First edition of Harry Potter auctioned off for 130 million won

A first edition of the global bestseller “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (photo) was sold for 80,000 pounds (around 130 million won) at an auction.

According to BBC, one among 500 original books was registered on a British auction website Tennants Auctioneers on Wednesday and sold for 80,000 pounds. The website estimated that it would be sold for 20,000 to 30,000 pounds, but the actual price went way above it.

It believes that the copy attracted attention of auctioneers because it is in a good state of preservation and has a typo that’s found only in first editions. Three hundred out of 500 hardcover first editions are kept in libraries, but most of them are badly damaged. BBC explained that first editions are popular among collectors because of typos. On page 53 of the first edition, an item “1 wand” is listed twice by mistake. On the back page, “Philosopher’s” is spelt as “Philospher’s.”


Youn-Jong Kim zozo@donga.com