In 1937, Tolkien’s first edition of The Hobbit was published; a Dundee charity shop manager later found a copy that sold for £10,099.50

A first edition copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit was sold on eBay for more than £10,000 in 2023, after a store manager discovered it, according to the Guardian. Although the charity normally priced items at £5 or less, the book’s age and rarity led staff to send it to the organisation’s online sales team. The book was part of the first print run of 1,500 copies published in 1937, and these early editions featured black-and-white illustrations by Tolkien, alongside the fantasy story of Bilbo Baggins and his adventures; they quickly sold out after their publication and received positive reviews. Contrary to the store manager’s initial estimate of £500, the rare find ultimately secured a massive financial return for the charity, which went towards funding cancer research across the UK.How a rare book was discovered in the backroomAdam Carsley, the manager of the Dundee superstore, found the copy while training new managers and organising stock of hundreds of books stored in the backroom. Once he had examined the book, which was in good condition, he identified it as a first edition, but there was a caveat: the book’s value made it unsuitable for a shop-floor sale. Instead of just stocking the book among the store’s existing catalogue, he considered whether a better return could be yielded through the charity’s online operation. “I opened the first page to see it was a first edition and thought it may be worthy of sending to the eBay team,” Carsley said.The decision proved to be the correct one because the online sale exceeded the price Carsley had estimated. The transaction also set a record for a single item sold through the charity shop’s eBay account, according to Carsley, who described it as one of the most valuable donations the organisation had received at its stores.The market for early editions of The HobbitThe Dundee sale formed part of a wider market for rare copies of children’s literature. A first edition of The Hobbit, which contained an inscription in Old English by Tolkien, sold for £137,000 in 2015. Selling for more than twice the previous amount, that transaction easily dethroned the existing £50,000 world record for a copy of the book.It would be remiss not to mention the distinction between the two books, which dictated its value. The 2015 copy included Tolkien’s inscription, whereas what made the Dundee volume valuable was that it belonged to the original 1937 print run. Consequently, the higher figure reflects the value of an inscribed copy rather than a definitive valuation of the copy held by the charity shop.Another comparable sale took place in 2023, when a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for £10,500 to a buyer in Los Angeles. Published by Bloomsbury in 1997, the book was one of 500 copies and had been bought for 30p by a collector from Staffordshire after a library withdrew it from use. Notably, the Hobbit copy came from a larger run of 1,500 copies yet fetched a nearly identical sum.These transactions illustrate how early editions can command high prices when collectors seek books with limited print runs or distinctive features, though the sale figures do not establish a uniform value for every first edition because individual copies have different histories and characteristics.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.