Image via Fortune.com //
In news that’ll have every ’90s baby feeling nostalgic, a first-edition Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is headed to auction, and it’s set to fetch big bucks. For a bit of context, back when the books were first printed in its initial 1997 run, only 500 books in total were printed. Ever since, they’ve become highly coveted collectibles amongst Harry Potter and literature adherents alike.
The most recent first-edition hitting the auction block is slightly different to its peers however. Specifically, it has a couple of errors in its construction, with “philosophers” misspelled on the back cover and “one wand” repeated on page 53, along with several other mistake. It seems the typos aren’t slowing down the bidders, however, with bidding kicking off at Christie’s at $250,000 USD ($350,000 AUD). No doubt the fact that Harry Potter creator herself J.K. Rowling’s signature on the book is an added help.
To put things in perspective, the last time one of these bad boys hit auction it ended up selling for $471,000 USD ($650,000 AUD) and consequetly became “the most expensive commercially published 20th-century work of fiction ever sold.” Pretty crazy to think that almost everyone who was readying Harry Potter in the early 2000s probably still has their copy. No doubt it might be worth sussing out just how much you could make for putting the childhood classic on sale.
For now, relive some key moments from the film adaptation of the novel below, and if you have a spare couple hundred thousand laying around, place your bids here.