While rearranging the contents of my apartment, I came across my collection of special edition Harry Potter books. I have the first five books in a hardcover UK edition with gilt pages, canvas covers, and the author's signature in gold on the front. I have no idea why I bought all these extravagant books. I vaguely remember purchasing them all in a fit of Harry Potter-obsessed, Amazon.co.uk glee back in high school. I think I paid $140 or so for all five of them.

My "Harry Potter phase" is very much over, so I decided to re-list the books on Amazon. As it seems to be turning out, my books are worth far more than I thought. My copy of Order of the Phoenix has a going rate of, minimum, $120. On Amazon--who knows how much elsewhere? I could probably make around $400 off all five on Amazon.

I'd rather make money right off the bat even if it means forfeiting some future profit, but I do want to maximize my gain. It's just so annoying trying to figure out all this nonsense in regard to printing editions and series. I hate ISBNs. And serial numbers. And seemingly arbitrary annotations. Why isn't there a guide for this? Should I be auctioning on eBay?