Whoa, whoa, whoa – before you walk into your grown child’s room with a garbage bag and start chucking out all of their childhood thingamabobs willy-nilly you might want to keep an eye out for any Harry Potter books.
It turns out that stocking filler you bought all those years ago could now be worth tens of thousands – particularly if it’s an early edition and especially if it has the author’s signature.
According to online book marketplace AbeBooks some early prints of the popular children’s book series which began in 1996 are “highly collectable” and selling for a motza.
Previous book sales indicate a full collection of signed Harry Potter first editions will set you back more than $39,000 AUD – while the most paid at auction for a single JK Rowling book was a staggering [£1.95 million ($3.7 million AUD)]( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3669880/JK-Rowling-book-fetches-1.9m-at-auction.html |target=” _blank”)
So how do you know if your Harry Potter book is valuable? According to AbeBooks “anything signed by JK Rowling has significant financial value”.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone first edition hardcover prints are the most valuable of all of the series.
The “Holy Grail” for Potter collectors is a hardcover first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Only 500 of these books were printed and went to 300 libraries. Prices on AbeBooks vary from $40,000 to $55,000. Look for a print line that reads “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1” and the crediting of “Joanne Rowling” not JK.
According to AbeBooks: “Prices for Australian first editions vary between $200 and $2000. The first editions of the deluxe edition from 1999 are also desirable with prices from $450 to $2,500. Paperback first editions of the Philosopher’s Stone are also quite scarce and attract four-figure price-tags – sometimes five figures if in excellent condition.”
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