The famous copy was found by a manager, in a Scottish charity shop, at the Cancer Research UK superstore in Dundee.
Published in 1937, the book follows the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, and is one of 1,500 copies which were released in the original run. It also features black and white illustrations from Tolkien.
Despite the store's pricing policy of selling items for no more than £5, the copy was put up on ebay, selling for £10,099.50, to be precise.
This book was discovered by manager Adam Carsley, who was assisting the training of new managers, and the organisation of stock, including hundreds of books in the backroom.
Having found this book, manager Adam Carsley admitted that he initially thought that the copy was “not really sellable on the shop floor due to its age”.
“I opened the first page to see it was a first edition and thought it may be worthy of sending to the eBay team,” Carsley revealed. “At first, 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".
He added, “To my knowledge, this is one the most valuable items donated to one of our stores. Most definitely the highest price achieved on our eBay site for a single item".
“Donations like these help to fund lifesaving research across the whole of the UK".
