by the 90s Jordans were so coveted violence erupted around them two teens are even killed for that Jordan sneakers nevertheless the phenomenon continued Jordans were status symbol that couldn't be stopped whether you're in the fashion whether you're in the sports or whether you're just a fan of Michael Jordan himself you had to know about Jordan brain you have to own something from Jordan Brand Hatfield continued to design Jordan's signature sneakers for the next 12 years the Jordan brand became a sneaker giant and MJ became the greatest player in basketball history their run lasted for more than a decade but that was all about to change in 2013 adidas released new technology signed Kanye West and started making big gains despite increased competition Jordans prices stayed high that year's new Jordan's retailed at two hundred and fifty dollars the highest price for you signature Jordan released to that point retro prices jumped to a retro is a re-release of an original shoe 224 these 400 for these this happens with every sneaker brand as they see the resale prices of their shoes go higher they want they want more of the pot and so they started to try and get more of the pie when adidas came out with a lot of their more popular styles during that era it caused a lot of people to just say I'm gonna stop buying Jordans for right now and I'm gonna focus on these newer styles that are comfortable that are cool that are trendy Jordans weren't selling out as fast as they had in previous years and Jordan increased supply to balance out revenues but it oversaturated the market according to soulcollector between September and November 2017 Jordan released 30 different retros the price hike is combined with an oversaturated market and increased competition led to what soulcollector called Jordan fatigue and added as his market share nearly doubled Jordan Brand president Larry Miller admitted that the brand had released too many shoes and needed to figure out how to connect to young consumers again a nike CEO Mark Parker did just that with his edit and amplify strategy he helped Nike R&D cut down from 350 sneaker ideas to 50 this helped the company be more disciplined and catch up with the speed of the sneaker market the secret sauce for Jordan over the years has always been unrequited demand never having enough shoes to satisfy the market which made the kid come back on the next release and hoped that he would get a pair Jordan mounted his comeback in 2018 the brand ramped up offerings for female customers and its Concorde 11 retro release was its most successful shoe introduction ever according to Parker and they've been able to connect to a new generation tapping Travis Scott Virgil a blow and more to offer their take on the historic designs today you don't really need to market a Jordan product and so it does it becomes a pole market the idea is that the product is so sensational so wanted by the consumer that it's pulling them into the store the brand is pulling in customers like the old days and according to Parker Jordan ones are more coveted than ever free sale info back that up remember that comparison we did at the beginning it looks like Jordan is getting the balance just right between nostalgia and innovate it has to be my favorite sneaker of all time this is the Haier Jordan for whites a minute delay lemay Jordan one biotech the Air Jordan one it represents the beginning of Jordan's career I think it's interesting to see how the Jordan Brand continues to evolve as the ventures deeper into the woman and unisex market you know just reminds me of my childhood this is really what got me into a sneaker game it's the reason why a lot of us sneaker heads exist in this liquid colorway man that's just perfect often called one of the most expensive liquids in the world printer ink has a bad reputation and the actual ink inside the cartridge doesn't cost that much to produce so why is it so expensive a [Music] gallon of printer ink can cost you twelve thousand dollars when in cartridge form it's more expensive than vintage champagne and even human blood in fact it can be cheaper to buy an entire printer than it is to purchase new ink cartridges so why is printer ink so expensive let's start with the first printers no not that far no come on there we go inkjet printers were first developed in the 1960s an early computer inks were made from food dye and water because of this they would fade after a few months so companies had to develop a dye they gave permanent photographic quality in 1988 hewlett-packard achieved just that with the first mass-market inkjet printer which sold for about $1000 but a lot has changed since then today you can buy a brand new printer for around $35 but there's a catch when the ink runs out in one of these printers you need to buy specific cartridges and these cartridges are expensive so why are the cartridges so pricey are that simple greed and an outdated razor and blades model this is David Cornett he's the former editor of the recycler and has been lobbying for change in the printer ink industry for years they sell the printers chip they saw the consumables vary at a very expensive price and basically it's a formula the the cheaper the printer the more expensive the consumables once you bought a printer that uses cartridges you're trapped in a cycle you have no choice but to buy them or throw away your printer as a printer is typically a one-time purchase companies don't mind selling them a loss and making the money back through cartridge sales the HP Envy for 520 all-in-one printer for example sells for $70 but it estimated to cost a hundred and twenty to manufacture the loss they make on printers means that companies need to sell ink cartridges to make a profit and this model has led to a battleground between printer manufacturers and third-party ink suppliers the companies do everything they can to keep you buying official ink cartridges manufacturers install microchips into their cartridges and frequently issue firmware updates to prevent the use of third-party ink which can be more affordable last year almost 900 firm upgrades were issued by just nine printer manufacturers so that's almost three a day I mean that's just like either absolutely incompetence because you've got to do it so much or it is a definite stealth tactic to control the market printer companies attribute the high costs of the research and development that goes into perfecting printer ink the materials they use however cost very little manufacturing cost of ink is between 20 and 40 euros elisa and a lot of the ink you buy never even gets used for printing according to a 2018 test by Consumer Reports more than half the ink you buy could end up lost in maintenance cycles for cleaning the print heads and printers that use multiple color ink cartridges also stop working as soon as one color runs out even if the other colors are still full these days you're getting even less for your money while the cartridges themselves are the same size and price they often contain far less ink inside than they used to the ink in many manufacturers cartridges has shrunk from 20 mil to around 5 mil over the past few years without any reduction in price the original size 20 mil cartridges are often still on sale but are often sold as extra large cartridges for even more money and some new cartridges can have as little as 3 milliliters of ink inside some companies have now even started ink subscriptions deactivating your cartridges remotely if you print more than your allocated pages laser printers offer a lower cost alternative to inkjet but produce a lower quality printed image the real solution for many though would be to offer more efficient ink cartridges this product you know can be better engineer they could Lea's with the aftermarket 2 to actually you know find a solution that works for everybody because you know this ultimately this is bad for the consumer because it's overpriced and expensive and it's bad for the environment because it doesn't it doesn't need to be made that way [Music] you [Music]
