Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info A Harry Potter first edition book bought for a tenner nearly 30 years ago could now sell at auction for £50,000.
Christine McCulloch made the purchase after watching JK Rowling being interviewed about her new novel on the BBC children's show Blue Peter in 1997. The 64-year-old snapped up a copy for her son Adam after the author mentioned Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was proving popular with both boys and girls. Christine paid around £10 at a bookshop in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, during a holiday to Shakespeare's Stratford-on-Avon.
Little did she know she had bought her seven-year-old son what would become one of the most valuable books in the world. The first edition is one of only 500 hardback copies published in the first ever Potter book print-run in 1997 and is among the the rarest and most sought-after by fans. It could now fetch between £30,000- £50,000 at Rare Book Auctions in Lichfield, Staffordshire, when it goes under the hammer on November 27.
Owner Adam McCulloch, 35, a musician and marketing manager from Tansley, Matlock, Derbyshire, said: "Mum liked Blue Peter as a child and used to watch the show with us. I was seven, just about to turn eight, when we purchased the book on our family holiday with my dad to Stratford. "Mum thinks she paid the standard retail price, about £10.
It was on display in the wind.