Harry Potter book with two typos sells for $51K at auction

While rummaging around a top table sale for holiday reads about 20 years ago, a woman picked up an old library book for less than $2 (£1).

Now, it's pulled some magic only Harry Potter could summon, selling at an auction in Staffordshire, UK on Thursday for a staggering $50,875 (£28,500).

That's because it is a Harry Potter book – in fact, a first edition of the very first in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

But this is no ordinary book, this one includes two typos and one mistake. And, it's one of only 500 to exist.

The 54-year-old office worker seller and the private collector who purchased the novel over the phone, both wanted to remain anonymous.

However, the seller did say the result completely exceeded any of her expectations.

"I can't believe it. It's what I'd hoped for but I never really believed my book would make that price," she said, according to ITV News.

Rather fittingly but by "pure luck" according to the Hansons auctioneer, the book went under the gavel on author J.K. Rowling's birthday, the same birthday she gave Harry Potter himself.

Other first editions of the same book have gone for more but more than $50K for a book that cost a couple bucks — typos and all — isn't too bad.

Apparently, the book had just been sitting, half-forgotten, in a closet.

That is, until its owner realised she might be able to sell it to pay for a new bathroom.

She met up with a rare books expert who confirmed it was the real deal — and a private collector in the UK snatched it up faster than you can say "expelliarmus."

In case you're wondering what the mistakes in the book are:

*"One wand" is listed twice in an equipment list on page 53

*The word philosopher is misspelled on the back cover.

*And on the copyright page, Rowling is identified by her full first name 'Joanne', instead of by her initials 'J.K'