This comprehensive article will help you determine if you have a first edition of Harry Potter on your hands. If you have a first edition and are interested in selling it, contact us on our sell us page.
j. k. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has garnered immense popularity, critical acclaim, and commercial success around the world, and first editions of her books have quickly become collectible. By far the most valuable book in the series is the first, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, published June 30, 1997 by Bloomsbury in London.
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but to have real collectible value, it has to be a copy of the first edition, first printing (also known as the first printing). this means the first batch of books from the press, of which there were only a few thousand. Philosopher’s Stone reprints (and even first editions of later books in the series) have much lower values, in part because so many more were printed.
first, what are the books like? the first printing was bound in two different ways. the rarest is the hardcover number, with a cover of laminated cardboards. only 500 copies were bound in this way, and 300 of them were sent to libraries. Because library books get so worn out, we only have 200 copies left in potentially good condition to collect, and they rarely appear on the market. the other binding was a regular paperback of which a few thousand copies were produced for sale.
Next, how do you know if your copy, which may look a lot like the one above, is really a valuable first edition?
To be a first edition, whether hard or paperback, there are four very important issue points, all of which your book must have:
1. The publisher should be listed as Bloomsbury at the bottom of the title page. see photo below:
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2. the last date listed in the copyright information should be 1997.
3. the print line on the copyright page should read “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1”, ten to one, exactly. the lowest figure on the print line indicates printing. (For example, if your print has “20 19 18 17”, that’s a less valuable seventeenth print.)
You may have been told that you have a first impression if the copyright is in “joanne rowling’s” name, but that’s not true. all first printings of this title carry the same copyright statement.
This is what the entire back of the title page should look like:
4. On page 53, in the list of school supplies Harry receives from Hogwarts, the item “1 wand” should appear twice, once at the beginning and once at the end. this error was corrected in the second printing of the book (although it reappeared in some later editions).
If your book meets all these requirements, congratulations, you have a first edition! depending on the binding and condition, it could be worth hundreds to tens of thousands of pounds. If you are interested in selling it or would like to have a custom protective case to house it, please contact us. To see the Harry Potter books we currently have for sale, click here.
Although the first hardcover and paperback editions of Philosopher’s Stone are valuable, this is not the case with the other books in the series. for the other titles, only the first hardcover edition with dust jacket has collectible value. if you have a copy of one of these titles that meets all of these requirements below, and would like to sell, please contact us.
chamber of secrets must have been published in 1998 by bloomsbury with no mention of later edition, publisher or later date on the copyright page, and have a sequence of print numbers from “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1”.
prisoner of azkaban must have been published in 1999 by bloomsbury without mentioning the later edition, publisher or later date on the copyright page, and have a sequence of print numbers from “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1”. The most valuable copies are the first issue, which should have “joanne rowling” as the author instead of “j. k. rowling” on the copyright page, and a line of loose text on page 7.
The last four titles in the series, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, andDeathly Hallows, must have the words “first edition” printed on copyright page first edition print run of the last four titles was very large and as a result even first edition copies in dust jackets in good condition are found quite frequently and are currently not of great value. We are currently interested in acquiring signed copies of these titles only.
Browse all currently available Harry Potter books here.
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