JK Rowling - Tales of Beedle the Bard

[BarcelonAl]

Yesterday Sothebys auctioned off a copy of Rowling's first book since the last Harry Potter in aid of her charity. See the BBC article here.

It was expected to sell for around £50,000...and went for £1,950,000!

The buyer? Amazon!

Check out their article concerning the book (including reviews) here.

[Mike]

OMG that is really impressive! I wish I could have afforded to buy that too! :D

[mr_e]

You'd be gutted if you got it back home and it turned out to be a badly written piece of shite, wouldn't you? The money's all gone to charity though, so it's all good.

Part of me wonders if Amazon may put some pages online, in a similar way to their short previews of standard books? Putting the whole thing online would maybe devalue it a little, but what's the point of keeping it hidden from public view forever?

[johnriley1uk]

Perhaps they are going to offer a fascimile edition at some future point.

Or perhaps they will put it up for sale via the site... :)

[Mike]

Keep checking out Amazon to be sure but I can not imagine your regular Amazon shopper would be able to afford that one. I suspect they are 'investing' some money in the hope it will increase in value!

[Andy]

I think that will have bought it to eventually make money or more publicity. I can't see them generating over £2,000,000 from buying it so they must have other ideas.....

Or maybe the person who owns Amazon just wanted to buy it and read it.

[Mike]

That would be a great one for conversation - I read one of the most expensive books ever! It cost £2m and I accidentally spilled my sandwich filler on it.