A first edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is being sold at auction in Edinburgh on December 14. Published in 1998 with a list price of £10.99, "lot 56" is expected to attract bids in the region of £1000 to £1500 next week when it goes under the hammer.

According to the auctioneers, Bonham's, the book "has the original paperboards, price unclipped dustwrapper, very slight rubbing to top corners of wrapper, slight creasing of 1st four leaves" (which suggests that four pages is as far as Martin, to whom the book is dedicated, managed to get with the adventures of the boy wizard and his little friends?) and it represents "one of the most amazing investments, a rattling good read and a financial appreciation of dizzying proportions."

So, could this be the most rapidly appreciating book, ever? According to Luke Betterham, books specialist at Bonham's, it is... with one exception. The first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The first book in JK Rowling's series, he says, can now fetch a staggering £10-12,000 upwards. Books one and two may be the rarities - hard as it is to imagine now, Harry Potter wasn't a huge hit until the third book of the series, so the first two were printed in much smaller numbers - but the later books are not exactly laggards. Betterham explains that, with the release of the films, JK Rowling has reached an audience beyond the normal first-edition-buying-market and fans will spend £300-400 on an inscribed copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for the signature alone. A sig with a personal note or a quote from the book commands an even higher premium. But before you go rummaging through your offspring's bookshelves, looking for a potential goldmine, remember: the books need to be pristine to reach top dollar. So, no pages marked with grubby little fingerprints, no folded down corners, and no embedded Coco-Pops. In the world of first editions, pre-enjoyed is out.