A super-rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has sold for more than £56,000 at auction.

The woman who owned it bought it as a school girl 21 years ago in Harrogate Railway Station.

But now, a private buyer had snapped up for a whopping £56,250 at Bonhams.

A first edition Harry Potter book (not pictured) has sold for £56, 250 (AP/Matt Dunham)

The hugely successful movie franchise thew Daniel Radcliffe,Rupert Grint and Emma Watson into huge fame (Picture: PA)

The book had a pre-sale estimate of £35,000 but it sparked fervent bidding and was bought by an American private collector.


The book was one of only 500 printed in its initial run in 1997, and long before the world fell in love with the tale of the boy wizard.

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It was also printed before J.K. Rowling, as she became known, had decided on a pen name, and the author is listed as ‘Joanne Rowling’.



The early copies contained various spelling mistakes which were later corrected in other editions.

Another error is the duplication of ‘1 wand’ on a page listing the equipment Harry required for Hogwarts.

The world record for a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is £106,250 which was set in November 2017 (Picture: Warner Brothers)

Matthew Haley, a book specialist at auctioneers Bonhams, said: ‘We knew £35,000 was a conservative estimate and we believed it could achieve far more.

‘Only 500 first editions were printed in hardback and this was one of those very scarce copies complete with spelling mistakes.

‘It is really nice that this copy was bought by the vendor at a train station and little could she have known the book would become so valuable.

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‘The vendor is delighted and the collector who was very interested in the romantic story behind the book was thrilled to secure it too.’

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was rejected by 12 publishing houses before finally being picked up by British house Bloomsbury in 1997.

More than 500 million Harry Potter books have been sold all over the world in 80 languages, with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by itself achieving sales of over 100 million.

The world record for a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is £106,250 which was set in November 2017.

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