$290,500 Album: Signed Copy Of Beatles Record Earns Huge Price At Auction

A copy of The Beatles’ iconic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album signed by all four band members earned a princely sum at a recent auction.

On Saturday, the rare piece of Beatles’ memorabilia was sold for an incredible $290,500 by Heritage Auctions in Dallas. Prior to the auction, the album was expected to earn around $30,000, ABC News reports.

While Heritage Auctions declined to reveal the identity of the winning bidder, the Associated Press reports that the person hails from the Midwest.

According to Heritage Auctions’ authentication records, each band member’s signature has been dated to 1967, the same year that the innovative album was released. Each Beatle scrawled their name next to their picture on the album’s inside spread.

Perry Cox, an authority on Beatles’ folklore, referred to the signed album as “extraordinarily special.”

“I consider this to be one of the top two items of Beatles memorabilia I’ve ever seen — the other being a signed copy of ‘Meet the Beatles’ [the band's second album released in the U.S.],” he said on Heritage Auctions’ website.

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is widely considered to be a major milestone in The Beatles’ maturation as a band. Featuring mega-hits such as “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” the album won four Grammy Awards and has sold an estimated 32 million copies since its release. In 2012, Rolling Stone named “Sgt. Pepper” the greatest album of all time.

The signed album was the main attraction for an auction that displayed a variety of music and pop culture memorabilia.