How to Sell Harry Potter Books In 2021?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone got released in the late 90s. Shortly after its release, Nick Reynolds, a journalist, interviewed an author and single mother, Joanne Rowling. They met at a cafe, and after Nick skimmed through the book, he threw it away. If you want to know how to sell Harry Potter books, follow the story closely. You might earn thousands of dollars from the book.

Nick Reynolds was the man that threw away the first-ever edition copy of the most popular storybooks in the world. It was one of about 200 hardback copies. But it was not only him, nobody liked the book, to begin with. J.K. Rowling got rejected 12 times by publishers.

Fortunately, Bloomsbury accepted her offer and decided to publish her book. Five hundred hardback copies were printed. Out of the 500, 300 went into the British library system. And the other 200 were used to evangelize about the young wizard. Also, there were about 1,000 paperback copies printed.

How Popular Is The Book?

As you may know, J.K Rowling has sold millions of copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone worldwide. It is the third best-selling book of all time. That is highly impressive because the book was published over 20 years ago.

How To Tell If Your Harry Potter Books Are Worth Anything

Technically, all your Harry Potter books are worth something. However, the book’s value will be determined by the print you have. For example, if you have one of the first printed issues, you could sell it for thousands of dollars. It is not surprising that some copies of Harry Potter books are worth $50,000.

If you have a standard copy of the book, you can get some cash for it when you sell them. Often, most collectors are captured by the rags to riches story attached to the book during that time. Furthermore, there are so many copies of Rowling’s book that it is difficult to find a rare Harry Potter book.

Book buying relies on supply and demand. Even though there is a request (although it has decreased over the years) for first print books, the first print supply is low.

How To Tell If Your Copy is First Edition

First of all, you need to know what the books look like. The first printing was bound in two distinct ways. The rarest is the hardback issue that had a cover of laminated boards. The publishers bound only 500 copies this way.

Three hundred were sent to the libraries, and because library books wear and tear often, only 200 copies were left in fine collectible condition. And you rarely see this on the market. The other binding was a regular paperback, and a few thousand were published for sale.

So how do you tell if your Harry Potter book is a valuable first edition?

For the book to be the first edition, there are four relevant issue points that your book should have in either softcover or hardcover.

The publisher, Bloomsbury, must be listed at the bottom of the title page.
The latest date shown in the copyright information should be 1997
The print line on the copyright page should read “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.” That means it should read from ten to the lowest number one. The lowest number in the print line shows the printing. For example, if your copy has “20 19 18 17,” it is less valuable because it is the seventeenth printing.

Maybe you have been told that if you have the first printing, the name “Joanne Rowling” is in the copyright. That is not true. All early printings with “Joanne Rowling” have the same copyright statement.

On page 53, you will find the item “1 wand” appears twice in the school supply lists that Harry Potter receives from Hogwarts. You can find one at the beginning and one at the end. The publishers corrected the mistake in the book’s second printing, but it appeared again in some later printings.

If you have all these requirements in your book, then you are ready to know how to sell books of Harry Potter.