On December 13th, 2007, Amazon purchased a book by J.K. Rowling for 1.95 Mio. GBP [£] that equaled approx. 2.7 Mio. EUR [€] or approx. 3.9 Mio. USD [$] at the time this post was written (I was using the calculator from onvista.de).

Quote from the English website:

We’re incredibly excited to announce that Amazon has purchased J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard at an auction held by Sotheby’s in London. The book of five wizarding fairy tales, referenced in the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is one of only seven handmade copies in existence. The purchase price was £1,950,000, and Ms. Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe. (end of quote)

Read the whole article on the regional Amazon website [en | de].

There is also a press release available via Sotheby’s.