A rare first edition of and the Philosopher’s Stone which was once destined for the bin has found new life after selling at auction for more than £21,000.
The book went under the hammer at NLB Auctions in Paignton, receiving bids from attendees in the room, over the phone, and online.
Daniel Pearce, the auction house’s owner, discovered the book among the belongings of a deceased man from Brixham which had been marked for disposal.
Pearce described the outcome as “an absolutely great result for a first edition hardback.” The book belonged to the initial print run of 500 copies, 300 of which were allocated to public libraries.
One of its distinguishing features is a notable printing error – on the back cover, ‘Philosopher’s’ is missing its final ‘o’.
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A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has sold for five figures (Image: BBC)
To accommodate bidders from the West Coast of the United States, the auction house scheduled the lot for around 16.00 GMT. Ultimately, the book was sold to an overseas buyer.
“It’s made its way overseas and it’s a really good result,” Pearce told the . “The owner will be delighted.”
And this is not the first Harry Potter novel to sell for an astonishing amount at auction. One of the most valuable Harry Potter-related books is The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of wizarding fairy tales first mentioned in Deathly Hallows.
originally hand-wrote and illustrated only seven copies, six of which she gifted to those closely involved in the series.
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Auctioneer Daniel Pearce was the one to find the precious hardback (Image: BBC)
The seventh, known as the Moonstone copy, was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2007. It sold for a shocking £1.95 million – a world record for a modern literary manuscript and a children’s book.
Another major sale occurred in 2024 when the original cover artwork for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for $1.92 million, far surpassing its presale estimate of $400,000–600,000.
Another hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone reached $216,000 in a 2024 auction in New York.
Given their scarcity, these editions have become some of the most sought-after collectibles in modern literature.