A pristine first edition of the most valuable Harry Potter book ever published, kept in darkness, unread and in a protective sleeve for 25 years, has sparked an auction bidding battle.
Online and phone bidders competed to buy the ‘as-good-as-new’ hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, one of only 500 in the first ever Potter book print run in 1997.
It went under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers’ Staffordshire saleroom, Bishton Hall, on March 9, 2022 and the hammer fell at £69,000 to an online USA bidder. The book sold well above its guide price of £40,000-£60,000.
The seller, a retired paper merchant director, 68, from West Sussex, said: “I’m very pleased with the result. Though it was a very good copy, the book wasn’t quite perfect. It won’t pay off my mortgage but it will go a long way towards it!”
Jim Spencer, books expert at Hansons, said: “I’m delighted for our vendor. It’s certainly a good return for the £12.99 he paid for the book – and he nearly asked for his money back because he thought it had a fatal flaw.”
“It didn’t have a dust jacket and I thought it should,” said the seller, who pre-ordered the book from Leatherhead Bookworm in Surrey in 1997. “I was really disappointed when I went to pick it up. I’m a collector and, being a first edition, I expected it to have one. I decided to keep the book on the toss of a coin. It was a moment of destiny.”
Years later he discovered that Philosopher’s Stone hardback first issues don’t come with a dust jacket – so his copy was as good as it could be.
The retired paper merchant director, 68, from West Sussex, said: “Leatherhead Bookworm, one of those magical old books shops, no longer exists but I still hear from the man who sold me the book. He likes to remind me that I nearly had my money back just because it didn’t have a slip cover. I remember standing in the doorway debating whether to keep it.
“I took it home and tucked it away in darkness on a high book shelf to keep it from prying eyes but, more importantly, because the paper in the book is poor quality. I was told to keep it away from sunlight to prevent it going brown.
“I bought that first issue of Philosopher’s Stone because I noticed an advert for it in a magazine called Bookseller in 1997. It compared JK Rowling’s book to the Famous Five novels and predicted it could be a prize winner. I loved reading Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books when I was a child – and I liked them to have a dust jacket!
“I’ve really looked after it. It’s in the best condition it possibly can be – almost perfect I would say. It’s never been read. A year after I bought it, with Harry Potter excitement growing at my daughter’s school, she asked if she could read it. I said no, absolutely not.
“Instead, I bought her another copy and a later issue of The Chamber of Secrets – both in the Harry Potter Gift Set slipcase. By that time, I’d also acquired a mint first issue of Chamber of Secrets.
“My daughter’s copy of Philosopher’s Stone was a fourth issue – with a dust jacket. So, I put that on my first edition to protect it and tucked it away together with my Chamber of Secrets first edition, also protected by the slipcase. They have always been kept separate from my main books collection and hidden in the house.
“I started collecting books in my 40s. I worked for a paper company and mixed with people in the books’ fraternity. I used to go out at lunchtime looking for rare finds and got hooked.
“In recent years, I noticed Philosopher’s Stone first editions were selling well at auction but, as mine didn’t have a dust jacket, I didn’t think it could achieve those prices. Eventually I realised a dust jacket was not specified. It’s not been easy to part with it, though. Collectors have difficulty selling their prized possessions.”
Mr Spencer has sourced and sold 16 hardback first issues of Philosopher’s Stone to date with prices achieved ranging from £15,500 to more than £60,000 dependant on condition.
“This is the highest hammer price we have achieved so far and deservedly so,” he said. “It was the best hardback first edition of Philosopher’s Stone I have ever seen.”
The Harry Potter hardback first sold at Hansons Auctioneers’ March 9 Library Auction at Bishton Hall, StaffsTo find out more, email [email protected]
