Rare First-Edition ‘Harry Potter’ Book With Typos Goes On Auction From $250K
By Nicole Rodrigues, 08 Jun 2022
A rare first-edition Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is now on auction at Christie’s ‘The Art of Literature: Loan and Selling’ exhibit. Bidding for this book starts at £200,000 (USD $250,000).
This particular book was in circulation in 1997 and was part of the first 500 that were printed. 200 of those copies are hardback versions that house typo mistakes that are highly sought after by collectors. The remaining 300 were sent to libraries.
According to Reuters, the copy on auction contains a typo, “philosphers”, on the back cover. On page 53, there is another error: “one wand” was repeated twice.
This copy was also signed by the author J.K. Rowling, which has bumped its price up even further.
The last first-edition Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that went on auction was sold for USD$471,000. Heritage Auctions, which was behind that sale, cited it as the most expensive published 20th-century fiction book to be sold.
[via Hypebeast and Reuters, cover image via Christie's]