10 February 2025

First edition of Harry Potter sells for £21,000


The report I saw at Bloomberg indicated that this copy had originally been a library copy:
The book was described by auctioneers as being a "good example of an extremely scarce first edition first issue" with light wear and tear.  It was one of the 300 library editions as it has a library stamp on its title page and signs of a previous library slip card... Upon its release, publishers produced only a small number of copies because of uncertainty about whether or not the book would prove popular.
I was concerned that perhaps the book had been stolen from a library, but the BBC report indicates that the sale was by a reputable auction firm, so presumably the provenance/ownership had been verified.  But I remember reading in the past about valuable maps being razored out of library books (thus escaping detectors at doors).  John Farrier, if you are still visiting, is theft from libraries a cause for concern nowadays?  Or perhaps other librarians can comment.

Embedded image cropped for size from the original at the BBC.

1 comment:

  1. I appreciate the shoutout.

    The theft of test prep books (e.g. CDL exam, NCLEX) can be a problem. Otherwise, not really.

    I recently discovered that we have a rare book on our shelves that normally goes for about $500 on eBay.

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