See the eye of the face and its variants.
It is an expression used to indicate that something costs or cost a lot, it is usually used without the "by"
It is a colloquial expression used in Colombia to refer to something that has been extremely expensive or onerous. It causes a lot of damage or evil. Laborious, difficult, expensive, onerous, expensive, burdensome, distressing.
Colloquial expression referring to the price of an object, referring that it is very expensive or expensive as: auto, clothing, land, house; so you paid a high price to get it and you cherised its value.