Harry Potter first edition bought for £3.50 from Birmingham book shop sells at auction for £8,000

A rare first edition Harry Potter has sold at auction for more than £8,000 – 27 years after its owner bought it for £3.50 at the book shop where she worked.

Jane Thompson-Webb, 52, purchased the book brand new from Ottakar’s Bookshop in Birmingham for £4.99 in 1997 – minus a 30 per cent staff discount.

She kept the copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on a bookshelf for almost three decades before rediscovering it during a recent a clear-out.

Today (Mon) the paper-back copy went under the hammer at Richard Winterton Auctioneers, in Lichfield, Staffs.

It sold for £6,600 with the premium-inclusive total paid by a UK telephone bidder being in excess of £8,000.

Auctioneer Richard Winterton said: “This is a fantastic result and one of the highest prices achieved at auction, which reflects the wonderful condition this copy is in.

“We had a huge amount of interest in the book leading up to the auction and on sale day we were joined online by more than 30 bidders from America and the UK along with two telephone bids and people watching in the saleroom.

“After a solid bidding battle the copy was eventually secured by a telephone bidder in the UK.

“Congratulations to the winner and also to the underbidders, who all helped make this a magical moment in the saleroom.”

Vendor Jane Thompson-Webb, of Erdington, told how she bought the book brand new in 1997 whilst working in Ottakar’s.

Jane, a conservation manager for Birmingham Museums Trust, said: “When the first Harry Potter was released we reviewed it for an in-house newsletter.

“I was 27 at the time and bought it because I wanted to read it – I’ve always read children’s stories.

“I remember people coming to buy the book before Christmas.

"But what’s really vivid is how many parents with young boys came in after Christmas, with the boys asking when the next book was coming out because they wanted to read the next story.

“That book got boys reading.”

The original book comes with a misspelled 'Philospher’s' on the back cover and the author credited as Joanne Rowling instead of JK Rowling.

Think you’ve got a first edition of the book? Here’s what to look for:

Mr Winterton has now revealed other vital things to look out for if you think you have a first edition of the book at home.

He added: “I go straight to the back cover, where there should be a letter ‘o’ missing from the word philosopher’s.

"It reads ‘Acclaim for Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone’.

“It also refers to ‘Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft’ – this was later swapped round to ‘Witchcraft and Wizardry’.

“Check that the publisher is Bloomsbury and the latest date listed in the copyright information is 1997.

“The print line on the copyright page should read “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” and in the copyright information for the cover illustration of Thomas Taylor 1997, there is no gap between his surname and the date: ‘Taylor1997’.

“Like all early printings of the title, it also credits text copyright to Joanne Rowling.

“Another good one to spot is on page 53, which features a list of school supplies Harry receives from Hogwarts.

"The item ‘1 wand’ appears twice, at the start and again at the end.”

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