Beatles album fetches $24k in online auction

A fierce ten-day bidding war has ended with this scarce Beatles album fetching $24,675 on eBay. Surprisingly, the album was not a hit when it was first released in America.

The Record, Please Please Me, was described by the seller as the "album that launched it all," signed by each member in the group (George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and John Lennon) in May of 1963.

The full-round of signatures and early-date make the album particularly scarce and highly-sought by serious collectors.

The sellers listing states only about 5000 items total (including photos, documents, autograph books, plain paper, etc.) are thought to have been fully-signed during the Beatles career. Adding; "Now consider this... We have also determined by the known examples that exist today, that there are only about 50 fully signed albums! Imagine that...Only 50!! Give or take a few."

Surprisingly, The Beatles by their own admission (see the first 15 seconds of the video below) stated the album was-not a hit during its first release in America, but did catch-on during the second release.