A first edition of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone book sold for a whopping £80,000 or a little over Rs 82 lakh, four times its estimated price at an auction. The rare book is among the only 500 hardcover copies of the first book of the 7-part boy wizard series that were signed by author Joanne Kathleen Rowling, or simply JK Rowling, as she is known, in 1997. The book was originally expected to go for £20,000 and £30,000( Rs20 to Rs 30 lakh).
It eventually sold for £80,000 or Rs 82,73,947 to be precise. Among the 500 that were signed by Rowling, only 200 are there as the rest were all sent to libraries or have been damaged in the years and cannot be repaired.
On the book’s copyright page, the acclaimed author is credited simply as “Joanne Rowling". The Tennants Auctioneers of Leyburn in North Yorkshire, UK were the auction house who put together the sale and they had estimated the book to go under the hammer for a price between £20,000-£30,000.
The “exceptional copy, first edition, first impression, case-bound issue" sold on Wednesday for £80,000 and excludes the buyer’s premium, the auction house said, the BBC reported.
Although among the highest recorded sale, there have been other copies sold at such high prices as well. A signed copy of the same edition sold for £125,000 or Rs. 1,29,28,042 last year in a European auction record. Yet another copy sold for £68,000 last December in Staffordshire.
Another copy of the book that was all set to be sold at a few bucks at a car boot sale fetched £50,000 at auction in UK. The Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone copy gathering dust on a bookshelf at one Charlotte Rumsey’s house when she learnt of the book’s value while watching the TV programme Antiques Roadshow. She came across the children’s classic and decided to give it up for auction.
Similarly, another such first edition copy of the boy wizard series, which a former British expat had bought to teach his children English fetched £60,000 at auction in UK.
The Potter books have been hugely popular the world over, selling billions of copies all over and inspiring movies, plays, theme parks and other pop culture and commercial projects based on the magical adventures. The books have also been applauded by critics and readers everywhere for their relevant topics of love, friendship, the power of choice and the win of good over evil.
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