Rare first edition Harry Potter book once held by a library due to raise up to £30,000 at auction

A first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that was once held by a council library is expected to fetch up to £30,000 at auction later this month.

First editions of JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book sell for tens of thousands of pounds at auction. PIC: Getty/AFP/Justin Tellis

The copy of the JK Rowling's first Harry Potter Book will come up for sale at an online auction on May 30.

It is one of the first 500 copies of the book ever published and was held by an undisclosed council library for many years.

Forum Auctions, which is selling the book on behalf of a private collector, has put an expected sale price of £20,000 to £30,000 on the copy.

The 1997 children’s classic was the first of Ms Rowling’s novels about the boy wizard and was written largely in cafes in Edinburgh.

A recent signed copy of the same title sold for £68,000 in a bid that comfortably smashed the predicted sale price.

A spokesman for Forum Auctions said the copy of the children's classic was a "very good, bright copy, preserved in a fine example of a later dust jacket."

He added: "It is rare in any condition and a far better ex-library copy than usually encountered."