Harry Potter novel with spelling mistake of author’s name and bought for just pennies in second-hand book store sells for incredible sum after seller found it lying around at home

A proof copy of the first Harry Potter novel that was purchased for pennies at a second-hand bookstore nearly 30 years ago has sold at auction for $13,900.

British auction house Hanson’s said Monday that the first edition of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” – known as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in the United States – which says “uncorrected proof copy” on the cover , was purchased in 1997 from a store in south London with two other books for a total of 50 cents.

The seller, who was not named, picked up the book about the famous boy wizard as a companion to other titles and didn’t read it or pay much attention to it for years, until she read about the high prices online. Some copies of Potter were obtained, Hanson said.

The book sold to a private British buyer on Wednesday for a hammer price of 11,000 pounds ($13,900) and a total of 14,432 pounds ($18,300), including a sales premium.

Jim Spencer, head of books at the auction house, said the copy’s inside cover mistakenly listed the author’s name as ‘JA Rowling’ instead of JK Rowling.

‘This book deserved a good performance. This test copy is where the Harry Potter phenomenon began. “This is the first appearance in print of the first Potter novel,” Spencer said.

The sale comes as it was recently revealed that Rowling had reconciled with Warner Brothers ahead of a series of new projects based on Harry Potter.

Rowling was notably absent from a 2022 Warner Bros. special commemorating the 20th anniversary of the release of the first Harry Potter film.

That sparked speculation about a rift with Warner Bros. higher-ups, but insiders insist nothing could be further from the truth.

Chief executive David Zaslav flew to Edinburgh, Scotland, to meet Rowling when he was appointed to the top job in April 2022.

He and his team hope to turn the Harry Potter books into a lavish television series that could be the most expensive ever produced and create a new generation of viewers for the fantasy series.

Zaslav attempted to bond with Rowling (few in the WB universe heard her before her acquisition) discussing her childhood and families in London while attempting to “breathe new life” into her beloved book series, according to WSJ.

In an earnings call on Friday, the executive said Max aims to debut the new program in the first quarter of 2026. Variety reported. It is rumored to have a budget of $250 million, making it the most expensive television show ever made.

The CEO confirmed on that call that he and a delegation of Warner executives had met with Rowling just weeks earlier.

Rowling is known to be deeply protective of the franchise, holding biannual ‘Ministry of Magic’ meetings where she talks to executives, who spend weeks preparing ideas, about what the universe can and cannot do in the future.

He was also granted a veto over any “non-author-written sequels” to the series in film and television, which has likely delayed the upcoming series for several years.

Rowling gave her approval to the planned series when the show was announced in April, saying: “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me.”

It’s part of an ongoing world of projects involving its magicians, including theme parks around the world, a show on Broadway and the West End, stores in most major cities, and video games, one of them based on the game Quidditch fictional in development. .