A book collector who bought a signed Harry Potter book for a penny was shocked to find that it's now worth up to £2,500.
Mark Cavoto, 51, has spent the last ten years buying and selling the novels since his daughter started collecting them as a child, but one that he bought on Amazon was a particularly big earner.
Signed by JK Rowling herself, a rare Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is expected to fetch between £1,800-£2,500 while ten hardback first editions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets could make £800.
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The collection is set to go under the hammer on 12 December.
Jim Spencer, from Hansons Auctioneers, said: "I'm still getting about 50 emails a day from people who think their copy may be valuable.
"JK Rowling rarely signs so the book featuring her signature deserves to do really well."
Mark has been making a living trading Harry Potter novels for the last decade following a chance discovery courtesy of his daughter Holly, now 25.
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The dad-of-five, who is married to Julie, 51, said: "When Holly was a child, she loved Harry Potter books and started her own collection.
"About 10 years ago, we decided to sell some of her older books and three of them were snapped up within 20 minutes on eBay for £9.99 each. I'm a businessman with a shop in Buxton and I knew this was a business opportunity.
"I checked the ISBN numbers and sourced the same three books second-hand on Amazon, bought them for a penny each plus postage and sold them in minutes for £9.99 each on eBay.
"It turned into a business. I started buying Harry Potter books for next to nothing at charity shops and online. I turned them into sets relating to the different editions and sold them on eBay.
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"I realised through dealing in Harry Potter books that people like to have a book from every print run to complete their collections and the same goes for all types of collections."
Mark's business acumen led to his chance discovery of a book signed by J K Rowling after he purchased it unwittingly for a penny.
He added: "I was buying around 10 Harry Potter books a day and Holly liked to open all the Jiffy bags. One day she glanced at a book she'd just opened and said, 'This is no good, it's got ink on it'.
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"She carried on opening the others then went back to it. She stared at me and said, 'Oh my God, it's been signed by J K Rowling - and it's a first impression'. I thought she was messing with me but it was true.
"It was signed 'To Alexandra (again!) J. K. Rowling' and was a 1998 hardback first edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second novel in the series."
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