Do You Own A Valuable Harry Potter First Edition?

Sitting upon your bookshelf could be a first edition worth more than 5,000 times its original value. Therefore it may be worth your while to check your old copy of the first Harry Potter book…

A recent online auction made one lucky seller over $80,000 (more than £60,000)! Because such a hefty price tag is unheard of for an unsigned piece of fiction, this was deemed a record breaker by officials.

The original owner, a private UK collector, kept the first edition 1997 book in pristine condition, and it was sold by Heritage Auctions based in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Heritage Auctions Rare Books Director James Gannon told The Scotsman; “The book was an exceptionally nice copy. It had really been taken care of. It was bought in the UK 18 years ago and had been with one collector since.”

“Only 500 or so copies of the first edition book were printed and of those, 300 are believed to have gone into lending libraries. Usually an exhibited book is less collectible, so there were far fewer of those available to stay in pristine condition. There is a huge group of people searching for one for their collection and it is really a phenomenon rather just a book. It has all the weight of J.K. Rowling’s celebrity behind it.”

Maybe you have a rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone? To find out, check these guidelines:

1. The publisher must be Bloomsbury
2. The latest date on the copyright page must be 1997
3. The print line on the page must read: “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1”
4. Check page 53. The words “1 wand” is listed twice on a list of required school supplies Harry must take with him to school. The mistake was corrected in later print runs.

Good luck!