Early Beatles album fetches £1,300 for Haiti

The album was in a bag of items donated to Oxfam

An early pressing of the first Beatles LP Please Please Me has been donated to a charity shop on Merseyside and sold to a collector in Hampshire for £1,300.

The album was found in a bag of items donated to Oxfam in Bold Street, Liverpool.

The money raised will go to the Oxfam Haiti appeal.

Please Please Me was number one in the UK album charts for 30 weeks in 1963. Early pressings of the LP are highly sought after by collectors.

'Straight to eBay'

"The record was in good condition, and the cover had only a bit of wear and tear around the edges," shop manager Gerard O'Flanagan said.

"When we realised that it was the first album released by the Beatles, and that it was one of the first 300 pressed, we went straight on to our e-Bay account and put it up for auction."

Mr O'Flanagan urged people to continue donating items for the Haiti appeal.

The charity has a 200-strong team of people working around the clock in Haiti, following the earthquake on 12 January.

They are providing clean water, sanitation facilities latrine slabs and hygiene kits to over 110,000 people.