A first edition of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, has been sold on auction for £36 000 (about R830 000).
The book, written by JK Rowling, was bought by Christine McCulloch for £10 in 1997 for her then ten-year-old son, Adam.
Only 500 hardback copies of the book were printed in its first print run.
This week the book was auctioned off by Rare Book Auctions in Staffordshire. It had been expected to fetch anywhere between £30 000 and £50 000.
The book had been kept in a cupboard in the family home for years, with the McCullochs only learning about its potential value during lockdown in 2020 when they heard stories of other first edition copies of the book being sold for large sums.
The book spawned a multimedia franchise of books, movies, and video games, which have made Rowling one of the richest women in the world. She is reportedly the first author to have a net worth of over £1 billion, but she has given much of her wealth away and has continued to reside in Britain, rather than moving to one of the world’s tax havens.