Rare copy of Harry Potter book sold at auction for £80,000

A rare first edition of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone from 1997 has sold at auction for £80,000.

The sought-after book was one of 500 hardback copies printed in its first run 24 years ago with the author credited as ‘Joanne Rowling’ in the back.

The book contains a number of printing errors, including on page 53 where ‘1 wand’ is repeated.

While the rear cover features the misprints ‘Wizardry and Witchcraft’ (for ‘Witchcraft and Wizardry’) and ‘Philospher’s Stone’.

Auctioneers Tennants, in Leyburn, North Yorks., had estimated that the volume would fetch roughly between £20,000-£30,000.

But one lucky Potterhead was able to snap up the rare book for multiples of that amount.

The ‘exceptional copy, first edition, first impression, case-bound issue’ was sold on Wednesday (July 28) for the eye-watering fee and excludes the buyer’s premium.

300 of the original books were sent to libraries around the country but many had a ‘high rate of loss and damage’.

It is believed to be one of the highest ever recorded prices for a JK Rowling book.

A signed first edition of the Philosopher’s Stone was sold in Edinburgh last year for a record-breaking £125,000.

Specialist Dominic Somerville-Brown said: “This was an exceptional copy and the price reflects the premium which collectors will assign to condition.

“There is no real precedent for such a recently published book commanding these kinds of prices, and this probably reflects the fact that the world which J. K. Rowling created has been a source of collective cultural experience like nothing else in modern times.”