First edition of Harry Potter sold for $471,000 at an auction

A first edition copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone”, the first book in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, was sold for $471,000 at Heritage Auctions last Thursday (9 December). 

Bidding started at $75,000 but quickly surged and the final price was more than six times the pre-sale estimate. The book was sold by an American collector and the name of the buyer was not released. 

“It’s the most expensive commercially published 20th-century work of fiction ever sold,” said the auction house’s executive VP Joe Maddalena. “This result shows the power of that combination of literature and cinema.”

The sold copy is one of 500 hardback versions of the novel that was printed and published by Bloomsbury back in 1997 and is the most expensive Harry Potter first edition ever sold. 

Auction prices for Harry Potter first editions ranged from $110,000 to $138,000. Earlier this year, another copy was sold for $138,000. 

The recently auctioned copy, however, was the UK edition. In the US, the first edition was published a year later in September 1998 and was titled “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”.