First edition was in excellent condition

A Dundee charity shop has sold a first edition of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit for more than £10,000 after being discovered by chance.

The manager at the Cancer Research UK shop found the famous book in the stock room of the superstore.

He was training managers and checking stock when his interest was piqued by the old but well-looked after copy.

The Hobbit is one of the first 1,500 copies of the children’s literature classic, which sold out soon after publication in 1937 due to rave reviews. These editions include black and white illustrations by Tolkien himself.

The book was put up for sale on eBay – later fetching £10,099.50.

Superstore manager, Adam Carsley, 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,” he said.

“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.”

Carsley continued: “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.”In 2015, a first edition of The Hobbit, containing an inscription in Old English by Tolkien, sold for £137,000. It more than doubled the previous world record for a sale of The Hobbit, which was £50,000.