LIVERPOOL (BLOOMBERG).- An original stereo pressing of the Beatles’ debut album “Please Please Me” sold for 7,552 pounds ($11,500) at an auction today in north-west England, exactly 50 years after the band released that first vinyl LP.

Presented in a frame with a set of autographs on a magazine page featuring the Fab Four, it was one of 280 lots of Beatles memorabilia being offered in an anniversary sale at Omega Auctions in Stockport, Lancashire, about 40 miles east of the group’s home city of Liverpool.

The price, including fees, beat a minimum guide price of 7,000 pounds, based on hammer prices. It was bought by a U.K.- based buyer, Omega Auctions said.

The Beatles’ debut LP was released by Parlophone on March 22, 1963, to capitalize on the success of the group’s single, “Please Please Me,” issued two months earlier. The George Martin-produced album, recorded in nine hours and 45 minutes, reached number one in the charts and remained there for 30 weeks.

The most highly valued lot in the auction was a collection of 61 vintage photographs of the Beatles’ 1965 Shea Stadium concert in New York. The event attracted an audience of more than 50,000 and was regarded as the highpoint of “Beatlemania.” Estimated at 15,000 pounds to 20,000 pounds, the photos sold to a U.K. buyer at 30,680 pounds. All auction prices include fees.

The auction’s other stand-out result was the 27,140 pounds given for a collection of 64 color slides of the Beatles taken in August 1964 by Robert Beck, estimated at 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds.

The buyer was a prominent South American collector of Beatles memorabilia, based in Washington D.C., who also owns John Lennon’s Oscar for “Let it Be,” Omega Auctions said.

This Beatles anniversary auction raised a total of 149,638 pounds with fees, just below the presale upper estimate of 150,000 pounds, based on hammer prices. About 80 percent of the lots were successful, Omega said.



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