Unread Harry Potter first edition found in attic up for auction

By Nathan Pynn

An unread copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone which was kept in mint condition in an attic for nearly 30 years is set to fetch $12,500 at auction.

The rare first edition — which was sold for just $6.25 when it was first published in 1997 — is hailed as “the finest example ever to come to market.”

The paperback copy was sent to Katrina McNichol, who was working as a book reviewer for a magazine in the Scottish Highlands in the late '90s.

Then aged 24, McNichol never got around to reading the book, and it was put into a storage box.

McNichol stumbled across the "time capsule” book while clearing out her loft in her current Edinburgh home and instantly recognized its value.

It is now set to sell for between $8,750 and $12,500 when it goes under the hammer at Rare Book Auctions this week.

McNichol, now aged 53, said: “Each week I received more than 20 titles to review, and it was impossible to feature them all.

“I’ve 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’m so glad that I did.

“I genuinely forgot it existed. When I came across it in a box 30 years later, I did a double take.

“It felt surreal. I knew how old it was and suspected it might be worth something.

“You don’t expect to stumble across something so valuable in your own attic.

“The book deserves to be with someone who truly appreciates what it is, a small but genuine piece of publishing history.”

McNichol was working in the Scottish Highlands when she received the book.

Incredibly, due to it being one of the first editions printed, it contains several mistakes — making it even more of a collector’s item.

When J.K. Rowling’s debut novel was first published, Bloomsbury expected little demand and printed just 500 hardbacks and a little over 5,000 paperbacks — making both editions exceptionally rare.

Jim Spencer, director of Rare Book Auctions, said: “This is the best example I've ever handled — and I've handled a few.

“Many were passed among friends, squished inside school backpacks, splashed with orange squash, and scribbled with doodles, but this example has been perfectly preserved in a time capsule.

“It is as good as the day it was made.”

The rare paperback also includes all the telltale signs of a genuine first edition, first issue, so loved by collectors.

Spencer said: “The first quirk to look out for is the missing ‘o’ in the word philosopher’s’ on the back cover.

“It also refers to ‘Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft’ which was later changed to ‘Witchcraft and Wizardry’.”

On page 53, a list of school supplies Harry receives from Hogwarts refers to item ‘1 wand’ twice — at the start and again at the end, he added.

Spencer, a Harry Potter book expert, added: “This is an exceptionally rare opportunity for Potterheads to bid for perhaps the finest example ever to come onto the market. It simply couldn't be any better than this.”

The book is being sold online by Lichfield-based Rare Book Auctions, part of Hansons Auctioneers, which ends May 20.