{"id":4554,"date":"2026-05-25T11:05:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/attic-harry-potter-book-sells-for-record-17k\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:05:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:05:34","slug":"attic-harry-potter-book-sells-for-record-17k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/25\/attic-harry-potter-book-sells-for-record-17k\/","title":{"rendered":"Attic Harry Potter book sells for record \u00a317K"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-05-25 11:05:31<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>An ultra-rare first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher&#8217;s Stone forgotten in an attic for nearly 30 years has sold for a record-breaking \u00a317,000.<BR><br \/>\nThe pristine paperback, originally worth just \u00a34.99, belonged to former book reviewer Katrina McNichol, who received it in 1997 while working for a magazine in the Scottish Highlands.<BR><br \/>\nBut the then 24-year-old never opened the novel by 60-year-old J. K. Rowling.<BR><br \/>\nInstead, she tucked it away in storage, where it remained untouched as the Boy Wizard grew into a global publishing phenomenon.<BR><br \/>\nThe mint-condition copy was recently rediscovered while McNichol cleared out her loft in Edinburgh.<BR><br \/>\nAuction experts at Rare Book Auctions in Lichfield, Staffordshire, described it as \u201cthe finest example ever to come to market\u201d before the sale last week, according to The Sun.<BR><br \/>\nThe book attracted international attention before selling to a private UK buyer for \u00a317,000.<BR><br \/>\nRare book specialist Jim Spencer said the hammer price smashed the previous world record for a first edition paperback, also sold by the same auction house for \u00a312,000 last year.<BR><br \/>\nHe is quoted by The Sun as saying: \u201cThis sale blew it out of the water and, to be honest, I am not surprised.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cBecause it had been kept in storage it was in pristine condition.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cIt is amazing to think first edition Harry Potter paperbacks are now achieving almost as much as hardbacks were a decade ago.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cIt sold to a private UK buyer which is good news for the homegrown book market because the biggest bids for Potter have traditionally always come in from the USA.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cThe key to this auction record was the condition of the book. It was perhaps the finest example ever to come onto the market.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cIt underlines the series\u2019 growing status as one of the defining literary phenomena of the modern age.\u201d<BR><br \/>\nThe copy carried several famous first-edition clues, including the missing \u201co\u201d in \u201cphilosopher\u2019s\u201d on the back cover, the phrase \u201cHogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft\u201d, later amended, and the famous duplicated \u201c1 wand\u201d on Harry\u2019s school supply list.<BR><br \/>\nNow 53, McNichol admitted the discovery left her stunned.<BR><br \/>\nShe said: \u201cEach week I received more than 20 titles to review, and it was impossible to feature them all.<BR><br \/>\n&#8220;I\u2019ve never quite known why I set this particular book aside, long before the Harry Potter phenomenon began, but I carried it with me from home to home with dozens of others, and I\u2019m so glad that I did.<BR><br \/>\n&#8220;I genuinely forgot it existed. When I came across it in a box 30 years later, I did a double take.<BR><br \/>\n&#8220;It felt surreal. I knew how old it was and suspected it might be worth something.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cYou don\u2019t expect to stumble across something so valuable in your own attic.<BR><br \/>\n\u201cThe book deserves to be with someone who truly appreciates what it is, a small but genuine piece of publishing history.\u201d<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-05-25 11:05:31 An ultra-rare first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher&#8217;s Stone forgotten in an attic for nearly 30 years has sold for a record-breaking \u00a317,000. The pristine&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4556,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4554\/revisions\/4556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}