A rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has sold for £36,000 after being bought for around just £10 in 1997.
Christine McCulloch, who bought the book in Stratford-Upon-Avon for her son Adam in the Nineties, said she had no idea the book would be so valuable 30 years later.
The book, which was valued between £30,000 and £50,000, is one of the only 500 hardpack copies published of the first Philosopher’s Stone print run, according to Hansons Auctioneers.
Adam McCulloch, told the BBC the book had been left in a cupboard in his family’s old house in Chesterfield.
The McCullochs only learned of the novel’s potential value during lockdown in 2020 after seeing other stories about first editions.
“Once we got it verified it was a bit of a pinch yourself moment,” McCulloch, who is glad someone else will now get to enjoy the book, said.
He continued: “In some ways I think having that bit of a story around it, some tea stains there and a folded over corner here where someone’s enjoyed reading it - I think that adds to the magic.”
News of the auction has prompted other Harry Potter fans to inspect their own book collections. “I have a load stashed in the loft,” one person wrote on X/Twitter. “I will have to take a look.”
This June, the original painting used for the cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for £1.5m in the US.
Sotheby’s, the auctioneer, valued the watercolour at between £320,420 to £480,630 but the actual sale price propelled the piece to become the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold.
The illustration was Thomas Taylor’s first professional commission, which he created when he was just 23 years old after becoming one of the first people in the world to read Harry Potter.
“It is exciting to see the painting that marks the very start of my career, decades later and as bright as ever,” he said.
“It takes me back to the experience of reading Harry Potter for the first time — one of the first people in the world to do so — and the process of creating what is now an iconic image.
“As I write and illustrate my own stories today, I am proud to look back on such magical beginnings.”
