Priceless Beatles Record Found: Not a Hoax! Acclaimed as the Rarest Beatle Album in the World
What you see above is the cover of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Or is it? Look a little closer and you’ll see that the faces on the members of the band don’t resemble any known beatle, and who are those people in the background. No this isn’t yet another piece of photoshop magic. This sealed album was found in a record collection of late Capital Records executive. It came to light when his widow gave the collection for appraisal to John Tefteller, owner of Tefteller’s World’s Rarest Record Store.
“He had a collection of mainly jazz and easy-listening LPs,” says Tefteller. “And I don’t normally go out to look at something like that because I’m not really into either of those categories, but I just thought, ‘Well, all right. Capitol Records? Maybe there’s something else in there.’?”
There sure was. Tefteller made an appointment to see the collection and “… as I’m going through the LPs, she says something about, ‘Well, there’s a Sgt. Pepper album in there,’” says Tefteller. “I’m like, yeah, okay. And I just figured, normal Sgt. Pepper album, no big deal, whatever. It’s cute to see one, but they’re not particularly rare unless they’re like factory-sealed in mono, or something. Or factory-sealed original stereo. They could have some value. Just in general I figured all these LPs look like they’re open and used. This is going to be just a standard Sgt. Pepper LP.”
But that was not the case. When Tefteller asked about the record, she replied, “This was one that was given to my husband. The other people on this cover are all Capitol Records executives.”
Tefteller bought the collection and is negotiating its sale to noted Beatles collector Stan “The Beatleman” Panenka. Panenka has informed Tefteller that there had been a couple like it that sold 20 or 30 years ago.
“None of these have turned up in the last 10 years or so,” says Tefteller. “And from what I understand, doing some further investigation, those copies were fairly well-used, whereas this one is factory-sealed in the original shrink and still in perfect condition.”
It is believed that only about 100 copies were ever made of this Sgt. Pepper rarity. The speculation about the copies takes into account that every Capital executive whose face is on the cover probably received at least one copy.
























