Opening a can of wyrms:

[scott_sanford]

The Forbes Fictional Fifteen is out, showing us that just because you work for a finance magazine doesn't mean you lack a sense of humor. This year they let us peek behind the scenes and show how to calculate the net worth of dragon hoards, which is admirably nerdy and math-heavy. (Anything that involves reading J.R.R. Tolkien and a calculator sounds like something for us.) But if you just want the bottom line: Smaug is worth not less than $8.6 billion.

Comments

[seawasp]

I'll concede that. Still, they were seriously undervaluing the old lizard's trove, and that's just basing it on volume.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Very few responders on the Forbes board argue that their favorite character is assessed too high. The only exception I found on my browse through the list was Richie Rich, whose family is quite wealthy but whose individual assets probably don't make the list. Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark, for example, are both argued to be wealthier.