According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the value of a rare first edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” which was initially bought by a collector for 30 pence (£1.80), has skyrocketed. It most recently sold for £15,000 (about RM 63k) in an online auction.
Only 500 copies of this edition of “Harry Potter” were printed in 1997. One of these copies was originally purchased by a book enthusiast from Staffordshire, England, who purchased it from a Wolverhampton public library. It was one of the 300 copies that at the time were given to libraries.
The collector sadly passed away at age 55 earlier this year. The book was accidentally packed up and stowed during a house transfer four years ago, prompting the collector’s sister to believe it had been misplaced. She remarked,
“We knew he had it, and if you asked him to find it, he couldn’t.”
A team from the auctioneer Richard Winterton later found the allegedly lost “Harry Potter” book among the collector’s possessions. In the end, it went for £15,000 to a Los Angeles customer.
