A first edition of the debut Harry Potter book in the series by J.K. Rowling was just sold for $38,000 by a British man with a stake in the character’s good name.
Indeed, one Harry Potter, 33, of Waterlooville, Hampshire, has sold his well-loved copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (released in the US as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”), which he received as a gift from his father in 1997 — the year the book was released.
Only 500 copies of that first edition were printed.
Potter has kept the book as a prized possession, now with immense sentimental value since his father passed away due to cancer in 2017. But he’s recently decided to part ways with the volume with the purpose of fundraising for a trip to Kenya, where Potter plans to scatter his dad’s ashes.
Despite its worn corners and creased spine, the novel sold at Hansons Auctioneers, in Etwall, Derbyshire, for £27,500 ($38,000).
“I’m happy it sold,” he said in a statement to South West News Service. “We plan to use the proceeds to take my dad’s ashes to Kenya.”
“We’re delighted to deliver a happy ending, and add a new chapter to the Potter story,” added Hanson Auctioneers owner Charles Hanson.
“Considering its well-used, well-loved condition, the book did extremely well,” he said. “I’m so pleased Harry and Katie can now use the proceeds to honor their father.”
While $38,000 is nothing to sneeze at, another first printing of the same book, which additionally bragged an autograph from the author, fetched a cool $90,000 in 2019.
Three years prior, a bedazzled, handwritten tome by Rowling herself — a re-creation of “The Tales of the Beedle the Bard,” a story told within “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” — raised a whopping $620,000 for charity.