Chen notes that his hand-carved wooden molds are extremely expensive. "Twenty years ago," he recalls, "a rectangular mold cost NT $ 20,000, and a more delicate round mold cost more than NT $ 50,000. In those days, a house cost only NT $ 200,000 or so. I could have bought any number of houses with the money I've invested in molds!"
陳嘉德指出，純手工雕刻的木製模具價格相當昂貴，「二十幾年前，一個方形模具就要兩萬元新台幣，更別緻的圓形模具則要五萬多，當時一棟房子大概二十萬左右，光是投資模具的錢都可以買好多棟房子了！」