A rare first edition of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien was recently discovered hidden in a backroom at a thrift shop in the U.K. and sold for a staggering £10,000 – nearly $13,000 in the U.S. According to a report by The Guardian, the book was donated to the Cancer Research U.K. superstore in Dundee, England – a shop where the proceeds go to medical charities. There’s no telling whether the anonymous donor realized what they were giving away.
The Hobbit was first published in 1937, and at the time, only 1,500 copies were printed. That makes this book incredibly rare, while the original illustrations by Tolkien make it a collector’s dream. However, it reportedly troubled the staff at the Cancer Research U.K. store since they typically only stock items worth about $5 or less. They decided to sell it on eBay instead, and the winning bid was £10,099.50 – or $12,985.42 in the U.S.
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Reporters spoke to Adam Carsley, the manager of the Dundee store, who recalled finding this book in a huge box of donations one morning before the store had opened. He said: “I opened the first page to see it was a first edition and thought it may be worthy of sending to the eBay team. I thought we’d get a maximum of £500 if we were lucky so I couldn’t believe it when I heard a few months later it had sold for over £10,000.”
“To my knowledge this is one of the most valuable items donated to our stores. Most definitely the highest price achieved on our eBay site for a single item,” Carsley went on. “Donations like these help to fund lifesaving research across the whole of the U.K.”
The Hobbit was an instant hit when it was published in September of 1937, exceeding all expectations when the first run of books like this one sold out. They were gone by December of 1937, at which point Tolkien actually made some revisions to the book. In first editions like the one found in Dundee, the character Gollum is portrayed as more laid back and whimsical, willingly gambling his ring in a game with Bilbo. However, once Tolkien had started plotting out The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he realized Gollum needed to be more aggressive and paranoid, leading to changes in the second edition that would make this book even more rare.
The Hobbit has gone on to sell over 100 million copies around the world and it has been translated into over 60 languages – to say nothing of its cultural impact and the media empire it helped spawn. The book is available in print, digital, and audiobook formats now, while Peter Jackson’s film adaptations are streaming on Max. However, if you want to read a first edition, you’ll have to find an auction and get past the daunting price tag up above.
