The TRUE Value of Wizard Gold REVEALED | Harry Potter Film Theory

[@Mr1991bbk]

An easy explanation for Olivander is that he charges a low fee for students and then has actual fees for adult wizards. There is the distinction between young and adult wizards in their community.

[@MeghanClark825]

Or maybe he does commissions for custom wands for the adults or makes other things like storage boxes/displays for wands?

[@JaxdoesArt]

It could also be that he doesn’t use a whole hair in each wand. Some of the more elegant / purebred horses can have manes 14 inches long. I’d assume that unicorns have about as much if not more hair.

[@MeghanClark825]

​@@JaxdoesArtI was thinking the same thing too! And same for the other cores. How much of the phoenix feather or dragon heartstring do you actually need considering the length of the wand vs the length of the core?

[@funnyboi245]

Another potential explanation is subsidies from the Ministry. Especially for students. That way Olivander still gets paid full price.

[@suntanironman]

Or… easier explanation… Wizard economics makes no sense! 😂

[@malcolm32]

Olivander's prices are quite easily explained. He doesn't buy his cores. He sources them directly, at least in the case of unicorn hairs. In Year 4, during the weighing of the wands ceremony he recounts a story of almost being gored by the unicorn that provided the hair for Cedric's wand.

[@DearSis]

I wonder how many dragon heart strings he can get from a single dragon before it dies? Surely unicorn hairs will regrow…I find it hard for dragons to “regrow” pieces or it’s heart…although it is a lizard which are known for regrowing body parts

[@malcolm32]

@@DearSis they're also ✨magic✨ lizards

[@jefftalley7036]

@@malcolm32 it could be even more simple than that. Dragons are abundant enough across Europe that Hogwarts can rent 4 of them with only a year's notice at best before the Tri-Wizard Tournament. And those are four different breeds. Maybe those are the exciting breeds, but then there are more common, ho-hum dragons (writing "ho-hum dragons" is funny to me) that are bred for various purposes like over-sized cattle. And just to keep it light, dragon heart strings are only harvested from dragons that have passed from old age.

[@malcolm32]

@@jefftalley7036 "Sorry these are the fun dragons. The hum-drum dragons are back there. 👀" But yeah, I'd say that's the simplest answer.

[@phoenix_lament27]

Also taking that into account it's totally possible that Olivander keeps only the best specimens for his wands and sells the remaining ones to an apothecary for a tidy sum.

[@Demorid]

To be fair about all of this, the price of gold today is about 5x what it was worth in 1990. So you could reasonably divide all of these prices by 5 to get their value of when the books take place. So you're looking at about $2000~ for a wand. Also about $83600 for a Firebolt. Still a humble $6430 per year gift from a godfather.

[@jjh1041]

good shout

[@TiberiusRex182]

Good lookin! Didnt even consider that.

[@jimm60701]

Also to be fair, he was using today prices. The cumulative increase due to inflation is about 134% so $2000 in 1990 is worth about $4680 today.

[@marilynlucero9363]

Big brain comment right here! Today you win the internet for the observation.

[@Dontfucklewithdashuckle]

If we are going to use the worth of gold from 1990 then shouldn't we also include inflation from between 1990 and 2023 if we want to compare prizes in dollars today?

[@shrimpbisque]

On the one hand, these currency issues could have been mitigated with tighter and more consistent worldbuilding on JK's part. On the other hand, Harry being stupidly cavalier with his money makes perfect sense when you consider that he has really no experience with how things work in the wizarding world, considering he didn't even know it existed until he was chucked headlong into it when he turned 11.

[@kallistiravenhurst5232]

additional factor: i doubt he was trusted with even the british equivalent of a couple of quarters. as such even normal money sense was completely stunted, let alone money sense with a "nonsensical" system. [i haven't read the books. take my two cents with a pinch of salt]

[@gracier1927]

On the topic of unicorn hairs, it's very possible that only a fraction of a full piece of hair goes into a wand. Horse tail hairs can be several feet long, and wands on average are only a foot. Also, he could just charge different prices for different wands.

[@rajek333]

Plus, there was a 5 year gap between the first and sixth books, so perhaps some inflation is to be accounted for with the price of a single strand.

[@vyran7044]

also also shops tend to order raw material in large quanteties and get a discount for it. Same with potential favored supplyer/loyalty deals. And all of that is assuming that he does not have a personal stake in the procurement industry. Maybe he (part) owns a plot of land where they grow all the different trees needed and/or a farm where they raise magical creatures. ... Great now i hae the image of a modern industrial chicken battery filled to the brim with phoenixes stuck in my head...

[@ThreadBomb]

@@vyran7044 I'm pretty sure Olivander doesn't pay retail prices for his supplies.

[@DreadlordZolias]

Don't forget: Unicorns are magical creatures associated with healing, so I'd imagine that Unicorn Hair is an ingredient for some of the strongest medicinal potions available - quite possibly Skele-Gro.

[@levitobias8031]

Or secondhand ingredients. ALOT of the listed wand cores are also potion ingredients. Assuming the item isn't destroyed or completely sapped of it's properties, after being strained out, it should be usable in a wand.

[@VoidNull9222]

I like this theory because it solves a problem I had with the Triwizard Tournament winnings. If you go by the 1 galleon = $7 USD then the prize of a thousand galleons is ‘only’ worth about $7,000. A nice chunk of change but not exactly an amount of money I’d risk my life for But for $1,393,000? Where’s the horntail, I’m feeling lucky

[@HenryStickmen]

This is peak comedy

[@shhinysilver1720]

wait, harry gave fred and george OVER &1 MILLION for a joke shop? and he has way more than that in his bank? why is he even thinking about a wizard career? he's set for the next 300 years.

[@demonpride1975]

the problem with that is if all prices in the wizarding world were comparable to the prices of olivanders, then 7000 would be a very comparable amount of money. the problem is they can get away with low prices, because a lot of these places don't have large scale operations, where as the human world has factories and such, and you would have to make a profit plus pay your workers.

[@Clone683]

This makes Rons comment about "Having so much money you dont even notice when a galleon goes missing" make a lot more sense

[@demonpride1975]

problem is i highly doubt ron has much interaction with buying things in the muggle world., so he would have no clue of the value. just the value in the wizarding world.

[@rubygracemoseley8144]

J saying “She’s a Witch!” About his niece in the most serious but scared tone 😂😂 That was hilarious

[@PalmelaHanderson]

My headcanon is that Harry's class in Hogwarts, along with those +/- a few years around him, were unusually small thanks to the war with Voldemort. We don't know how many casualties there were during the war, but it seems like almost everyone in the wizarding world lost at least one person close to them.

[@jameslars7391]

Not only that but Harry was also born in the middle of the war I doubt to many people were getting pregnant during that time.

[@alexescalanteb]

Also, Gryffindor was kinda picky when choosing their students... it makes sense that Hufflepuff has way more students since they accept everyone not fulfilling the requisites of other houses.

[@Steeleagle302]

That would explain why there were so many empty and unused classrooms all over the school. I also remember them mentioning that Dumbledore or someone was the old head of the transfiguration department, yet in Harry's time, there is only one transfiguration teacher, McGonagall.

[@bluelemon243]

​@@jameslars7391in many times its quite the opposite, people who are worried for their life hurry up in thoes things In fact, this is what happened in the wizarding world,molly talk about it in hbp Its still possible that the classes were small because of the war because thoes babies than got murdered and staff

[@pokebreederrichard1200]

That's not head cannon, That's actually true.

[@izzysmith105]

Sirius spending £32,000 on Harry every year is completely believable. And I love it. (Also yeah, Sirius bought Harry the latest F1 racing car)

[@mitchpw2996]

Serious has old money, the type that doesn't mind dropping 32k on the fam haha

[@taylorasbell7074]

What about McGonagall buying the nimbus 2000

[@izzysmith105]

@@taylorasbell7074 Ooh never thought about that! Can't remember if her family was rich, though I presume 40 odd years of a well paying salary while seemingly living at Hogwarts with few expenses would do that to someone. That or Hogwarts is super well funded and didn't miss a few thousand galleons

[@Lifegivinglemons]

​@taylorasbell7074 It's believed that McGonagall didn't pay for it, but requisitions the money from the school, in order to get Harry the broom to play on the team. Like an athletic scholarship. Since Flitwick mentioned that McGonagall mentioned "Special Circumstances" as to why Harry had gotten the broom.

[@MavenWalsh]

Yeah, but that meant the Weasleys won $975,338 for that Daily Prophet Grand Prize and Harry gave the Twins $1,393,340 to start their own business. Acromantula Venom cost $139,334 per pint. One Unicorn hair would have cost the same amount. Seriously, how the heck were the Weasleys "poor" after all that??

[@thebeardedchad]

If you start with Knuts being made of bronze, then they are about 30 cents as they are smaller (per current market value). That means sickles would be $8.70 and a Galleon would be $147.90. I think this is a way better representation of a functioning currency. Making a wand $1,035.30. That's also today money. That's about $431 in 1991 money. That would be 258 British pounds in 1991. According to google, the average household income would have been 12,353 pounds. That's 2% of their income on a wand for a muggle born.

[@DaRozeman]

That would seem reasonable, but in precious metals, coins sell at market value of the metal used. Ergo, a 1 ounce gold coin would sell for about $1900 as of the time I type this. Bronze sells for about $.10/ounce and silver about $24/ounce. That explains the strange a Sickel is worth 29 Knuts, etc. The market value difference is pretty large. In fact the wizarding work over-values bronze by quite a bit (about 8x) and silver is worth (in the wizarding world) almost 5x it's true "muggle" value.

[@thebeardedchad]

@@DaRozeman Right that's why I was saying that gold isn't the way to start but bronze is because Brown starts at $0.10 an ounce, and I think the magical properties of the silver and gold have been used to make them bigger but using a smaller amount of silver and gold

[@einstijn138]

Yeah but coins would never be worth less than their materials. So you have to take the highest value.

[@thebeardedchad]

@@einstijn138 Well what I was saying was that the silver and gold coins have been magically made bigger so they actually are worth less than the gold they seem to contain or the silver. That's why they can't be copied because the copies are too thin and less dense than they should be so they fall apart

[@t.j.armendariz354]

@@thebeardedchadessentially it’s as if the density or purity of the gold has been lowered

[@thomaszielke866]

The conversion rate is definitely crazy. On top of the fact that they have socialized medicine, effectively eliminating the need for insurance, the spell Reparo to repair pretty much anything, and Floo powder to eliminate travel costs…it makes more sense at how Arthur and Molly could feed and clothe 7 kids. However, it does question how expensive that vacation to Egypt was. For the record, $975, 338. And they had enough left over to buy Ron a new wand.

[@satsujin-shathewitchkingof6185]

They’re in Britain. We straight up have free healthcare so JK probably wasn’t even thinking about that. I always forget Americans don’t until they mention it or make a joke about it. I can confirm for you that free healthcare eliminates the need for health insurance entirely and is significantly better than your American system.

[@TommyTombstone]

​​@@satsujin-shathewitchkingof6185I really don't want to get into a debate about whose system is better in the comment section of an SCB video, but here are a few things to consider about the American system: 1) there is virtually no wait-list for most procedures, except in extenuating circumstances (i.e. lack of available organs for transplant) 2) the US foots the bill for the majority of medical and pharmacological research for the entire world. Research and development isn't cheap. 3) The US defense budget isn't just for the US. NATO is only still on its feet because of us, and most NATO allies have enjoyed the luxury of not holding an adequate standing army (looking at Germany in particular) until very recently. Even UK lawmakers have admitted that they're essentially wholly reliant on US air support in any conflict. I've experienced both systems, having lived in Europe as well as being ex-military (the US military having what basically amounts to socialized medicine). The costs are higher on the private side, and definitely higher than need be, but there are definite drawbacks to the speed and quality of care that comes with centralized healthcare.

[@satsujin-shathewitchkingof6185]

@TommyTombstone Sure,sure but I'd still rather know I'm gonna get help than worry about losing my house.

[@TommyTombstone]

@@satsujin-shathewitchkingof6185 I don't disagree. I think private insurance drives up costs (because drug companies charge whatever insurance is willing to pay out) and allows for insurance companies to deny treatments even against doctor's recommendations. I just think there's a lot of nuance in this discussion that people miss out on. Europe has had the luxury of having it's defense largely outsourced to the US, and as such has had plenty of money for social programs that the US simply doesn't. Our tax burden isn't as bad as the average European, but it's plenty bad enough. Adding socialized healthcare to our defense budget would probably mean income taxes in excess of 50%.

[@satsujin-shathewitchkingof6185]

@TommyTombstone Okay,I'm going to present my argument from two perspectives so you can see what I'm getting at. For my family,the NHS is something irreplaceable (for one,my mom is a nurse) because my sister was born with one leg shorter than the other and I have 5 younger siblings. The sheer amount of money we'd have to fork out for the pregnancies and my Sister's surgeries would very quickly leave us very poor. I'm fine with cutting down military costs if it means people don't have to go through that. What's the point in defending your nation if people can't even get health care without losing a lot? I'm not even saying it has to be free but do what Japan do and have the state cover X% of the cost. Tell me,would you get rid of the fire department as a public service to maintain the strong military you have? I'd assume not. It's pretty much the same thing. I'm not saying it would be easy or perfect but I do think it would benefit the American people

[@mister-8658]

One thing I have to add about ollivander giving the pair wand to Harry is that he may have sold it at cost. By virtue of not wanting to overcharge the most famous wizard orphan.

[@Ranger1812]

Wands are essential items and so subsided by the Ministry.

[@Ekko_Chamber]

My question is why didn't hagrid just, buy a new wand

[@Neekazan]

​@@Ekko_Chamber since he was forbidden to use magic by the Ministry, the wand dealers would probably get in trouble for selling to him.

[@4creilly128]

​@@Ranger1812no proof

[@Ranger1812]

@@Ekko_Chamber He was banned from doing magic. Dumbledore secretly fixed his wand and hid it in his umbrella.

[@philmarceniuk322]

I think the craziest conversion is Ludo telling the twins he'd spend 5 galleons on a FAKE WAND. Almost has much as buying a new wand. You gotta wonder how much Weasley's Wizard Weezes rakes in

[@Evoker23-lx8mb]

They definitely made more money that Arthur did. George is probably the richest living Weasley apart from Percy and maybe Ron, the auror pay check’s gotta be pretty decent not to mention he later helped run the shop.

[@aenguswright7336]

@@Evoker23-lx8mb Nah, George would have way more than Percy

[@Evoker23-lx8mb]

@@aenguswright7336 Jr assistant to the minister of magic surely pays quite well.

[@bo567ik]

Crazy to think that Harry gave Fred and George nearly 1.4 million dollars for the joke shop!

[@suntanironman]

What’s even crazier is that they just gave Harry the 1,000 galleons. They gave a 14 year old (14 or 15) this large amount of Wizarding Dollarydoos and… no supervision at all. They didn’t put it into a Wizarding Trust until he became an adult. They apparently didn’t even deposit it into Harry’s Gringotts vault. Harry just had it… at school… maybe in the trunk/chest by his bed… I guess… WHAT?! 😂 It would be super irresponsible to give most (almost all!) 14 year olds that much money. But then again… a lot of the adults ARE super irresponsible, so that fits. Lol

[@keithg460]

Bro was dying for a good joke.

[@HiopX]

just a small loan of a million dollars (and a half)

[@KurusuPanda]

Diagon Alley real estate ain't cheap

[@einflinkeswiesel2695]

It's a big store with multiple floors in the main shopping street of the magical world and if they had to buy it, it's a reasonable price, just as if they had to pay rent for a long time (which is probably be the plan when you rent a house to open a shop) and adding to that they also had to do some work in research and production of their stuff

[@martinschalken7583]

When the muggle at the World Cup talks about hubcap sized coins I assumed it was from a foreign wizard who uses a completely different wizarding currency

[@Simon-ho6ly]

i just assumed it was hyperbole, like the coins were noticably bigger than normal like the old 50p used to be pretty huge and the muggle was just exaggerating having seen a larger than normal coin

[@Lifegivinglemons]

​@@Simon-ho6lySame. I assumed he was just exaggerating, since it is supposed to be a rather sizeable coin. And people don't normally go around paying with large gold coins.

[@ydoIhavetohaveachann]

I always assumed the “hubcap sized coins” were from a different country as it was at the World Cup

[@bstybyz3]

Or there's a muggle compulsion charm on all Wiz money, making the currency too unreasonable for the muggle to accept.

[@CrossxFir3]

​@@bstybyz3idk man, someone hands me a hubcap sized coin of gold I'm taking it.

[@thechh8297]

He was exaggerating, because if someone whipped out a real, solid, pure gold coin in front of me, then I would also be in disbelief at anyone just waving around and giving away *that* much money in gold.

[@OliwerV]

Or maybe just a wizard being confused about muggle inventions.

[@sarahglover3286]

​@@OliwerVIts the muggle owner of the campsite who said it, I believe he was just exaggerating, he had been confunded countless times that day!

[@bleachmon1]

Olivander does collect his own unicorn hairs. The Unicorn that provided Cedric’s wand core nearly gored Olivander according to Olivander the weighing of the wands.

[@xiao-yuhobbs4166]

Might be another way he makes money, selling supplies to others

[@tasmiatahia_write_dream_change]

None of the price conversions really matter unless you are a mugggleborn. Even if dobby earned $5.5K he's not exactly able to buy muggle items. The only thing he needs to care about is purchasing power of his currency in the economy (i.e. the wizarding one). He is still pretty much working for 8-10 cups of coffee in this scenario (using Harry's example purchase mentioned in the video).

[@jamesbabbath5306]

there has to be a way to exchange muggle currencies with wizarding currencies, though - otherwise how would any muggle born witches or wizards ever be able to buy any of their school supplies? Would their parents just have to barter and hope they're not getting ripped off by the goblins? Also, how would any wizards ever buy anything from the muggle world such as a wristwatch, backpacks, muggle clothes, Mr. Weasley's Ford Anglia etc, unless they just magic those things into existence, or there are witches and wizards who go into the fields of making those things?

[@jakeaurod]

Everyone forgets that the magical community's insularity means it's economy has different assumptions of value and scarcity.

[@princess_mj4396]

It's probably also why harry spends so excessively. Since all of his wealth is inherited he never had to convert and so probably has a scuffed idea to the value of what hes spending

[@tasmiatahia_write_dream_change]

@@jamesbabbath5306 I was mainly commenting on Dobby rolling in money but I get what you mean about exchanging money. The grangers must have been vastly wealthy for them to be able to afford all the extra wizarding books that Hermione buys throughout the series.

[@chrishughson4511]

@@jakeaurod Exactly. Why do we value gold? Because it is hard to find (rare), hard to extract (mine), and hard to refine (smelt). I imagine goblins, being particularly gifted with metals, are able to find, extract, and purify gold via magical means a LOT easier than muggles. It makes sense that gold wouldn't be as valuable to wizards as it is to muggles. Still relatively valuable, due to its relative rarity compared to silver and copper, but not $1400 per galleon.

[@Hrafnskald]

Hogwarts' school wealth is easy to explain: they have extremely wealthy people like Lucius Malfoy buying their way onto the Board of Governors. In the US, many prestigious schools get more revenue from alumnae donations and long term investments than from enrollment fees. Harvard, for context, has around $49 *billion* in its endowment, and it's far younger than Hogwarts, and doesn't have an effective monopoly on the UK's magic student population :)

[@SilverScreenTimeMachine]

Harry's year might be unusually small, there was a war going on when they were all toddlers, so it's possible that Ollivander usually gets more business than 40 new students.

[@mitchpw2996]

Very nice thought, I enjoyed ❤

[@solareagle1802]

You also HAVE to remember, things only have value because we think they have value. If wizards value gold more or less than us, then we won't be able to normally compare our value of gold to what wizards would think of it. We also value things like dollars originally because of gold, so wizards might have based their currency on something else, making attempts to compare currency meaningless.

[@jamesbabbath5306]

yep, gold, silver and copper all have technological/scientific/industrial uses in the real world, hence why they still hold value so well

[@kalebgerace]

You also have to think about gold being expensive because its hard to obtain. A wizard can walk to the river and say "Accio gold" and just pull it out of the sand. A muggle is over there sweating over a pan for a week or more.

[@TortimerTheGrey]

THIS. Even without a Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone in the mix it would be laughably easy to obtain gold in the wizarding world compared to how muggles would do it. There is no way we would be looking at a conversion rate based on muggle valuations. I get that there is a scholarship fund for muggleborns but to expect that any of them would be subjected to those kind of prices is unlikely. Hermione might have been given scholarship assistance to buy her school supplies but all the gifts and incidentals we see her buy through the series were certainly on her own dime and I doubt she or he parents would be so frivolous if we are talking thousands of dollars. Also we can look at more real world examples where the denomination of coin currencies are often less than the materials to make them are "worth". Some investigation into the conversion of Galleon to Sickles and Knuts based on those metals valuations would have been interesting though if we were going to stick with the valuation metric. Is Gold worth 17x the value of Silver and 493x the value of bronze? Still a faulty train of thought but it would have added some interest to the exercise and perhaps allowed us to get closer to a real exchange rate.

[@tylergodefroy8713]

naw if the goblins could get more for their gold in the muggle world, they would

[@kalebgerace]

Wizards would easily be able to supply the goblins with large amounts of magically mined gold. A lot more than muggles. Wizards only accepting their currency for magical items further incentivizes them. More gold and access to magical items means making an alliance with the wizards to use their metallurgical and accounting acumen forming standardized currency would be a no brainer. @@tylergodefroy8713

[@koletaylor3636]

However, because the first Harry Potter book is set in 1991 the avg price of gold per ounce is more like $362. So a 7 galleon wand is around $2600. This is basically the price of getting your 16-year-old a used car, so some poorer families pass down one or two “family cars” to the children as they age.

[@jamesbabbath5306]

right, but you're comparing that to today's money post inflation - $2600 back then would be like $10k in today's money, so still incredibly expensive regardless of the time.

[@DreadKyller]

@@jamesbabbath5306 inflation between 1991 and now is approximately 2.34x for US currency and 2.908x for UK currency, so 2600 in USD would be worth $6,084 if you're considering US prices and worth 7,560.80 pounds if the 2600 is in pounds. Not quite 10k, still not quite as cheap as 2600.

[@jamesbabbath5306]

@DreadKyller ah okay I thought it was a lot more than that. That makes sense 👍👍

[@tippj09]

I remember wondering how Fudge casually reaches into his pocket to give Harry ONE THOUSAND GALLEONS as his TriWizard Cup winnings.Then Harry casually hands that bag to the twins who were able to conceal it from their ENTIRE FAMILY. There was never any mention of extension charms. Like…how could a galleon be the same size as a pound?

[@toportime]

Magic, it breaks all the rules.

[@brony4869]

ive seen the idea before that olivander sells a young witch or wizard their first wand at 7 galleons, but any after that, in case of being lost or broken or whatever, it is significantly more expensive

[@Charizardlison]

yeah its not like the parents pay for it anyway..

[@mwest747]

Which would explain why Hagrid doesn't just buy a new wand after his is snapped/why snapping your wand is such a big punishment.

[@vctrsigma]

@@mwest747 Unless Hagrid is eargning slaves wages, he would be able to afford a new one eventually. Seems to be banned from having a wand as he claims he isn't supposed to do magic at all.

[@Hrafnskald]

I wonder if Olivander has some supplier among the centaurs, for example, casually gathering up unicorn hairs left in the forest and selling some to him at a discount, while price gouging the biased and obnoxiously anti-centaur wizards (like Umbridge)? Given how many sentient magical species are dismissed by the majority of wizards, being a friend to them could be highly lucrative. It would also expand Hagrid's net worth :)

[@workingstiff0586]

8:53 Ben, you're forgetting some crucial facts: 1) Ollivander had a store full of wands 2) The amount of time (you covered costs) he's spent building that collection 3) The cost of items needed from way back when Ollivander first started business, I doubt he always had a shop on Diagon Alley 4) What if Ollivander had inherited the store which would mean somebody had been at the business long before him. And maybe even rich enough to just want to bless new customers with quality wands at production cost

[@fishydinofinns9607]

Considering the fact that Ollivander's as a shop was opened in 382 bc, I feel like the current Mr. Ollivander would probably benefit a lot from his ancestors' collections and accumulated wealth

[@Ernoskij]

You know, with this new value of the Galleon , I find the price of getting your newspaper delivered rather steep actually. There are 493 knuts to a galleon, so that's ~$2.8 each, and Hagrid pays 5 knuts to get the paper delivered every morning (as does Hermione when she starts getting it.) so that means that it costs them ~$14 every day to get the newspaper delivered. I will assume here that that price includes the price of the paper and not only the delivery, but it's still quite the price for a newspaper.

[@suskit]

Poor owl has to fly from London (assuming Prophet is printed there) to Scotland! Every day! And you have to keep in mind that at the time it's busy on route to Hogwarts, it is also unavailable to deliver other post/shipments, so the Post Office has to factor that in and keep enough owls at hand to satisfy the demand. And something tells me a magical owl is quite expensive too So again, it kinda makes sense? :D

[@talcat8031]

Haha this is true 😂😂😂. If you want to get super nerdy though the wizarding world is defiantly a separate currency zone then the muggle uk. This would mean inflation would effect them differently and they could potentially have completely different prices for the same types of objects. This happens in real life too like the price of coffee isn’t the same in Sudan as it is in the USA. Items will even have different prices in relationship to each other too.

[@DimitriTFrost]

I seem to remember Olivander when talking about Cedric's wand, mentioning something about him getting the tail hair from a particularly fine male unicorn, which nearly gored gim with his horn when he plucked his tail, so I believe he does gather at least some of the materials himself.

[@karenchristinewise7833]

Pound sterling is based on weight historically. Pre-decimal, the British Pound Sterling was 240 pennies. The currency was originally 454 grammes of Sterling Silver. There were three types of coinage, bronze, silver and gold. Bronze coins (coppers) ranged from one quarter of one penny to a fourpence coin, silver coins were from sixpence to five shillings and a gold coin worth a pound sterling. Remember that a pound was based on actual weight of 454 grammes/1lb of silver. Also, the division of the currency was L for £, S for Shilling and D for Pence/Denarius. Sounds a lot like Knut, Sickle and Galleon, Copper, Silver and Gold. There were 240 pennies in a pound, 12 pennies in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound.

[@lucifersdevilishdetails.]

Well at least someone also knew of pre-decimalisation It also very likely a gallon is the size of a half crown or crown and not a modern pound that only existed since the 80s then got redesigned in 2016 The later being the one he showed on screen

[@owaing]

Actually the pound sterling was based on the troy pound of 373 grammes, not the avoirdupois pound of 454 grammes.

[@Heresor]

This pricetag for wands also explains why Ron was stuck with the used wand for so long. I doubt that the Weasleys would skimp out on money worth 40$ for a wand that lasts Ron a lifetime, even if they are perceived as poor by the wizard community. A few thousand dollars? That's more likely to not be in the budget.

[@arthurxavier3515]

13:15 Comparing the Quiditch World Cup to the Super Bowl instead of the World Cup (football/soccer) is the most American thing hahaha

[@whitesquirrel2180]

I think the most improbable conversion might be Arthur's 700-galleon lottery win. That's works out to about $1,000,000, which is quite reasonable for a lottery, but far too much for them to plausibly splurge most of it on a trip to Egypt without saving...at least half, I'd say.

[@robertgronewold3326]

Yeah, his galleon conversion here is a little extreme. BUT I do think that the Weasley family might have had some debts that Ron and the children just didn't know about, and they were just quietly paid off, and then the rest of the money went towards the trip.

[@bookworm3005]

We also know that the Weasleys bought several gifts/necessities for the family, like a new wand for Ron.

[@GermanCptSlow]

Christ, and Harry got 1000 galleons (IIRC) for the Tri-wizard tournament. That's insane.

[@Boundwithflame23]

Someone else might have mentioned this already but I think Ollivander does go out and get the materials himself. He mentions during the wand weighing ceremony in Goblet that the unicorn he got the hair from for Cedric’s wand nearly gored him.

[@Earthquaker]

To be fair, Sirius is from an incredibly wealthy famous wizarding family. He probably has the wealth on hand. As for Harry buying the omnoculars, imagine the resale on those suckers.

[@captainspaulding5963]

I always thought Sirius was basically disowned when he was younger for not following along with blood purity. I don't think it was ever said, but I always thought James paid for most things for Sirius.

[@isaakfrmla]

@@captainspaulding5963Sirius uncle was the only one who was still really rich in the Black family and he gave his riches to Sirius who in turn gave it to Harry so maybe his uncle was sliding him some Galleons?

[@Earthquaker]

@@Lifegivinglemons I guess it depends on who had the key to the Gringotts vault. I imagine he could have gotten it from Kreacher either way

[@DaRozeman]

The Potter family was quite rich as well. Remember, his ancestors invented Skele-Gro and the hair tonic that I can't quite remember the name of. Slick-something.

[@jamesbabbath5306]

@@Lifegivinglemons wouldn't the fortune have gone to Bellatrix though? Or did it go to Sirius when she got sent to Azkaban?

[@Fritzes007]

That Dobby edit at 16:48 cracked me up completely 😂

[@JustACactus616]

Hey brother! I’m surprised you’ve never once mentioned how often the phrase “at once” is used in the books. All I know is it’s 77 in prince and 66 in hallows. Next time one of you reads (or listens to) a book, keep track and you could make a yt short with it (it’s too short for a video)

[@thechh8297]

game: take a shot every time someone says "at once". HBP audiobook full duration: 20hrs + 31min 20hrs + 31min = 1231min; 1231 / 77 = 15.98... or 1 shot every ~16min on average challenge: reasonable

[@NinaJulia83]

@@thechh8297but 66-77 shots would still kill me before i even get halfway 😂

[@keanekids4266]

The issue with this theory is that the reason gold is so expensive in the muggle world is because it’s rare. We know their ways of creating gold magically without having to spend several hours a day trying to Mine it, (I.e sorcerer’s Stone)thus making it much less rare, and therefore much less valuable

[@liamwarner5749]

We can make synthetic diamonds and the actual world supply is apparently far higher than most people think. Its just that the sale of them is heavily regulated to keep the price from crashing. I can easily see there being some harsh penalties for magically creating gold, I know one anime someday's dreamers where the magic law states is illegal to magically make money, which the main character violates by filling the backpack of someone who helps her with cash much to his panic.

[@monkey93xf]

The biggest issue is that no one could keep a pure gold coin in currency. It would deform. The coin would have to be graded to like 14k at least, bringing the value way down and weight up with the mixture.

[@liamwarner5749]

@@monkey93xf Unless the coins are enchanted to be more resislient than normal gold. Wands seem to similarly take a fair amount of punishment with only Ron and Harry's seeming to get broken.

[@heylolp9]

Just for the Olivander/Unicorn Hair thing there could be a point made for inflation, during HBP Olivander was missing and the Ministry was now open with the fact that Voldi is back Uncertainty destroyes prices of commodities, especially needed ones like wand cores

[@juska4235]

Well that and bulk prices businesses discounts etc or they look for unicorns themselves or the family had a stock from ages ago, seller haggrid knew didn't have to be the best price

[@aWildMoke]

My theory is that your first wand is partially payed for by the ministry because it's an essential item but if you need a replacement it's really expensive. People change a lot as they get older so the wand that chose you at 11 might not be your perfect match anymore at 20+, so rich people might get a second wand and then some occupations like Auror you want a backup in general. Only people who can't afford a new match would stick with their first wand that hopefully is loyal even if you've changed enough that it's not a perfect match anymore and if your family is poor you use a relatives wand that they've outgrown but works for you.

[@richardappleby3608]

Gold price in 1991 was $333 per ounce. That is $747.39 adjusted for inflation. Just thought you ought to know.

[@KFam19]

10:03 I WANT ONE This is litterally the first sponsor ever that i can remember (on the whole website) that i never skipped.

[@SomeNerdOutThere]

Not to mention that a competition with only three games between three schools gave the winner $1.3M. At least Fred and George being able to start a retail outlet on Diagon Alley makes more sense now.

[@her-myoh-nee1324]

I assumed the hubcap sized coin was being used by someone from a different country and when you put it in your whatever, it shrinks to fit the size it needs to fit. Also, one strand of unicorn hair could potentially be used for three or four wands. We dont know the cost of making any wand. I'd assume it would be more expensive to make phoenix wands because theyre so rare but you might be able to use one feather for multiple wands as well. Also, we dont know how many he actually sells throughout the year. Point is, we don't have enough information.

[@OriNebula]

3 points. First I assume 1 hair can make multiple wands. Also it is worth noting that British hubcaps refer to the inner portion only. Still large but not crazy. Final point is that I also assumed the main coin was a more basic material and the gold was only the outer portion.

[@abrodeur]

I would also point out that hubcaps size coins could be from a foreign wizard and not referring to galleons.

[@scottparsley2902]

This also means that the Weasley twins’ bet with Ludo Bagman of just over 37 Galleons cost them over $50’000.

[@felwalkr_94]

By the calculations for the Galleons, we can estimate that Sickles are roughly $81.96 a piece and Knuts are $2.83 a piece(17 Sickles into a Galleon, 29 Knuts into a Sickle).

[@justinmelton637]

I think this warrants a revisit to the Swaggrid video

[@kinghoenn3478]

I always figured that Ollivander had a contract with the government as well as Hogwarts. All wizards and witches can get affordable wands. Not to mention I am sure their are wands they need to have some maintenance done to make sure they last as long as possible before breaking.

[@ArgyleAdams]

Regarding the hubcap-sized gold coin, I had always assumed that that was in reference to some kind of foreign wizarding currency rather than galleons, as there were wizards from all over the world at that campground.

[@DarthSanguine]

I'd always assumed the guy was just exaggerating.

[@sarahglover3286]

You have to remember Harry's year is small because of the height of the Wizarding War at the time! I've also seen a assumption that he only uses half a Unicorn hair in a wand!

[@SaloniSrivastava]

Thank you for normalising obsessing over these things! 😅 Only thing- the value will be a little lower since gold is a malleable “soft metal” and any coin made using only pure gold won’t hold up. This is why gold jewellery is never pure gold- people always mix it with iron and other metals to make it stable and durable. So the value of a gallion will definitely be lower by a little bit. ❤

[@TG4164]

I’m surprised you never mentioned the triwizard winnings of 100 galleons Harry gave Fred and George 1.4 Million dollars. I think that’s more than enough to start a joke shop

[@karpfen007]

quick maths

[@choatixtherobot]

It's 1000 galleons as well, so even more insane

[@mrcomputerspiel681]

You should do a part two with all the other goods we see a price for in sicles and knuts. Now you can just break it down from the galleon! Love you guys, keep up the good work ❤

[@ThePharaz]

A Gold galleon looks to me to be about the same size as an Eisenhower Silver Dollar. A silver plated one weighs about 1.3 oz. which would in Dec. of 1990 for about $1100 for solid 14k. I can only imagine it was only gold plated to sell for $5 to $7.

[@Seldion_Ghost]

"How much for this?" "5 Galleons" "I mean how much for me?" "5 Galleons" "I'm your brother...." "10 Galleons"

[@LeviosaLydia]

Now that you know the actual numbers you should make an updated version of SWAGRID!!!

[@Axoguy13]

You should do a JvsB style show called spell-spelling where you get the effects of a spell, and need to spell it correctly

[@Axoguy13]

Another suggestion for a name is «the spell-spelling spell»

[@thadius33]

Olivander doesnt buy his unicorn hairs, he collects them himself. So market price doesnt really matter.

[@jmarkellos]

It doesn't matter in terms of net profit, maybe, but he's still "losing" money when you consider the opportunity cost of not selling the hairs on their own.

[@cz2188]

@@jmarkellos but a unicorn hair is definitely much longer than a wand. Meaning a single hair can be used for multiple wands. Plus, i don’t think he cares about making money as much as making wands

[@scottwesty9568]

If Harry's wand has a whple phoenix feather, why wouldn't a unicorn hair wand not have a whole unicorn hair? Maybe cutting the hair lowers the magical power?

[@cz2188]

@@scottwesty9568 Fawkes was described to be the size of a swan, and swans feathers are around a feet long. Whereas a horse’s tail hair can be up to 3 feet long. Average wand sizes are 9-14 inches so a single feather can’t make more than one wand whereas a unicorn hair has the length to make 2 or 3 I do think that Phoenix hairs are longer than swan hairs just by how they look, but probably not long enough to make multiple wands. And maybe Fawkes feathers were from when he was at a smaller stage of his cycle

[@TangoWolf09]

Racing nerd here, really appreciate that the question you posed to google was "How much does a nascar car cost?". Many non-racing fans would have asked "How much does a nascar cost?", but NASCAR is an acronym which stands for "National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing". Thus, asking "How much does a NASCAR cost?" would effectively be the same as asking "How much does a FIFA (or MLS) cost?" when inquiring about the price of a Football/Soccer Ball. I also love that you included accurate price estimations for Indycar and Formula 1 as well.

[@tasmiatahia_write_dream_change]

Using economic principles, the price of the wand makes sense, since it is priced by both demand and supply. While the cost of the raw materials play a part, but so does the demand - assuming that people understand and agree with the "wand chooses the wizard" lore, for any wand, there is only one perfect customer. And if that customer can't afford that wand, then essentially Olivander, loses the business. It is therefore, in his advantage to sell the wand at a price the person will be able and willing to pay, instead of trying to set a high price, which effectively then will be unaffordable.

[@eomoran]

Especially when already in Harry’s small year we know of two who use hand me downs

[@mtutor5500]

Well, Harry would certainly be able to pay much more than 7 Galleons.

[@tasmiatahia_write_dream_change]

@@mtutor5500 I don't think Olivander actually realised that. He thought orpahned child wizard who spent the last 10 years of his life in obscurity, not really wealthy. It's like when you are in a market stall and the dude is trying to sus out what your budget is. He has no way of knowing how much you have in your pocket but he's trying to use your behaviour as a way to identify your finances. For Olivander, he's probably looking at Harry's awestruck face and thinking "this kid is going to bankrupt himself by the time he reaches the other side of diagon alley 😁

[@mtutor5500]

@@tasmiatahia_write_dream_change In a wizarding world, especially given he knew his parents (and probably the law as well, so that he would inherit all their money), I doubt that. But maybe you're right.

[@drigondii]

Harry's wand is like 55 years old when he buys it,assuming Voldemort's wand was new when HE bought it. Most of Ollivander's product may be ages old, and many of his cores are likely obtained at relatively low cost if he didn't just go get them himself. Also, although the term is now used interchangeably with wheel cover, hubcaps aren't usually the size of the whole wheel. Technically they only have to cover the hub bore, which typically ranges 5-10 cm in diameter (~2-4 inches). That fits in a pocket pretty easily.

[@James_Wisniewski]

That's cool, but a gold galleon is almost certainly not pure gold. I don't know much about more modern currencies, but I know for a fact that similar currencies in ancient Rome were constantly fluctuating in percentage of silver and gold content, mostly on a downward trend (save for a couple notable exceptions). Roman emperors were almost constantly debasing their currency for a variety of reasons, and by the time the silver denarius was phased out in the 4th century, they were almost entirely made of pleb metals like copper instead of real silver. There's absolutely no reason to believe the same thing wouldn't happen to other currencies, even in the wizarding world. After all, gold and silver are finite resources, which is what makes them valuable. Of course, with magic, you can reproduce them a lot more easily, and we don't know if there's a difference between muggle gold and goblin gold. However, if you just reproduced the stuff indefinitely, it would lose all value and the entire economy would either catch on fire or abandon the concept of currency altogether in favor of an objectively better system.

[@UltimateDurzan]

Well sort of? I think most of us are forgetting the fact that gold is basically worthless to wizards. Once ya get the raw base materials, you can use multiplication charms to duplicate it ad infenitum (to a degree at least). Certain other materials cannot be duplicated I would assume, but there's little reason to believe that Gold, silver, and copper couldn't.

[@jamesbabbath5306]

no they wouldn't abandon currency altogether, they would just go to a fiat currency, which is probably the easiest explanation for the prices in the book, and why JK says a galleon is only worth $25.

[@James_Wisniewski]

@@jamesbabbath5306 Fiat currency suffers the same problem of people with magic being able to generate it infinitely. If anything, it's even worse since it's usually made of comparatively worthless materials to begin with. The real problem is, when magic, how economy? Sure, there are some things you either can't do that with, or that it's not worth it to do that with, but that rule doesn't apply to most things.

[@RedDoom33]

If the Goblins multiplies the galleons, they create money from nowhere, and that's just like banks do in the muggle world (they do it in a different way, but still creating money from nowhere).

[@aidanpearce9839]

This feels like SCB’s audition for Film Theory. Idk probably just me

[@Atown0921]

I feel like you should have used 1989 gold price...if so it comes out to around 3.5x less, which all feels like it's much more justifiable... Edit: Just anywhere in the 90s.

[@AlldaylongRock]

91-97 actually.

[@satsujin-shathewitchkingof6185]

Olivander is definitely melting down his galleons and selling it as actual gold to muggles,then turning that money back into galleons. That’s how he’s making money without a profit,he doesn’t need that much to start the cycle. Also,what are the ministry gonna do? He’s the best wand maker in history,they’re not gonna arrest him,especially if he’s still doing his taxes and they’re still getting his money

[@StarryEyed0590]

How much Galleons are worth in Muggle money is only really relevant to Muggleborns, Squibs, and maybe a few "weirdos" who try to live in both worlds. It absolutely doesn't matter to Olivander whether his wands are worth fifty bucks or fifty grand in US currency. It only matters whether it's enough to enable him to pay rent on his shop, source his components, and otherwise operate his business, pay for food, clothing, and shelter, and support him living a lifestyle he finds acceptable. Which, based on the price of Harry's wand and the prices of other things we know of, it absolutely isn't. The only thing that makes ANY sense is that first-time wand purchases by Hogwarts students are subsidized. We absolutely know there is a fund for Muggleborn students who cannot afford to buy their school things, so there is some precedent.

[@NinaJulia83]

«She’s a witch!» I almost spit out my tea 😂😂

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Its always fully aprreciated gow high quality, passionate and well researched your cideos are! Your content is always an instant watch! Thanks guys!😊😊😊❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Itziiiiiii]

13:18 Fifa World Cup popularity > Superbowl popularity

[@kuromiLayfe]

Just a note.. Olivander is not just the Wand Seller for Hogwarts … he provides wands for every wizarding school,all year round and also to regular wizards.

[@Soraphis91]

> he provides wands for every wizarding school not true (see book 4 when olivander inspects the wands of the non-british candidates and book 7 when we learn about the elder wand) - also, when olivander is kidnapped in book 6 molly says something along the lines: "well, people will need to go to different wand makers, but olivanders was the best". this means, he even has competition, so probably not even all those 40 school kids go to him.

[@XxiiCoookiesiix]

I really like the Earth Metal puzzles too for a 3D puzzle type thing :) it’s nice for a rainy day too, but not kid friendly.. they are pretty small

[@sarahglover3286]

Ok, hands up, who would pay $9,000 for a working magical wand? 🙋‍♀️

[@willess1310]

If it was a unique item, or even a rare item (like there's only a handful of them), then yes. I'd pay that to be the only person/one of few people in the world to use magic. If they're something that tons of them exist, however, and anyone with enough money could buy it, I don't think I would go for it. The adage from The Incredibles applies: when everyone is super, no one will be. The more people that could have access to real magic, the less valuable it is. If I lived in a world where magic is common-place and anyone with 9000 bucks has a wand, I don't think I could justify such a purchase (unless i were a witch, of course).

[@sarahglover3286]

@@willess1310 If its the world of Harry Potter does exist and that is the price a friend of yours has just offered you for a wand that works for muggles after revealing to you they are a witch/ wizard!

[@curtislindsey1736]

Wizards/Witches have magic though, they don't need to pay for near the stuff that muggles do. They can conjure so many things!

[@rogerswift1983]

13:23 ''magical super bowl'' No, it's the ''magical'' (football) world cup

[@Aquilla842]

This just makes Fred and George’s quip to Ron in the joke shop better.

[@atrumluminarium]

So Sirius pretty much bought Harry 10+ cars in one birthday 😂 Also Didn't Lucius buy new brooms for the entire Slytherin team? 😂

[@basicJARED]

I’m assuming that the ministry probably has regulations on the materials that are used to make wands, so olivander probably has some kind contract with the ministry that lets him harvest or either obtain those materials for a low or for free. I don’t think he has unicorns and phoenix’s in the back that are getting plucked😂

[@pianoman1894]

I can imagine Ollivander just casually strolling into a muggle bank with just shy of $400,000 worth of gold and asking if they can convert it.

[@hollywood665ful]

What do you mean…. “You can’t buy love.”….. I am already sold 😂😂😂😂

[@ydotan]

Love how seriously you went with these calculations! I have another idea - maybe there are different coins with different values (just like muggle currency), except they don't have different names but are all just called "Galleons", so the specific type is inferred by the transaction (i.e. if you're buying candy you'd pay 7 XS-Galleons whereas if you're buying a broom you'd pay 7 XL-Galleons)

[@xfuzzzygames6481]

On wand prices compared to unicorn hair, it's possible wand makers are subsidized by the ministry. It could be to give underprivileged young witches and wizards access, or it could be to entice people to use a medium of control over their magic that gives the ministry an element of control.

[@ewanhall7880]

Him referencing the Super Bowl as the most important game in the most popular sport hurt my soul. 13:15

[@lancecape8021]

4:29 I believe that for this situation he is either A: in a drunk state from whatever. Or B: talking about old hub caps which are things that go on the hood if I remember correctly

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

One thing you didn't even mention was the Potions book costing 9 Galleons. Even using your original conversion method that seems a bit expensive for one textbook, especially when you consider that Molly purchased supplies for all her school age children in the second book for one Galleon and 'a very small pile of silver Sickles'. Put it this way, the purchasing power of wizarding currency is highly inconsistent throughout the series anyway!

[@kaelanirevyruun1676]

17:52 But you can buy love... You can go to an animal shelter and buy an animal, who will then love you for their entire life xD

[@jessicamarino7448]

You guys reeeeeeeaaaaaaallllly paid the math budget for this one!!!

[@iiDTC]

2:52 Terrible, got me rolling 14:11 Wow, got me rolling also

[@ambsquared]

Maybe goblin gold is like Nordic gold, an alloy of copper and other less precious metals. Edit: Most coins that look like gold are a version of Nordic gold or other brass alloys. The British pound at the time was a nickel, copper, and zinc alloy.

[@SueLynCheang]

The math budget in this video was insane! 👏 Great work!

[@sirmurford2737]

At that conversion rate, the Weasleys won nearly $1million from the Daily Prophet prize draw that let them visit Bill in Egypt.

[@Halfbloodprincesss8]

Harry is James. And James for sure would be flexing his money all up in there 😂

[@istevennnx]

When it come to wands i'd say he goes on journeys and collect materials himself so it doesn't cost him anything but his time. Also since He owns the shop he wont have to pay rent and most likely has an extention charm making the place alot bigger so it's also his home. So really his only expenses would be food and clothing.

[@thanatos9514]

If those prices are right, it would make the Triwizard Tournament make a lot more sense. The prize is a million dollars… which Harry promptly gives away to Fred and George!

[@ArniesTech]

If the firebolt as a gift is generous, let's talk about Lucius sponsoring the entire quidditch team with Nimbus 2001 :D

[@eomoran]

One explanation is that Olivander stocked the wands ages ago. He bought unicorn hairs and other parts when they were much cheaper and Sonia still making a profit based on his purchase price. Whereas a single unicorn hair now might be used more immediately for a potion, and you can’t really take apart a wand for this

[@sneaksyranger]

When the phoenix wand twin picked Harry, Ollivander felt really sorry for him and cut him a break.

[@GraciiGram]

Sirius: you come to me, on the day of my godsons birthday...

[@rossbaker1758]

I almost spit out my drink when u said Harry dropped a galleon casually on the table. what a flex!! 😂 keep up the amazing SCB’s and I’ll see u in another life brothers

[@MagicCardboardBox]

I would have brought up the lockhart books. Those are expensive.