There are only 500 first edition copies of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone“, and one of them was recently sold for a record price of £150,000 (approx. $227,000). The sale took place at a charity auction held by Sotheby’s in London. The auction was called “First Editions, Second Thoughts” and it included only one-off copies of famous books, with commentaries and annotations from their authors.
The star of the sale was this rare Harry Potter novel from 1997, featuring 22 original illustrations, numerous handwritten notes, and even 43 pages of “second thoughts” by the author, J.K. Rowling. According to Sotheby’s the room was dominated by silence when bidding started for this very special copy. Bidders fought a lot for it, but eventually the book went to an unidentified person who bought it over the phone.
Other noteworthy lots included “Metroland” by Julian Barnes, which went for £14,000 ($21,200), “The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro – which got £18,000 ($27,200), and “Matilda” by Roald Dahl, which had new illustrations by Quentin Blake and fetched £30,000 ($45,400).
