“This was a genuine, honest first edition and a fantastically well-preserved copy,” said Jim Spencer, book expert at Hansons Auctioneers.

A rare first edition of the first Harry Potter book fetched a high price at auction.

Hansons Auctioneers, an auction house based in England, announced on Monday that a hardback first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone — known as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the USA – was auctioned to a private British buyer for more than £55,000 or $69,000.

The book includes the original illustration from the novel’s first publication, showing the story’s protagonist, Harry Potter, with his iconic lightning bolt scar in full force, looking shocked in front of the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross Station.

“Harry Potter” was written at the top in bright yellow letters on a red background, with the author JK Rowling’s name printed below on an orange background. The book also featured a quote from children’s author Wendy Cooling at the bottom.

“This is a great result for a great find,” said Hansons’ book expert Jim Spencer, according to the press release. “This was a genuine, honest first edition and a fantastically well-preserved copy. It was new to the market and deserved to go full steam ahead like the Hogwarts Express.”

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“Of the 500 hardback copies of the first edition printed, 300 went to schools and libraries to reach a wider audience. This is one of the even rarer 200 copies that went to bookstores,” he added.

The price the book sold for at the auction was a far cry from the original price the seller, an unnamed 58-year-old Scottish woman, bought the book for. She told the auction house that she originally found it “during a family caravan trip” in the Scottish Highlands 26 years ago. “I discovered a bookshop cafe on a remote peninsula after driving for miles on a single-lane road in northwest Scotland.”

She discovered the book there and bought it for £10 (about $12.50) at the time, even managing to get a few dollars off the original price.

“Because it didn’t have a dust jacket, I got a few pounds off the price. Our two children enjoyed the wizarding tale as a bedtime story throughout the 1997 holidays,” explained the unnamed seller.

She said she first learned about the book after reading one of the first interviews Rowling gave in The Scotsman He wrote to the newspaper in the late 1990s, adding: “I bought the Harry Potter book before anyone really knew much about it or the author.”

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In an interesting coincidence, Hansons noted that she even kept the book in a cupboard under the stairs for years – which draws a direct parallel to the story’s main protagonist, who begins his journey in a cupboard under the stairs in the Dursleys’ house.

“I had forgotten about it for a long time, but then I read about the rarity of first editions,” said the saleswoman, who had come up with the idea from her children that the book could be one of these rare editions.

“I decided to contact Jim Spencer, the Harry Potter expert at Hansons. I wanted to have my copy authenticated and find out what it might be worth,” she continued. “My children are grown up now and I thought it was time for someone else to have the pleasure of owning a rare piece of literary history.”

The book is the “19th hardback first edition of Philosopher’s Stone of the original 500 discovered by Spencer,” Hansons noted. So far, the recovered books have sold for between £17,500 ($21,945) and £69,000 ($85,528) plus buyer’s premium, depending on condition.

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According to Spencer, this last example sold was one of those rare, well-preserved examples, which is due to the way it was stored.

“Most copies are fairly well-worn, especially ex-library copies,” Spencer said. “They were often shared between friends and carried around in school backpacks, which is nice in a way and captures the excitement of Harry Potter when it first became popular. However, more traditional collectors place an incredible amount of value on condition, which has helped this book to reach its full potential.”

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