Harry Potter, as we all know, is a cultural phenomenon and has been since the character was first introduced all the way back in 1997.
As the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone happens next year, a few people have been digging out their old, dog-earred copies of the book and have gotten themselves a nice little surprise. According to book valuers at AbeBooks, hardback first-editions of Philosopher's Stone in good condition can hit as high as $40,000 to $55,000.
Why exactly are they so valuable? For one, they're unusual in that the novel is credited to Joanne Rowling, not JK Rowling. Not only that, a run of 500 books were made with 300 ending up in public libraries. The cover, for those that don't know, shows a sketch of Harry Potter standing in front of a train on Platform 9 3/4.
First editions of the deluxe version of Philosopher's Stone, made in 1999, are also valuable. These have been sold to collectors for around $400 to $2,500. The US version of the first book is also quite valuable as it was given a different title; Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone. First American editions of the novel can fetch up to $6,000 with many of these signed by JK Rowling herself. T
he follow-up novel, Harry Potter & The Chamber Of Secrets, is quite valuable too. Hardback first-editions with a signature by Rowling have been valued as high as $9,000. The prices start to trail off somewhat as you go further down the series, however a rare copy of The Prisoner of Azkaban that credits Joanne Rowling, not JK Rowling, can easily fetch $12,000 with collectors. By the fourth book, Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire, JK Rowling was signing fewer and fewer books meaning that any signed hardback copy of the proceeding books are still valuable, many of which would sell for over $500 to $2,000 depending on the condition.
You might roll your eyes at all of this, but the truth is that there's a huge market out there for first-editions of novels like Harry Potter. We spoke to Robbie Glick of ComicBooks.ie about the grading and cataloguing of comic-books, with figures of around €10,000 quoted for some purchases.
