AN ultra-rare first edition Harry Potter book left in an attic for almost 30 years has sold for a record-breaking price.
The pristine copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold at auction for £17,000.
Book reviewer Katrina McNichol was sent the paperback in 1997 when it was worth £4.99.
She was working for a magazine in the Scottish Highlands at the time and never got around to reading it.
Instead, the then 24-year-old kept it in a storage box for nearly three decades until she found it recently while clearing out her loft in Edinburgh.
The book, which was kept in mint condition, was hailed as “the finest example ever to come to market” by auction experts ahead of its sale last week.
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Is your Harry Potter book worth any money?
If you have books collecting dust at home that you think may be valuable, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Firstly, the condition of it is key and will impact the value.
First edition books are also highly sought-after and will usually be more valuable than a later printing.
Better yet, if the author has signed it, you can expect it to be worth more.
The number of copies in existence will also have an impact.
To check if your books are valuable, it’s worth first looking up completed listings on eBay and filtering by the highest value.
You can also decide to have it valued by auction houses but be aware of any fees.
If you decide to sell, remember that you’re not guaranteed to be quids in.
It attracted bidders from all over the world before selling to a UK buyer for a total of £17,000 at Rare Book Auctions in Lichfield, Staffs.
Book expert Jim Spencer said the result beat a previous world record for a first edition paperback which sold at the same auctioneers for £12,000 last year.
He said: “This sale blew it out of the water and, to be honest, I am not surprised.
“Because it had been kept in storage it was in pristine condition.
“It is amazing to think first edition Harry Potter paperbacks are now achieving almost as much as hardbacks were a decade ago.
“It sold to a private UK buyer which is good news for the homegrown book market because the biggest bids for Potter have traditionally always come in from the USA.
“The key to this auction record was the condition of the book. It was perhaps the finest example ever to come onto the market.
“It underlines the series’ growing status as one of the defining literary phenomena of the modern age.”
When J.K. Rowling’s debut novel was first published, Bloomsbury expected little demand and printed just 500 hardbacks and a little over 5,000 paperbacks – making both editions exceptionally rare.
At the time the book was sent to Katrina, the Boy Wizard was yet to find international fame, and the unread paperback languished on a pile, before ending up in storage.
The rare paperback included all the telltale signs of a genuine first edition, such as the missing ‘o’ in the word ‘philosopher’s’ on the back cover.
Katrina, now aged 53, said: “Each week I received more than 20 titles to review, and it was impossible to feature them all.
“I’ve never quite known why I set this particular book aside, long before the Harry Potter phenomenon began, but I carried it with me from home to home with dozens of others, and I’m so glad that I did.
“I genuinely forgot it existed it. When I came across it in a box 30 years later, I did a double take.
“It felt surreal. I knew how old it was and suspected it might be worth something.
“You don’t expect to stumble across something so valuable in your own attic.
“The book deserves to be with someone who truly appreciates what it is, a small but genuine piece of publishing history.”
The book also refers to ‘Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft’ which was later changed to ‘Witchcraft and Wizardry’.
On page 53, a list of school supplies Harry receives from Hogwarts refers to item ‘1 wand’ twice – at the start and again at the end.
Charles Hanson, from Hansons Auctioneers, the parent company of Rare Book Auctions, said: “Jim has really established himself as the leading authority on Harry Potter and we were delighted to be able to offer the vendor a global platform on which to sell this remarkable book.”
