To think that spending £43k on a children's book with a typo is ridiculous?

[itsgoodtobehome]

Just that really. Apparently someone has paid £43,750 for a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone because on the back cover Philosopher was spelt 'Philospher'. I mean - really?? I'm not a fan of Harry Potter anyway, but why would you do that? Who cares. I can think of much better things to spend £43 grand on. Very odd.

Why would anyone collect anything or spend their money on anything? Because they want to. Easy!

more money than sense?

I have a first edition of a Harry Potter with a typo. I think it's worth something but not that much!

Some guy in the middle east just spent $9 million US on a license plate for one of his cars. Both are ridiculous, but if they have the money and want to spend it, not much we have to say about it!

YABU

just because you don't value something doesn't mean others can't.
as a way of spending money it isn't bad - rare books tend to go up in value and can be a very good investment

in terms of equality for all, you want those who are rich to spend money as it releases it into the economy - a rich person sitting on £43K does nothing with it - spend that money and he will have put money into the pockets of those working at the auction company / the print company who did the catalogue / the original book owner / the taxman (helping the whole nation) - seems a better option - and if the book really is worthless, then even better it is the equivalent of his philanthropically giving money away!

it is a common mis-understanding "what a waste of money, I could think of better things to spend it on" in reality should be "great, more money back into the economy"

There's one that's worth a lot where the word wand accidentally appears twice in his school shopping list. I guess the appeal is that's rare because the error was caught and corrected so it was a limited print run.

The presence of the typo means that there will be very few copies of that edition as almost certainly the books will have been pulled and pulped as soon as the error was spotted, so it will be rare.

What is anything worth? Oil paintings can be worth £10m. A penny black stamp millions I read an interview at the weekend with a businessman who bought the Queen's stamp collection I think it was or part of it.

Why is one thing worth something to someone and not someone else? Things are worth whatever anyone will pay.

The tulips in the South Sea Bubble are a case in point. We should never forget the tulips.

Economics is a wonderful subject to study.

When my parents died we went through their 50 years of stuff in the house. Not a single item was worth anything - they seemed to have a wonderful eye for things that would have no value and actually did it matter? What really matters is love of course.

It's an investment obviously. If you have 43k lying around, and hey who doesn't, you want to maximise its potential future payback. First editions will do that. Is this a first edition with limited print run? If so, wise move lucky barsteward.

I wouldn't do it but things are worth what people are prepared to pay for them. There's loads of stuff I think is not worth the money like designer handbags, range rovers, jewellery etc. It doesn't mean other people are wrong to play a value on them.

Cost is relative. I wouldn't spend more than £100 on a watch even though I know people who own 5k watches and that's how they choose to spend their money. I wouldn't pay that for a book, but collectors will, it's their choice.

Thanks for your answers. Yes I do see where you are all coming from in that everyone has their 'thing' that they are prepared to pay for. I also appreciate that there are really special things out there worth collecting. Maybe if there had been some special note from the author in there I would understand it, but this is just a printing error by the publisher. Nothing clever, nothing creative. You can't compare it to an original painting as that is what it is - original. The creativity with Harry Potter is in the story - not in the printing. That's why I don't get it!!

It's the rarity of the object. It may be a print run where only a handful of copies are out there. It's not the story, it's the object and the fact that you own one of only 10 out there (for example).

collecting something rare like this is about possession:

• you own it
• someone else will not be able to own it
• if someone else were to buy it, then you wouldn't be able to own it

it is at the heart of being a collector - it is yours, you can look at it / stroke it / smell it / etc. knowing that it is your and not someone else's if it weren't rare, then anyone could own it - you could go and buy it tomorrow / the next week / etc. so why pay more now...

I know of a situation in the UK where a family put a house up for £5million - 6 cash buyers and the final bid was over £30million - why? not because the house is intrinsically worth that, but in speaking to the buyer, this was a once in a life time opportunity to have that set up in that location and he had plenty of money, so why not - had he said " it is not worth it I will wait" no other house of that type would be likely to have been sold in that location in his life - so this was his only opportunity...

so with a rare book, this was the buyer's opportunity, if not bought, the buyer might never have had another opportunity to own it...