Why buying direct from makers costs less than you think

An object that leaves a workshop for 40 dollars routinely reaches a boutique shelf at 120. An exporter takes a margin, an importer takes a margin, a distributor takes a margin, and the shop doubles whatever lands on its dock. None of that money reaches the person who made the thing; all of it reaches your receipt.

The instinct that direct import must be complicated, with surprise customs bills and forms in another language, is what keeps the middle layers in business. It stopped being true. Duties and taxes are calculable in advance for nearly every country, and carriers quote a real door price for a single parcel from almost anywhere.

1VIM does that arithmetic on every listing: the maker's own price, the actual shipping quote to your address, duties and taxes your country will really charge, and one payment fee shown in the open. Sellers pay no commission, so the workshop price stays the workshop price. Most of the time the total still lands well under the boutique's tag, and every dollar of craft in it went to the person whose hands made it.