O is for Ollivanders

The last shop was narrow and shabby.  Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. (The Sorcerer's Stone, 82)

I was in third grade the first time I encountered the Harry Potter series.  I remember thinking even then that it was surprising there was only one place you could buy a wand, a crucial magical item for every witch and wizard!



Of course, we later learn there are other wand makers as well, such as when Victor Krum brags about his wand: "I vos one of the last to purchase a Gregorovich vand.  They are the best - although I know, of course, that you Britons set much store by Ollivander" (The Deathly Hallows, 150).

Ollivanders is the only one in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade that is mentioned in the books and is where most of Hogwarts students get their wands.

What a monopoly!

Considering the fact that presumably each young witch or wizard only buys one wand in their lifetime though, Hank Green brings up another great point about the pricing of wands:

Well you don't seem to have much industry

[...]

I don't understand how any business gets done

when a wand only costs seven galleons.

That doesn't seem like much to me.

Mr. Ollivander not only makes and sells wands, but he also has a keen memory of them, as he tells Harry, "I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand" (The Sorcerer's Stone, 85).

Making a wand is an awful lot of work, including dangerous foraging for magical cores for the wands:

"Ah, now, this is one of mine, isn't it?" said Mr. Ollivander, with much more enthusiasm, as Cedric handed over his wand.  "Yes, I remember it well.  Containing a single hair from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn...must have been seventeen hands; nearly gored me with his horn after I plucked his tail." (The Goblet of Fire, 309)

I found a conversion counter that says 7 galleons is equivalent to $70.49.  For gathering and buying resources, making wands, and keeping a store open, that is not very much money at all.

Tomorrow, a mysterious magical item will be featured on the blog: P is for Pensieve.