“Harry Potter ”First Edition Found in Bargain Bin Sells at Auction for $69,000

“This was a genuine, honest first issue and a fantastically well-preserved example," said Hansons Auctioneers’ books expert Jim Spencer

A rare first edition copy of the first Harry Potter book has fetched a large sum of money at auction.

Hansons Auctioneers, an auction house located in England, announced on Monday that a hardcover first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone — known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S. — was auctioned off for more than £55,000, or $69,000, to a private U.K. buyer.

The book features the original art from the novel’s first publication, which shows the story’s protagonist, Harry Potter, with his iconic lightning-shaped scar in full view, making a shocked face in front of the Hogwarts Express train on platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station.

“Harry Potter” was written in bright yellow letters at the top over a red background with author J.K. Rowling’s name printed below it over an orange background. The book also featured a quote from fellow children’s literature author Wendy Cooling at the bottom.

“It’s a great result for a great find,” said Hansons’ books expert Jim Spencer, per the release. “This was a genuine, honest first issue and a fantastically well-preserved example. It was fresh to market and it deserved to go full steam like the Hogwart’s Express.”

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“Of the 500 first issue hardbacks printed, 300 went to schools and libraries in order to reach a bigger audience. This is one of the even scarcer 200 that went to bookshops,” he added.

The price the book sold for at the auction was a far cry from the original price the seller, an unnamed 58-year-old Scottish woman, purchased the book for. She told the auction house that she had originally found it “during a family caravan trip” 26 years ago in the Scottish Highlands, saying, “I discovered a bookshop café on an isolated peninsula after driving miles on a single-track road in the north-west of Scotland.”

She spotted the book there and bought it for £10 (about $12.50) at the time. She even managed to get a few dollars knocked off the original price.

"Because it had no dust jacket, I got a couple of pounds knocked off the price. Our two children enjoyed the wizard tale as a bedtime story all through that holiday in 1997,” the unnamed seller explained.

She said she first learned about the book after reading one of the first interviews Rowling had done in The Scotsman newspaper in the late 1990s, adding, “I bought the Harry Potter book before anyone really knew much about it, or the author.”

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In an interesting coincidence, Hansons’ noted that she even stored the book in a cupboard under the stairs for years — drawing a direct parallel with the story’s main protagonist, who begins his journey in a cupboard under the stairs in the Dursleys' home.

“I forgot about it for a long time but then read about the rarity of first editions,” said the seller, whose children originally gave her the idea that the book might be one of those rare editions.

“I decided to contact Jim Spencer, the Harry Potter books expert at Hansons. I wanted to authenticate my copy and find out what it might be worth,” she continued. “My children are grown up now and I thought it was time for someone else to have the pleasure of owning a rare piece of literary history.”

The book is the “19th hardback Philosopher’s Stone first edition out of the original 500 discovered by Spencer,” Hansons noted. So far, the books found have been auctioned between £17,500 ($21,945) and £69,000 ($85,528), plus buyer’s premium, depending on their condition.

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This latest copy sold was one of those rare ones that were well preserved, according to Spencer, which is attributed to the way it was stored.

“Most examples are quite badly worn, especially ex-library copies,” Spencer said. “They’ve often been shared among friends and carried around in school rucksacks, which in some ways is lovely, capturing the buzz of Harry Potter when it first gained popularity. However, more traditional collectors are incredibly fussy about condition, which helped this book fulfill its potential.”

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