Potter Book Sells for $18,000 at Auction

[Almas]

Just found this on ABC News:

Potter Book Sells for $18,000 at Auction
First Edition Harry Potter Book Conjures up Huge Sum of $18,000 at London Auction


LONDON Jun 26, 2007 (AP)

A first edition Harry Potter book fetched $18,000 at auction Tuesday.

The winning bid for the first novel by J.K. Rowling that launched Pottermania went to an anonymous buyer. Bonhams auctioneers had estimated the book would sell for between $10,000 and $20,000.

First editions of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" published in the United States as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" are valuable because of their rarity, the auction house said. The publishers produced between 500 and 1,000 copies in the book's first run.

That a book that is relatively new would fetch such large amounts is unprecedented, said Luke Battenham, Bonhams' book specialist.

"The author is still alive, it's a fairly new series ... but by the time there was a third book, you could already see it would be a hit," Battenham said. "It's a phenomenon."

The sale comes less than a month before the July 21 release of the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series. The books have sold more than 325 million copies worldwide.

***

Very interesting indeed. The person who could afford $18,000 for a book must be very rich indeed! Anyone has $18,000 sitting on their shelf?! Oooooooh!

If Potter is so expensive, how much to first editions of Enid's books cost? Are they the same?

[Susie]

The person must be mega rich and a massive potter fan! Crazy!

[Ming]

How very silly, in my opinion. Plenty of mint first editions in dustjackets are still resting on our stores, for just around £12!!

Speaking of which, I found a very battered edition of the latest HP book in a "store" at the end of our road. The "store" was actually a very small van selling old books - some of them gems, and some very common. No Blytons, unfortunately. But I did get Deathly Hallows (pirated, unfortunately!) for just around £1!

I wouldn't have bought any pirated books - but the seller so insisted, that we just gave him a gift of a few pounds anyway, and he gave us a bagful of books in return, the Potter among them!

Watch out, you people. If I don't like it, I'll blame YOU folks!!

[RDMorrell]

How very silly, in my opinion. Plenty of mint first editions in dustjackets are still resting on our stores, for just around £12!!

I think the article was referring to a first edition of the first book in the series. Only about 1,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone were published to begin with, because they didn't know just how successful it would be. So I can see how that would be quite valuable to HP fans, although I must say that $18,000 does seem rather OTT (i.e. over the top). I shouldn't think any Blyton tomes would fetch that kind of money, except maybe a mint first edition of Five on a Treasure Island or something along those lines.

[Ming]

Oh, okay, I misread it then. I have to say, though, mint editions of the last three books are available. If I was a die-hard fan I'd rush out and buy them all at this very moment!

The first few are very scarce now.

[RDMorrell]

Ming's comment about pirated books reminds me of another HP article I read recently. It was about a young man in France who has landed himself in hot water by translating the latest book into French and posting his translation online. The problem was that it was an unauthorised, or "pirated" translation. Now, he didn't try to make any money from the translation, but by posting it in the public domain, he was pre-empting the publication of the official translation, which is still being worked on. So he was briefly detained by the French police and now faces the possbility of legal action from Gallimard, who publish the French versions of the HP books.

Unauthorised/pirated translations of the HP books are a constant problem in many countries. In some places, people actually try to make illegal money from them. But often it's just a case of fans trying to find out the plot and sharing with each other, or people simply wanting to indulge in an academic exercise. The fans and students probably mean no harm, but placing their translations in the public domain, like this French fellow did, is still severely frowned upon, to put it mildly.

Stories such as this make me wary of posting my own Claude Voilier translation online. I think it's safe enough posting it to the Yahoo Blyton group, which is basically in the private domain, but putting it on a Web site, and thus in the public domain, might get me in trouble, because I don't have the official rights (although I have tried). Admittedly, the Voilier FF books only enjoy a tiny fraction of HP's popularity, but still, better to be safe than sorry. Mind you, the lady translating the German Malory Towers books and putting them online doesn't seem to have got in any trouble, and I laud her efforts, but based on my own understanding of copyright and intellectual property, I'm pretty sure that what she's doing isn't legal. That said, I really hope she doesn't get in any trouble, because I don't see what harm she's doing.

Anyway, I've probably got a bit off the main thread topic, but it's another interesting angle to this extraordinarily successful series.

UPDATE: The French teen who translated the last HP book isn't going to be sued after all:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070811/en ... 0811210737

For his sake, I feel relieved! I think the publishers (and J.K. Rowling herself!) showed good sense here, because he wasn't tried to make any illegal money at the expense of Rowling or the official translator (which to me would constitute true piracy). Investigators seemed to think his work was of a "near-professional quality", so perhaps if he can stay out of trouble, he might be able to get a good literary translation job at some stage in the future!

[Kitty]

It'll be interesting to see how the value holds for early Potter. Think if I had one I'd sell it and buy E Nesbit firsts instead (you could get loads for that), or look out for a cheapo opportunity for an underpriced Victorian big name - no offense to HP, I'm fond of the series, but they aren't exactly decorative, and holding on to books for investment is so hit and miss, I think you may as well follow your heart!

That said, it's still more fun stumbling across a rarity at a boot sale or in a mixed box at a book shop, than knowing what you are getting and paying the (huge) price.

[Almas]

To be honest I own the first editions of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh books. The one of real value is the first book because it was printed with an inital run of 1,000 copies and currently these copies are very rare...

[Lucky Star]

I'm afraid I regard that as an insane sum of money to spend on Any book. You would really need to be filthy rich to pay out such an amount.

[Kitty]

A lot of the big money spent on modern firsts seems to come more from investors than collectors (although of course people can be both!) It's funny how some investments become fashionable with the general public - apparently stamps went through a very strange phase when they initially became a widely popular means of increasing income.

[dsr]

At least one 1st edition of Philosopher's Stone has sold for £12,000 (currently $24,000) - prices must be dropping!

1st editions of Deathly Hallows are probably worth about £6 now, and when the rush hits the charity shops, about 50p. There must be squillions of first editions, so any second edition will never be worth more than cost.

[Moose]

First editions of the last four, and prolly the last five, are never gonna be worth anything.. hundreds of millions were printed. A first of book one must be a bloody gold mine tho.