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Strood charity shop sells rare first edition for £2,000

A book found in a charity shop recycling bin has fetched £2,000 at auction.

Kim West, manager of Strood Community Project’s shop in the High Street, was sorting books into boxes in January when she came across the first edition of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

The book, published in 1962, was sent to specialist auctioneers Forum Auctions, where it sold for £2,000 last week. The company had estimated that it was worth around £1,500.

Kim found a first edition print of A Clockwork Orange in the recycling bin
Kim found a first edition print of A Clockwork Orange in the recycling bin

Kim said: “When I first found it I was really excited but I only thought it would be worth a couple of hundred pounds.

“The initial estimate of £1,500 was exciting and for it to actually exceed that made us very happy.”

“Something like this is a blessing. Our customers were really excited about it" - Kim West

The money will be used to help fund the charity’s projects supporting disadvantaged people, giving advice and skills support to those looking for work.

It runs adult literacy and numeracy classes, computer skills training, confidence courses and other workshops.

She said: “We have recently been given council tax to pay and it’s just a struggle. It’s a struggle for all charities so this is a boost up and a help for our charity to keep on going.”

“Something like this is a blessing. Our customers were really excited about it.

“It was a real morale boost as when we found it we had recently had a burglary and an accident with our front window.”

The book found in the charity's recycling bin
The book found in the charity's recycling bin

Kim added that it was not the first time she had found something rare when rifling through the donations.

“We had a chair dumped outside the old store,” she said.

“It had a metal frame and a leather seat with bits of rust on it. I thought we could sell it for about £15.

“My colleague went away for the weekend and had seen a home magazine displaying one of these chairs. We found three little letters in the fabric – it had been made by an Italian designer. We got £300 for it. I’ve got loads of stories like that.”

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