A student is selling a rare first-edition copy of the first Harry Potter novel to pay his university fees.

Toby Rundle’s hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is expected to fetch up to £15,000 when it goes under the hammer today. It cost £10.99 and is one of only 500 produced in the first print run of the book in 1997.

Mr Rundle, 19, from Williton, Somerset, said that his mother sent him the J. K. Rowling book, which went on to become a bestseller, while he was at boarding school. He now wants to cash in and put the funds raised by its sale towards a classics and English degree at Oxford University.

The book is being sold at Dominic Winter auctioneers in South Cerney, Gloucestershire. Chris Albury, a book specialist from the auctioneers, said that the copy was a genuine rarity. “Usually popular books are not that rare but a first edition copy of The Philosopher’s Stone is a genuinely rare book,” he said.

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“This is because that for some reason there was only a small print run of around 500 books. The majority went to public libraries and the amount that have ended up for sale is only around 100 copies – and that is a tiny amount.”

Mr Albury suggested that the sale could start a craze of students searching for rare books in their bedrooms. First-edition copies of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbitmight fetch higher prices still, he added.

Mr Rundle said: “A few thousand pounds coming out of the blue would be very useful indeed. It will cancel half my loan straightaway.”

The seventh and final book in the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released next month.

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