A book that nearly got thrown away turned out to have great value, as it was sold later for $1,250 (around P65,300).

The organization Friends of the Memphis Public Library scored big when it found out that the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” turned out to be a rare first edition, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported on Tuesday, March 5.

“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, and was first released in 1968. The book also served as the inspiration for the 1982 film “Blade Runner” starring Harrison Ford.

The Memphis Public Library originally owned the book for years, but it ended up in a bin, either to be sold or discarded.

The organization’s manager of online book sales Louise Brown said that a staff member took a closer look at the book, despite being priced at $3.95 (around P200) as seen on the book’s dust jacket.

When the staff member looked it up on online shopping site Amazon, he found two original copies also for sale — priced at $2,500 (around P130,600) and $3,000 (almost P157,000), respectively.

Upon the discovery, Brown priced the book at $1,250 for it to be sold quickly. Three weeks later, someone asked about it and later bought the book.

“This thing was going to be thrown away, and I can’t imagine how many programs that it will [now] fund for the library,” Brown said in the report. Katrina Hallare/JB

LOOK: 84 years overdue, book finally returned to Louisiana library