"I agree. While I prefer to use solid wood as often as possible, sometimes veneer is the way to go. Craftsmen have been using it for hundreds of years. You can certainly design around wood movement and even use solid core material, but with the price of walnut where it is the material cost for that desk would be well over $1000 if it was all solid. I have no problem with the drawer boxes being veneered plywood. Hopefully they used solid edging instead of tape (doubt it). The top makes me a little sad. The fact that they are stealing designs makes me pissed. As for the prices on DWR pieces, it's like anything. All I know about women's shoes and handbags are that they can get expensive after a point for little reason other than a brand name. "