By DPA
London : A rare first edition copy of the first Harry Potter novel, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", was sold for 7,200 pounds ($14,200) at an auction in Britain.
A specialist book collector Thursday snapped up the hardback copy, with an original price tag of 10.99 pounds.
It was one of only 500 first edition copies produced in the first print run of the book in 1997, said auctioneers Dominic Winter in Gloucestershire, southwest Britain.
Toby Rundle, 19, from Williton in Somerset, southwest Britain, originally owned the book. He sold it to raise funds for his studies at Oxford University.
The auction house described the sold copy as a "genuine rarity".
The seventh and final instalment of the Harry Potter series is scheduled to be published next month.