Harry Potter first edition sold for record price

Original forecast to sell for around $70,000, a Harry Potter first edition sold for $471,000 at an auction in the United States. The price is a record for a 20th century work of fiction.

Written by J K Rowling, the 1997 hardback British edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” with a colour illustration on the cover, was described by Heritage Auctions as “magical, incredibly bright and so very near pristine.”

The Dallas-based auction house who said that only 500 copies with the specific binding were printed, the book being called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the USA. The final price was more than six times the pre-sale estimate of $70,000.

The pre-sale estimate was based on previous auction prices for Harry Potter first editions which have ranged from about $110,000 to $138,000.

“Not only is it the most expensive Harry Potter book ever sold, it’s the most expensive commercially published 20th-century work of fiction ever sold,” Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena said in a statement.

The book was sold by an American collector to an undisclosed buyer

British author J.K. Rowling wrote six more books about the adventures of Harry Potter. The books have sold some 500 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 80 different languages, according to US publisher Scholastic. The films that followed the books have made $7.8 billion at the global box office.

The record price for the Harry Potter first edition sold for $471,000 will no doubt raise the value of J K Rowlings other first editions and may well result in more coming on to the market.


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Written by

Peter McLaren-Kennedy

Originally from South Africa, Peter is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for the Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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