The Five Most Valuable Harry Potter

Rowling’s bespectacled boy wizard first boarded the Hogwarts Express in 1997, with the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Muggles were spellbound, and Harry soon became a publishing phenomenon. Nowadays, there is high demand for a collectible copy of one of the Harry Potter titles, though auction values vary significantly depending on edition, rarity, condition, and provenance. Read more to find out about the top five most valuable Harry Potter items sold at Sotheby’s.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard — The Moonstone Copy

The seven original manuscript copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard are highly coveted by collectors. This collection of wizarding children’s fairy tales first appeared as a fictional book in Deathly Hallows, when Dumbledore bequeaths Hermione his own copy of the first edition.

After Rowling finished the Harry Potter series, she made the Tales of Beedle of Bard a reality. Before a printed edition was eventually published, it was originally intended to exist only as a limited series of manuscript copies. Each was hand-written and illustrated by Rowling, and each was beautifully bound in morocco leather, decorated with silver and semi-precious stones (of a type unique to each copy).

Six of these seven copies were originally produced as gifts for 'those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the past 17 years', but the seventh–the so-called “Moonstone copy”–was specially commissioned for a Sotheby’s auction to benefit J.K. Rowling’s charity, Lumos, in 2007. The successful buyer was Amazon, and it sold for £1.95 million. Not only does this sale price top the list, but it is still a world record for a modern literary manuscript and a world record for a children's book.

The Original Cover Art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Thomas Taylor's Original cover art for *Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone*, Lot 37

Another magical Harry Potter moment came in 2024, when the original artwork for the upper cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for $1,920,000, smashing its presale estimates of $400,000-600,000. A measure of the meteoric rise of the Harry Potter market is evident when we place this result in relation to the first (and only other) appearance of this watercolour at auction, in July 2001. Then, it carried a presale estimate of £20,000-25,000, signaling the highest price placed on Harry Potter-related material at the time, and realised £85,750.

Nowadays, it is not hard to see why owning this iconic illustration for the first installment in the series–the image which established the way the world would see Harry Potter, complete with his trademark dark hair, round glasses, and lightning bolt scar–is the ultimate aspiration of serious Harry Potter collectors around the world. The ongoing success story of this piece at auction is all the more compelling when we consider that it was the work of a 23-year-old aspiring illustrator, Thomas Taylor, then fresh out of art school.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard—Barry Cunningham’s Copy

Number three on the list is the only other manuscript copy of Beedle the Bard to have been offered for sale at Sotheby’s, a major piece of Harry Potter history in its own right. This copy fetched an impressive £368,750 in the December 2016 English Literature sale in London.

Rowling kept tight-lipped about the identities of the original six dedicatees of her manuscript presentation copies, but it is known that this copy was originally produced for presentation to Barry Cunningham, who accepted the first Harry Potter book for publication. It is copy number three and includes the inscription 'To Barry, | the man who thought | an overlong novel | about a boy wizard | in glasses might | just sell… | THANK YOU'. It was originally sent by courier to Barry Cunningham on 12 December 2007, the day before the charity auction of the “Moonstone” copy at Sotheby's.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone—UK First Edition, Hardback

*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Lot 1140

Number four on the list is another recent result: this time for a copy of the scarce hardback first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which flew at auction to achieve a sale price of $216,000 in our July 2024 New York sale.

The publication history of Harry’s first Hogwarts adventure is now the stuff of legend. When the book was first released in the UK in 1997 with the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the publisher, Bloomsbury, printed only a small number of copies, unsure as to how a book about a bespectacled boy wizard by an unknown author would perform. Little did they know that the series would become a smashing success. Out of that initial edition, only 500 copies were printed in hardback, and 5,150 in paperback. Of the limited number of hardbacks printed, it is estimated that only 200 copies didn’t find their way into libraries, meaning that this edition and format are among the rarest in the Potter series. (The paperback edition fetches considerable amounts, but far less given that there are more in circulation).

Sotheby’s has sold several copies of the hardback first edition, each yielding impressive results. We are seeing a steady rise in prices realised as available copies become increasingly scarce.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - UK First Edition, Annotated Copy

*Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone* Annotated Copy

Taking fifth place is a one-of-a-kind copy of the Philosopher’s Stone featuring J.K. Rowling’s personal illustrations and annotations, including handwritten notes, 22 original illustrations and a 43-page "second thoughts" commentary by the author – all of which reveal new insights into Harry’s wizarding world, including the story behind Quidditch. Sotheby’s sold this work in London in 2013 for another charity auction benefiting English PEN and Lumos, where it fetched £150,000.

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