A primary version copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” printed in 1997, offered for greater than £55,000 — about $69,000 — on Monday, in accordance with Hansons Auctioneers.
The 58-year-old vendor purchased the hardcover copy for £10 — between $12 and $13 — after she noticed it in a discount bucket in a store within the Scottish Highlands 26 years in the past. Just 500 copies had been printed within the first run of hardbacks, with 300 going to colleges and libraries and 200 going out to bookshops, Hansons’ books knowledgeable Jim Spencer mentioned.
“This was a genuine, honest first issue and a fantastically well-preserved example,” mentioned Spencer. “It was fresh to market and it deserved to go full steam like the Hogwarts Express.”
The unidentified vendor discovered about Harry Potter after studying certainly one of J. Ok. Rowling’s first interviews, in accordance with the public sale home.
“I bought the Harry Potter book before anyone really knew much about it, or the author,” she mentioned in a Hansons Auctioneers information launch. “I found it during a family caravan trip touring ’round the highlands of Scotland.”
She even bought a few kilos — about $2 — knocked off the value as a result of the ebook had no mud jacket. The mother mentioned her youngsters loved the ebook as a bedtime story all through their trip.
Years in the past, her youngsters learn one thing on-line about figuring out first editions. They advised her they thought that they had one.
“But I said the edition was worthless due to it having no dust jacket. Some time later I learned the book was never released with a dust jacket,” the mother mentioned. “At that point, we stored the book away. It lived like the young Harry Potter did, in the cupboard under the stairs.”
She forgot it there for some time earlier than contacting Spencer at Hansons.
“My children are grown up now and I thought it was time for someone else to have the pleasure of owning a rare piece of literary history,” the mother mentioned.
It was offered for £55,104 to a personal UK on-line purchaser. Other first version copies of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” have offered at public sale for between £17,500 and £69,000, plus purchaser’s premium, relying on their situation.
“Most examples are quite badly worn, especially ex-library copies,” Hanson mentioned. “They’ve often been shared among friends and carried around in school rucksacks, which in some ways is lovely, capturing the buzz of Harry Potter when it first gained popularity. However, more traditional collectors are incredibly fussy about condition, which helped this book fulfill its potential.”
The ebook, which was re-titled “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” for American audiences, was revealed by Scholastic within the U.S. in 1998, with an preliminary printing of fifty,000 copies.
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