Amazon.com paid a record £1,950,000 at Sotheby’s yesterday for one of the seven copies in existence of J.K. Rowling’s hand-written and illustrated book of fairy-tales “The Tales of Beedle and the Bard.”
The Times of London originally reported that the “An anonymous collector, bidding through a dealer who usually specialises in Old Masters” was the high bidder. How that ends up being Amazon is a story of for another day.
Amazon boasts that the purchase was a simple thank you to Rowling who recently concluded the record-breaking Harry Potter series. The series was a publishing hi-spot and Amazon sold millions upon millions of copies.
Ironically enough, Amazon lost money on the 2.5 million copies they sold of the final installment of the Potter series.
So we have a big $4 million thank you for allowing us the opportunity to lose money!
As crazy as this seems on the surface this is a business move. I am not certain if Amazon gets a $4 million write-off since the money is going to charity but I am certain that they will figure out a way to monetize this purchase.
Amazon has a web page up heralding the purchase.
Guardian Unlimited piece on the goings on A different kind of magic