A Harry Potter fan found three first edition books by chance in a charity shop and after paying £3 for each one realised she could be sat on an absolute goldmine.
Hayley Malsom, 21, picked up The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince from her local British Heart Foundation.
She had no idea the books were rare until she got home and discovered they were all first editions.
The price of a first edition Harry Potter book varies wildly depending on condition, but sought after rarities can go for up to £60,000.
Hayley, from Gloucester, said:
As far as I’m aware the staff in the charity shop are unaware that they are first editions as I obviously didn’t realise until later that day!
I haven’t had mine valued but after a quick Google I did see that one went for around £60,000.
I am a massive Harry Potter fan and have been since I first read the order of the phoenix in 2007 as part of a summer project before starting senior school.
Last year, a first-edition Harry Potter book broke records after being sold at an auction for an incredible £60,000.
That means it was sold for more than 5,000 times it’s original price tag, £10.99.
The book is one of just 500 original copies of the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Published in 1997 by Bloomsbury, once purchased it was kept in a private collection meaning it was in pristine condition.
It was sold last week at a US auction for more than quadruple its pre-auction estimate setting the world record for the highest price paid for an unsigned work of fiction published in the last 50 years.
The director of rare books at Heritage Auctions, James Gannon, was surprised at the price it sold for.
He told The Sun:
We have sold great Harry Potter titles – not to mention chairs – in the past, but we never really paid attention to such a thing as a world record.
This recent copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone surpassed the earlier record of approximately $60,000 by more than 30 percent.
The magical novel sold for an amazing £60,211 beating the previous record of £43,750 which was held by the same book.
Better get searching those bookshelves!
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If you realise you probably once owned these books but you gave them to charity, there’s a Harry Potter bar where you can drown your sorrows.
The Horcrux Emporium opened on Lee Lane, Bolton, Greater Manchester, in October and has been attracting witches and wizards from across the country.
The bar, which has nothing to do with JK Rowling and isn’t officially licensed, is completely Harry Potter inspired and boasts decor inspired by Diagon Alley.
The menu boasts potions like Dumbledore’s Password, a delicious sherbet lemon vodka and Sicilian lemonade martini mix-up, and the traditional Butter Beer.
You can even learn how to mix these potions yourself by attending classes led by the bar’s owner Tom Benson (he may not meet the standards of a Hogwarts professor but neither did Lockhart and he got a job).
BRB, off to all the charity shops.
