The world’s costliest Harry Potter books at public sale

After a pristine first version copy of J. K. Rowling‘s first ebook, “Harry Potter and the Thinker’s Stone,” offered in March for £69,000 kilos ($85,118, €80,228), a extra obscure version went below the hammer on Friday (16.12.2022). Launched a decade in the past, the fifteenth anniversary version of the Harry Potter debut was printed completely for 15 competitors winners and is signed and devoted by writer Rowling. (Additionally learn: Snoop Dogg tweets Harry Potter fan art of himself as Dobby, JK Rowling reacts)

In 2012, writer Bloomsbury launched a nationwide competitors to search out the UK’s “greatest Harry Potter fan,” with entries invited to make their case in 50 phrases. One fortunate winner of the leather-bound version was then 16-year-old Chloe Esslemont.

Now her ebook has been offered for £8,000 at public sale within the UK.

“I’ve stored the ebook wrapped up within the attic for years,” stated Esslemont. “Everybody was Potter mad once I was at college. I dressed up as Hermione for World Guide Day and my nan knitted me a Gryffindor scarf.”

On the age of 26, she determined it was time to let go of her most prized Harry Potter possession.

“I nonetheless just like the Potter books however I gained this prize 10 years in the past,” she stated. “It has been gathering mud and the cash can be helpful now.”

‘The rarest Harry Potter I’ve ever dealt with’

The particular version was offered by Hansons Auctioneers, which promote uncommon books and makes a speciality of sought-after Harry Potter editions.

Hansons’ books skilled Jim Spencer has constructed a fame on his uncommon Potter finds but says this ebook is exclusive.

“Technically, that is the rarest Harry Potter ebook I’ve ever dealt with — and I’ve assessed lots of,” he acknowledged on the Hansons web site. Whereas copies from among the many authentic 500 hardback copies of “The Thinker’s Stone” from the first-ever print run in 1997 are probably the most useful — Spencer has discovered 18 and offered one close to excellent copy for £69,000 in March — “this new discover is especially scarce,” he stated.

The primary of solely 15 books specifically printed to mark Potter’s fifteenth anniversary to be publicly offered, Spencer stated he “traveled from the Midlands to Cumbria, proper on the border of Scotland, to gather it.”

Regardless of the ebook’s rarity, is it priced decrease than a primary version as a result of it’s the first ever offered.

“The worth is totally unknown. I have never discovered one other one on the market, or having offered, anyplace. I do not even assume there’s even an image of 1 on-line,” stated Spencer earlier than the sale.

A bidding battle drove a file sale for a Potter first version in December 2021 of $471,000 in Dallas, Texas.

With bidding starting at $75,0edi00, the ebook sale quickly broke data.

“And never solely is the most costly Harry Potter ebook ever offered, it is the most costly commercially printed Twentieth-century work of fiction ever offered,” stated Heritage Public sale’s government vice chairman, Joe Maddalena. “This consequence exhibits the ability of that mixture of literature and cinema.”

Harry Potter virtually wasn’t printed

J. Okay. Rowling’s debut was rejected by a dozen publishers earlier than Bloomsbury printed simply 500 hardback copies of “Harry Potter: The Thinker’s Stone” in 1997.

Many ended up in public libraries, making it very tough at the moment to find first version copies for potential sale.

However quickly Rowling’s character turned a family identify. Over 120 million copies of the ebook have since been offered.

Whereas these few first editions stay probably the most useful, considered one of 15 leather-bound copies printed in 2012 has joined these prized ranks.

Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier