Harry Potter Bought For £3.50 Sells For £8,000 at Auction

A copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has sold for £8,340 at auction, 27 years after its owner bought it brand new for just a few pounds.

The soft cover, first edition of the boy wizard’s literary debut went under the hammer with Richard Winterton Auctioneers in England earlier today, and was won by a UK telephone bidder.

“This is a fantastic result and one of the highest prices achieved at auction, which reflects the wonderful condition this copy is in,” said auctioneer Richard Winterton. “We had a huge amount of interest in the book leading up to the auction and on sale day we were joined online by more than 30 bidders from America and the UK along with two telephone bids and people watching in the saleroom.

Vendor Jane Thompson-Webb, of Erdington, bought the book brand new in 1997 while working in Ottakar’s Bookshop in Birmingham. Her 30 per cent staff discount off the book’s £4.99 meant she paid about £3.50. Prior to auction, the book sat happily on Jane’s bookshelf.

Here are Richard Winterton's tips for those wondering if they have a first edition at home:

• Go straight to the back cover, where there should be a letter ‘o’ missing from the word philosopher’s. It reads "Acclaim for Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone"
• It also refers to ‘Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft’ – this was later swapped round to ‘Witchcraft and Wizardry’
• Check that the publisher is Bloomsbury and the latest date listed in the copyright information is 1997
• The print line on the copyright page should read “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” and in the copyright information for the cover illustration of Thomas Taylor 1997, there is no gap between his surname and the date: ‘Taylor1997’
• Like all early printings of the title, it also credits text copyright to Joanne Rowling
• on page 53, which features a list of school supplies Harry receives from Hogwarts, the item ‘1 wand’ appears twice, at the start and again at the end

In July 2023, a rare hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone went under the hammer with Richard Winterton Auctioneers for a hammer price of £10,500. Bought for 30p after being withdrawn from Wolverhampton Library, the book – one of only 500 first edition first impressions and, of those, one of only 300 sent to libraries – attracted international interest, with the winning bid placed over the internet from Los Angeles.