7 RARE Harry Potter collectables that will leave you spell-bound!

Seven is a magic number in the wizarding world of Harry Potter. It takes seven years to train at Hogwarts. There are seven floors in the school building. Would-be wizards are even taught seven basic skills.

Harry Potter plot-lines are littered with references to seven and other magic numbers.

I wondered which seven items closely linked to the Harry Potter franchise have caused the biggest stir in the collecting world. Which are the really special items likely to fixate fans and collectors when they come up for sale in the future? Here’s my list.

1. Tale of the £1.95 million pound book

Source: Yahoo News UK

The most expensive item of Potter-phenalia is a book which isn’t even about Harry Potter.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a book which has become world famous but there are only seven copies on the planet.

The title is mentioned in passing in Deathly Hallows, the last novel in the series, but JK Rowling later decided to reward her closest Potter helpers and friends, by producing a hand written and self-illustrated book of wizarding fairy stories. She called it The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

The seven editions were all bound in Moroccan leather and decorated with silver ornaments and semi-precious stones.

Only one of the books went to auction and it was bought by the Amazon company for £1.95 million. That was a world record for a modern manuscript. The money for the sale of the seventh edition went to JK’s favourite childrens’ charity and it is now the stuff of Collectology folklore.

2. Inspiring chair sold for more than a quarter of a million

Source: The Guardian

The oak chair on which JK Rowling wrote the first two Harry Potter stories has the words “Do not judge me on what you see”. She painted them herself recognising that it wasn’t much to look at as a chair. She also painted on the simple message “I wrote Harry Potter while sitting on this chair.”

The chair dates back to the 1930s and she got it for nothing when she was a struggling writer in a council flat. When it sold in New York a few years ago, her writing chair raised £278,000.

3. Wand-erful wand sold for £7,000 in 2013

Source: Daily Mail 

Those in the know about wand-lore will agree that wands absorb the expertise of those who use them. They also absorb cash especially – if it’s a Harry Potter Elder Wand. The Elder Wand is one of the most sought-after objects in the Harry Potter universe.

Unlike other wands, this particular prop had the distinction of passing hands from two major characters: Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and Harry himself (Daniel Radcliffe).

The real-life prop used in the Deathly Hallows films may not have any real magical properties, but when it came up for sale in California in 2013 it sold for a magical £7,000 more than double the initial valuation.

4.The “Holy Grail” among Potter stuff

Source: The Sun

Earliest editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone are precious because only 500 copies were ever printed and 300 of those were donated to libraries.

If you own a copy with the author’s name printed as “Joanne Rowling” then you might be sitting on a small fortune.

The true first edition from the 1997 is the UK Bloomsbury edition, and copies are extremely scarce.  There are several points to look for. The word Bloomsbury is included in the title page. The copyright date is 1997. The copyright page will include the full number line and there is a misprint on page 53, which lists “1 wand” twice in the school supplies inventory.

UK first editions of the early books and US first editions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (they changed the name from Philosopher’s to Sorcerer’s to suit the US market) can all be expected to thousands of pounds.

5. Harry did not go to Specsavers

Source: Hindustan Times

Those trade mark lenses worn by Daniel Radcliffe in the movies are a prize piece of his wardrobe that everybody recognises.

Whenever they have exchanged hands at auction that’s been reflected in their sale price.

Naturally during a movie making process there were quite a few pairs of the glasses used by Daniel though it’s not clear just how many.

The sizes must have changed down the years, so there will be quite a few tucked away somewhere. A test of how collectors prize them came at an auction in Los Angeles four years ago, One certified pair from the Sorcerer’s Stone, sold for £15,000.

Another pair used in the film was reportedly kept as a souvenir by Daniel Radcliffe and who could blame him.

6. Broom! Broom! The price is sky H-igh

Source: Harry Potter Wiki – Fandom

The actual broom on which Harry learned to fly was swept up by a collector for £8,000. The original estimate was about £3,500. There was no doubt about its authenticity because it distinguished by an “H” scrawled on the handle and the word “Harry” at the base of the broom head distinguish it from other brooms used in the same movie scenes.

7. Taylor made artwork from first novel snapped up for £85,750

Source: BookTrust

Four years after Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published —the series had become a global phenomenon. That made original artwork special and the original cover art sold for a cool £85,750.

The work was by Thomas Taylor who used pencil and watercolour to show of Harry standing in front of the Hogwarts Express. It was Taylor’s first commission as an artist and was the only drawing of his used in the entire series. It was bought by a private US collector when it was auctioned in London.

For me these are seven top hits but Harry Potter fans and collectors may take a different view. What’s your top seven?


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