Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling (aka Joanne Rowling) - 1997: first Harry Potter book

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (a.k.a. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, followed by HP and the Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, etc.) by J.K. Rowling Hardcover First Edition - Fifteenth (15th) Printing London: Bloomsbury, 1997 (but most likely printed in 1998) with "Joanne Rowling" listed as the copyright holder. Cover illustrations by Thomas Taylor. Given that a hardcover first printing copy of the London/UK edition of HP and the Philosopher's Stone sold recently at auction for nearly $500,000, this is a wonderful far less expensive alternative. Even copies from the first paperback printing are now trading at $10,000+. (NOTE: The Ted Smart editions of HP are book clubs, not trade editions)

Issue points: Fifteenth printing indicated by the printing number-line going down to "15" on the copyright page with other numbers present going to "20", "Winner of the 1997 Smarties Award" on the front with medal on both the jacket and book itself, young wizard holding a tome on the back and his head on spine (later changed to an old Dumbledore),£10.99 cover on the jacket's front flap, title page featuring Hogwarts coat-of-arms, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" flanking the title page with no other titles which indicates this copy was most likely released in 1998. NOTE: At this writing this appears to be the only first hardcover copy of the first Australian printing available for sale, and the only first trade printing hardcover copy with the printing number-line going down to "1" barring the first Bloomsbury printing which is now fetching $100,000's.

Fine- in Fine- Dust Jacket, a nearly perfect copy, the main shortcomings are a hint of aging to the text block, and just a touch of fading to the lower spine of the boards where Bloomsbury is stated (not the jacket), and a couple of dings to the left-hand edge of the back of the jacket, else still an exceptional copy not often found as such because most of the early-printed copies were read-to-death.

NOTE on Edition: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was originally released in only 500 hardcover copies without dust jacket and 5000 trade paperback copies. First printing fine copies of the hardcover are often priced at $100,000+, and the trade paperback can easily fetch $10,000+. As of this writing, a hardcover first printing copy sold at auction for a whopping $470,000. Bloomsbury then planned to release the book in Australia and Canada. Rumor has it that the first printing copies originally slated for Canada were at the last moment rerouted to Australia. The first Australian release in hardcover has the printing number-line going down to "1" whereas the earliest printing released of the Canada Raincoast edition show second printings, the number-line going down to "2", also a very rare if not scarce book.

NOTE: All modern books with dust jackets come with dust jacket covers.

ALSO: The picture is of the actual item for sale. (The picture is NOT a stock photo.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: All sales are generally FINAL. I do NOT accept returns because of buyer's remorse, "it was a gift but the recipient already had it", or "I found the same book(s) at a better price". I am not selling new items to compete with other retailers. Returns are only accepted because of significant discrepancies regarding edition and/or condition of which I try to be very thorough in researching the edition/printing as well as describing ALL condition issues. So make sure you're 100% positive you desire one of my items before making a purchase.