Why is Lego so expensive?

Two years ago I was a regular 19 year old who had the idea of turning album covers into Lego. I designed my first cover and when I went to turn it into a reality I discovered it would cost $100 per set because of the obscure colors only available on second hand Lego websites. At $100 a set it just wasn't a viable business. I couldn't afford it, scale it, or expect people to pay that much. It crushed the dream before it even started. So I went back to the drawing board and after a lot of trial and error I found a way to source parts smarter, cut the costs without killing the quality, until I could sell each set for $49.99, making it into an actual viable business. But even at $49.99 people still said it was too expensive. And I get it, it is a lot of money, but it's not your average set. These aren't mass produced dropshipped products from Temu. Each cover is designed by me, hand sorted, packaged, and shipped from my office. It's a unique product made by a fan for fans. And it's not just a display piece, it's interactive art that you can build yourself. The price also factors in a big chunk of the shipping costs just to keep it reasonable. I started this account to document the entire journey and be transparent, which is why I want to explain what goes into each set and why they cost what they do. This has been episode 6 of selling a billion bricks. The current total is 2,219,072.