When the first Harry Potter book was released, nobody dared to assume that one day the franchise would grow so large that gangs of young Harry Potter fans would strip naked and stab horses in the eyes as a tribute to the boy wizard.

Admittedly that hasn't happened yet – although it's bound to be a matter of days – but still, our point is that some people quite like Harry Potter. More than quite like it, in fact – some people love Harry Potter so much that they're willing to shell out £19,700 just for one measly copy of the first Harry Potter book, even though you can buy one on Amazon for a penny. A first-edition copy of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone sold for a record-breaking amount at auction yesterday, you see, because it was signed by JK Rowling. We don't know what record it broke, though – probably the Most Freely-Available Book About A Smug Little Twit Bought By Someone With A Distorted Sense Of Monetary Worth, we'd expect.

You have to hand it to JK Rowling – she really knows the importance of maintaining a brand. That's why, when JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter story, she didn't just write a book but opened up a universe of merchandising possibilities from Harry Potter movies to Harry Potter toys to Harry Potter theme-parks to faintly disgusting, almost definitely unofficial, Harry Potter porn videos. But one thing JK Rowling learnt pretty early on was not to sign books because a) they increase the value of the few books that are signed and b) it's fun to make little girls cry by refusing to sign their books.

Luckily JK Rowling has decided that a good old bra flash more than makes up for her staunch anti-signing policy, knowing that the million-volt everlasting impression of a woman in her bra on an adolescent Harry Potter fan's brain is worth far more than a name on a piece of paper. However, until JK Rowling starts charging people to see her in her bra, it's hard to establish a proper value on it – unlike the signed Harry Potter books, because those suckers go for ridiculous sums of money, like the £19,700 that someone decided to pay for a signed first edition copy of Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone at auction yesterday. BBC News reports:

A rare signed first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has been sold for £19,700 at Christie's auction house in London. Experts had estimated the book, which was signed "Joanne Rowling", to have been worth between £8,000-£12,000. The auction also included a publisher's proof copy of the book. A signed paperback edition, also inscribed by Rowling, was sold along with a similarly inscribed first hardback edition of the second book in the series – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – for £1,250. The message in the first book said: "To Ella – I know your Mum!!! And she beat me in the quiz but we won't mention that – love from Jo (aka JK Rowling)".

Of course, the second book didn't reach nearly as high a price as the Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone did, because of the factual incorrectness. Everyone knows that JK Rowling would have really signed the book "To Ella – I know your Mum!!! And she beat me in the quiz but I'm richer than her now so I win. The other day I bought an antique platinum tiara and just threw it in the bin because that's just how rich I am. I'm rich! You hear me Ella's Mum? RICH!"

But why did the signed Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone copy sell for so much money? Perhaps it's because in the first edition of the first Harry Potter book JK Rowling made less of an effort to hide Dumbledore's homosexuality than in later editions. So perhaps the £19,700 was stumped up so the buyer could read the heart-rending scene where Dumbledore reveals the painful secret about Lily's death to a stunned Harry Potter while bumming a man through a hole in a toilet cubicle.

Read more:

Potter Book Sells For £19,700 – BBC