Rare Harry Potter Book Bought for Pennies Sells for £11,000 at Auction
A first-edition Harry Potter novel, purchased for just 13p almost 30 years ago, has recently been sold at auction for an astonishing £11,000.
The uncorrected proof copy of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was acquired in 1997 with two other books for a total of 40p. The anonymous seller, now 52, shared that she bought it casually during a routine visit to a second-hand bookshop in Crystal Palace:
“I dropped into one of my usual haunts, one of the second-hand bookshops just off the main road in Crystal Palace, looking for some Agatha Christies. Piles of books were all jumbled up in baskets on the floor with a maximum price of 40p. The Harry Potter book was among the piles - maybe even by accident - as all the rest were Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh etc, as far as I remember. I bought it as a throw-in with a couple of other titles - 40p for all three. I don't think I even looked at it properly to tell the truth.”
The auction, conducted by Hansons Auctioneers, saw the book being sold to a private UK buyer. The unedited version of the book, with J.K. Rowling's name mistakenly listed as "J A Rowling," played a pivotal role in sparking the global Harry Potter phenomenon. Jim Spencer, an expert on Harry Potter books, emphasised, "This is where the Harry Potter phenomenon began. This is the very first appearance in print of the first Potter novel."
The seller's discovery of the book's worth came when she stumbled upon news about the escalating prices of Harry Potter books. Intrigued, she reached out to Jim Spencer, who confirmed the book's significant value. Reflecting on the fortuitous find, she admitted, "finding it when I did was just a massive piece of well-timed luck for which I will always be grateful and more than a tad surprised."
In the world of Harry Potter this uncorrected proof copy stands as a touch of magical history. The story of a young wizard's journey, unknowingly initiated by a throwaway purchase, has now turned into a remarkable tale of unexpected fortune for the seller and a valuable piece for an ardent Harry Potter enthusiast.
