Caveat emptor

One of my favourite millinery periods is the 1940s -1950s. I also like the origami type of ribbon folding, and have taught myself several techniques using old books and you tube videos. I saw a picture of this hat advertised by a vintage seller on line, and it was really reasonably priced, so decided to buy it. As it was coming from the US, there was quite a postage fee, but I was really surprised when getting the Import VAT bill... this came to about 2/3 the price of the hat... it is very beautiful, but I think I will have to factor in locations of bargains in the future.