Question of the Day

[dysonrules.livejournal.com]

Since I haven't procrastinated in awhile, it's time to play ASK THE F-LIST!  :D  This question occurred to me after Bradley James woke me up at 4am - never mind.  My question is:

How much do you think a wand costs?

This question is bothering me because obviously it's pretty steep.  Ron can't afford a new one when his breaks, plus it was a hand-me-down from his uncle, right?  And yet EVERY student must have one before starting Hogwarts.  So, what happens if they can't afford a wand?  What do Muggle parents do when suddenly faced with "Your child has been accepted to this awesome, amazing school and it will only cost you X,XXX.XX Galleons (whatever those are) to purchase their first wand, robes, books, and if you still have cash, a pet familiar!  Where did Tom Riddle get his first wand?  We know that one was a twin of Harry's.  Did Dumbledore buy it?  Does the school have a fund that will contribute to wand purchase for orphans with no money?  Poor kids whose families can barely put food on the table?

This actually originated from playing with Draco's wand wondering where they would keep their wand.  Seriously, JKR spends NO time on logistics in the series.  Harry keeps his wand in his jeans pocket.  JEANS POCKETS ARE NOT MADE FOR WANDS.  Seriously, TRY IT.  They fall out, you can't sit down properly, and it gets in the way of all movement.  The only way it would work is with a special wand pocket along the thigh, I'm thinking.  I love the idea of forearm holsters, but you have to have really long forearms.  (With my stubby arms it sticks out well into my hand region.)  With teenagers being what they are, and magic being what it is, I'm envisioning them coming up with all sorts of fabulous things to put their wands in.  Shoulder holsters, slings across the back and front, leg holsters, etc.  What do you guys think?  Cosplayers - what do you do with your wands?  Ficcers - what have you come up with for wand carrying?  Frankly, I get annoyed with canon every time I see Harry taking his wand out of his jeans.  My brain gets snarled in logistics for long minutes.  WHERE IN HIS JEANS?  *snickers*  (Not that wand, you pervs.)

WANDS.  TELL ME ABOUT THEM.

Comments

[dysonrules.livejournal.com]

Neither can Draco.

XD

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

Can't help you with the cost of the wands. Even Neville had a hand-me-down, I think.

About the wand in the jeans...I always thought it was kept in a special pocket in the robes or up the sleeve. I really haven't paid attention to it being in the jeans. If so, let's just pretend that it's stored in there as a teeny, tiny wand (like Hermione does with all the books she packs in her travel bag). It's spelled tiny and when you pull it out...presto! Full-sized wand! Easy!

[dysonrules.livejournal.com]

Well, Neville's was special because of sentimental value, I think, rather than being a hand-me-down due to cost.

I'm trying to equate it to modern schools. What if your child couldn't go to school unless they had a laptop? Some kids would have barely serviceable clunker laptops and the Draco Malfoys would have the ultra-mega-ALL-THE-RAM-high-speed fancy models. And really poor kids would have... school loaners?

(How would you cast the Shrinking Charm on the wand using the wand?)

[celestlyn.livejournal.com]

(How would you cast the Shrinking Charm on the wand using the wand?)

Dunno, Dude. It's your story! LOL! No, clue. Maybe something Ollivander has spelled into it? Part of the mystery of how wands work? Maybe keyed or warded to the magical signature of the owner/caster? Perhaps just touching the wand allows one to cast the shrink/enlarge spell? Hermione does it with a time-turner?

[bryoneybrynn.livejournal.com]

wand cost = 30 galleons

I have no idea why, that's just what i think.

And yes yes yes to the "where to they keep their wands"? Maybe they all have magically expanded jeans pockets for wand stashing. It's easy to imagine them fitting in robe pockets but yeah, what about when not at school. I'm not sure about anything where you wear it on your back sheath style - seems like to would be easy for someone to steal it.

i'm going with magically expanded pockets or magically expanded forearm hoster - doesn't matter how long your want is, it will always fit perfectly. :)

[zeitgeistic.livejournal.com]

In book 1, wasn't Harry's wand 7 galleons? Did I make this number up? I don't know, it's very possible.

I think the real question for muggleborns is how does the pound convert to the galleon? I have always thought of a galleon as being worth about 25 USD, so about 14, 15 pounds sterling? Guesstimating here on the conversion. So if a wand cost 7 galleons, it would be worth, to a muggle, about 105 pounds, at this rate of conversion.

Edit for clarity.

[vaysh]

Interesting question about the cost of wands. In my mind, Ollivander makes up the prize of a wand depending on the buyer. Or people can barter for how much they can pay, perhaps even trade something like herbs or things you need to make a wand. Some system of paying other than capitalist markets work, I think. More medieval. :) As for Muggle-borns, I would think that someone from the wizarding world would prepare them for what to expect for their child, and part of that would be figuring out how they could get a wand.

In my stories, wands are magically stuck wherever the wand-bearer puts them.

[kubrick-potter.livejournal.com]

I think wands cost up to about 50 galleons. Which is approx £250 and $408.

As for the jeans thing, I've got a wand (whoop!) and I sometimes put it in my front jeans pocket and it doesn't fall out or anything. I tried to the back jeans pocket and that was fine for walking but not for sitting. The front one though is fine. Especially with deep pockets and as Harry always wore jeans to big and baggy for him they would be deeper than normal and wouldn't get in the way too much.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Wands are expensive - and I've written stories in which the traditional wizarding families plant the necessary tree when the child is born and take it along to Ollivander to make into a custom wand when the kid (well, Draco) reaches 11.

In 'real life' magic tradition (YMMV) a wand should be the length of the forearm (sometimes from fingertip-to-elbow, sometimes form wrist to inside of elbow).

The film makers assumed that wands would be kept in wrist-sheaths in the first movies, and provided rather nifty leather waist-sheaths for the last two movies.

I like the idea of keeping a spare in ones boot...

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I hate typing on my phone sometimes. I can't tell if I'm replying to the right person.

We have thought along the same lines, then. I used to have that as background info for the Malfoys in an RPG I used to play in. What sort of tree did you use?

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I used canon trees (with, presumably, a bit of magic to speed along the growth!) I was mainly concentrating on the cores - Wild Hunt (http://archiveofourown.org/works/94451) (gen) is Lucius' dragon heartstring and Memories in Red and White (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/malfoycentric/23487.html) (NC17, Het, slash, incest) for Draco's unicorn hair.

I expect I picked up the idea from someone else, possibly you - we all feed off each other *G*

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Couldn't have been me. I wasn't on LJ at the time. I just think it's neat that people think along the same lines without prior discussion :)

[mijeli.livejournal.com]

I like what vaysh11 said, about the wand being magically stuck in the place the wand-bearer puts them. Cause I'd like to think that wands are excluded from something as mundane as "losing it because it fell out"! ^_~ (Thievery is something else, of course. That sticki-ness wouldn't save it from being nicked, if you don't pay attention to WHO'S GROPING YOU)

Wands are definitely very expensive, and Muggle parents would have to use up all their savings to afford their child attending Hogwarts - like in real life, no?! xD

Oh, and I'd like a long-ish wand pocket in jeans. Kinda sexy. (Though Dudley's old jeans probably don't have them...)

[mijeli.livejournal.com]

I just gave this another thought, and I can tooootally see Harry poke a small hole through his regular pocket, in order to fit the wand inside. It will constantly make his thigh sore, and at one point the hole would be so loose the wand would fall through and end up at his calf. HE'S SHABBY LIKE THAT ISN'T HE? :'D

[paean-sf.livejournal.com]

Harry sees in a pensieve: Dumbledore give Tom Riddle money to go to Diagon Alley and buy himself school supplies including books, second hand robes, and a wand. Dumbledore tells Riddle that the school has a fund for orphans and poor children for such things.

Neville uses his father's wand. Its treated as an heirloom rather than a handmedown. It also symbolizes that Neville is destined to grow into his father's brwve footsteps, and partly explains why such a timid boy is sorted into Gryphandor.

Cost? My guess is its variable but unicorn hair sells for 10 galleons each (Slughorn at the spiders funeral party in Hagrids hut) and thats a common core. After cost of wood and labor, plus craftsman markup, I would estimate 100-300 galleons. But I suspect like many things, wandmakers have the perogotive to discount their profit based on the buyers financial status.

[mahaliem.livejournal.com]

Perhaps wands create their own wizard space so that they fit wherever you happen to put them?

[potteresque_ire]

I'd imagine a wand in the order of 10s of Galleons in price, and are pretty much uniform across the board to stop any suggestions that some wands—magic—is more valuable than the others.

The idea of needing x money to go to school—American universities are pretty much the same way :). My question remains why any Muggle parent would send their children to a school they haven't heard of before, and teaches ... magic. (Are Hermione's parents high on the anesthesia they give to their patients ? :D)

But Logistics are boring! *pouts*. Chinese wu-xia novels (think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) never describe how the warriors carry their long swords either. While it seems like historically, people have it holstered at their waist above their hip (so it's pulled out from the side: ancient Chinese clothes are robes as well, like wizard's clothes), it doesn't look good (and may create trouble for clumsier actors) and so sometimes it is depicted as being tied on to the back of their owners, who reach backwards to take them out...

If you try it though (as every child has since we grow up breathing that stuff), there's no way you can do it unless your arm is longer than a chimpanzee's :DDDDD .

But I digress! Yeah, like you, I'd imagine the best placement of a wand for trousers / jean wearers is along the outside of a thigh, which should be, for the most part, long enough in length to accommodate wands and is also a very easy place for the adult owner to grab it when needed. I'd imagine Harry making a similar (and ugly) pocket for his wand in his jeans, or Dudley's jeans being so big that the waist pocket drops so low that it functions as the thigh pocket. Formal trousers would have something like that as well, maybe better tailored and concealed. In the event that the boy is a tiny thing like DanRad and happens to have a superlong wand (13" is the longest mentioned, I think?), then there would be a small hole for the wand tip to pass through before the knee bend, which would, of course, increase the chance that the wand can snap.

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of wondering if Ollivander doesn't price by the individual. Snape was fairly poor and could not afford an expensive wand. And if the wand chooses the wizard, how do you set a price on that?

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I wondered that. Perhaps the cheaper wands chose the poorer wizards?

It would be pretty galling if one was a rich wizard and was 'chosen' by a cheap wand (this may explain a lot about Bellatrix...)

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha, poor Bella!

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

*snuzz*

[kubrick-potter.livejournal.com]

Your icon is... GUH!!

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

*g*

[naturegirlrocks.livejournal.com]

Didn't Luna have her wand in her hair? Or am I just confusing things?

[talekayler.livejournal.com]

lol she did! Behind her ear, I think! :D

[yanagi-wa.livejournal.com]

My idea of the cost of a wand is drawn from cannon. I forget exactly but I think a wand costs 12 galleons. A galleon is worth about 5 pound, cannon again, so a wand costs 60 pounds. or 98 dollars. Not that expensive, not cheap either.

As to how to carry a wand. I go with the wizard space, spring loaded, forearm sheath. It straps onto the wand arm and a flick of the fingers brings the wand out right into the hand. [think an old western gamblers derringer up the sleeve thing] Wizard space keeps it short enough to be comfortable.

[talekayler.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there a donation fund for those who couldn't afford the first year at Hogwarts? That 's what I thought when I was reading HBP and when Dumbledore visited Tom... but I can't remember for sure. For Ron's wand breakage, maybe they didn't replace it right away because a.) it was unexpected, and they had already used up all the money for Ginny's first year and b.) Maybe a punishment for Ron stealing the car and stuff? A howler wasn't enough?

Canon wise, it said in the first HP book: "He wasn't sure he liked Ollivander that much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop." But I like to think that a wand is more like 10 Galleons. Then again, there are all the talks about labour costs, obtaining the materials (didn't Ollivander once mention that a unicorn almost stabbed him when trying to get a tail hair from one?) and such. But then, maybe wand makers are able to get a hold of these materials easier than people like Slughorn? It seems like Slughorn might be more dealing in the Black Market, whereas Ollivander might go through a special wand makers market.

For keeping it, I thought it was in robes pockets, but then it would always be getting caught in the folds of the material, and thus, Draco would be faster at pulling his wand out than Harry for their competition. *snickers* But I think it depends on the wizard too. Harry, I can see having it in his robe pocket, Draco a fancy holster along his thigh, ect ect. But I think that once Harry is grown and such, he'd have the holster as well (maybe they get it as graduation presents?).

[scarletscarlet.livejournal.com]

I sorta like to think that while Ollivander is the best, there could be other wand makers (in other shopping areas, perhaps) or a 2nd hand market. Ditto for books.

When I went to high school, the school had its own books, but Uni was purchase-everything, and most of my textbooks were pretty damned expensive which led to a *thriving* 2nd hand market at the start of each term, plus notes re individual sales all over the noticeboards in every faculty.

The course would recommend you purchase X edition, but there were plenty of people using an older version because they could get it for $20 instead of $120 :). I'm comparing it to uni as Hogwarts seems to have the same buy-it-all-yourself approach. Having said that, there were certainly older books available in Harry's 6th year potions class, so perhaps that's what the students who genuinely can't afford it do.

The Weasleys are described as poor, sure, but they always manage to buy the brand new texts for multiple children, and that's not cheap. They're a sort of warm-and-friendly, unchallenging and romanticised "poor", I think - new books and a home-made jersey, not exactly privation.

I tended to assume Arthur made a pretty good wage and it was tight cos of the number of children (heh, maybe once all the kids are moved out, he and Molly will live it up large :) ).

[tari_sue]

Well, friend of mine once put a cadbury's cream egg in the back pocket of his jeans and it didn't fair very well, so I should imagine a wand wouldn't either. Same bloke also tried it with an ipod, which was a rather less funny and more expensive mistake. I always imagine they have some way of keeping it up their sleeve, like a magician.

I reckon Hogwarts might have some sort of fund for poor students, like a scholarship fund or something.

[pangapang.livejournal.com]

about 1 galleon worths 5 pounds(JKR said that in a interview or sth),I don't get it:Harry's wand costs 7 galleons, that is 35 pounds, not too much for an item so important to a wizzard,huh? but in book II, "There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon"in the weasley vault, yeah, they are poor, but Mr.weasley has a ministry job, a steady income, the burrow is theirs, they eat well, all the weasley's seem healthy,how come they only have 1 galleon in their vault?