Rare bookseller puts Harry Potter first editions on sale for over £4,000

A rare bookseller is selling two first editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury) for more than £10,000 combined.

Peter Harrington has two original paperbacks of the first in J K Rowling's Harry Potter series on sale for £4,950 and £4,250. After being rejected by 12 publishers, Bloomsbury accepted the book and printed an initial 500 hardback copies and 5,150 paperbacks, all released on 26th June 1997.

A spokesperson for Peter Harrington said: “These first edition hardbacks are very rare and of the 500 copies published about 300 copies were sent to schools and libraries and are no longer in a good condition. This means that the other 200 copies have become quite valuable and especially those which remain unread.

“Twenty years ago the hardback book was for sale for £10.99 and today Peter Harrington estimate a good first edition of one of these first printed copies would be worth upwards of £50,000.”

The larger volume of paperbacks – almost 10 times more were printed than hardbacks – means the original, first edition copies originally sold for £4.99 are now worth around £4,000.

Peter Harrington was established in 1969 and now has two stores in Fulham Road, Chelsea, and a newly opened shop in Dover Street, Mayfair.