‘Potter’ 1st edition sells for $18,000 at auction

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

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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, Bonham's 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.