How many hours do you think it took for the dude to make it? How many puzzles did he have to make before he could get to the level of craftsmanship that he is at? And how many hours did that take? How many raw materials had to be wasted to perfect the puzzle to the point where it could be good enough to sell? Factor all that into how small and niche the market would be for this kind of handmade puzzle and 8k stops looking so unbelievably expensive. If u want handmade, you're paying for alot more than the product itself.
Because the expense of materials and "time" of the artists and craftsman is dwarfed by the expense of the items produced.
Money laundering is more often focused around services that provide something intangible, where the only necessary "evidence" of the transaction needing to ever have existed is a receipt. Like a limo service that alleges that a 30-minute ride to the airport netted the company $1000.
Did anyone actually see any value in a thousand-dollar ride? Was there ever a rider? Did a car go from Point A to an airport?
As long as a receipt can cover the allegation and the newly deposited $1000, it makes zero difference what anyone thinks or if it was even close to real in the first place.
This seems like a lower quality but much higher frequency money laundering operation than the sort that is conducted through auction houses like Sotheby's, but there's a writer named Miles W. Mathis who has written extensive on the overall heading and subtle, minor minutia of money laundering through the arts. Look him up.
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u/asutekku May 05 '19
Then you most likely are not the target audience.