First edition, first printing copy of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ is up for auction. Good luck buying it.

You best start counting your galleons…

 

How much money would you drop for a Harry Potter book?

A first edition, first printing copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone will be up for auction by Forum Auctions at the end of the month. The book is expected to go for a whopping £20,000 – 30,000. That’s roughly 25,463 – 38,194 USD.

That’s a hard sum of cash to cough up, especially when looking at the copy of the book, which has noticeable damage to the spine as well as the edges of the book’s cover. According to the auction’s listing, this particular copy belonged to a library and comes complete with the library’s stamp.

Check out a photo of the book below as well as a description of the copy:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, first edition, first printing, [one of 500 copies], usual light browning to text margins, ex-library copy with ink stamp to title verso and front free endpaper with barcode sticker and thin line of abrasion, but without any other markings, original pictorial boards, spine ends and corners bumped, laminate peeling, chipping to joints, extremities a little rubbed and chipped, still a very good, bright copy, preserved in a fine example of a later dust-jacket, 8vo, 1997.

Why do first printing Harry Potter books go for so much money? Very few were printed — a total of 500 — and many of those original books are thought to be lost to time.

Another copy of Philosopher’s Stone dominated the headlines in March. Like this book, that one was also from the first printing, though in much better shape. It came from the collection of Rowling’s literary agent (one of the men who made Harry Potter possible), Christopher Little. It sold for £68,812 — about 90,074 USD.

Think you might have a first printing copy? Click here to identify some of the tell-tale signs of one of these incredibly rare books.

Saul Marquez founded Bookstacked in 2014 and serves as the site's Editor-in-Chief. He primarily covers news for Bookstacked. He also co-hosts Bookmarked: A YA Book Podcast.

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