A CHARITY shop received some early Christmas presents when it was donated rare, high-value records by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

Staff at the British Red Cross shop, in Woodbridge, were delighted to find many of the vinyl LPs were worth more than �50.

The most valuable is a first pressing of The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me, which has a rare gold and black label. Experts believe it is worth �230.

Early copies of Fab Four albums With The Beatles, Rubber Soul and Revolver have been valued at �50 each, while three Rolling Stones records – all first pressings – have also been individually priced at �50.

The rare vinyl records on sale also include albums by 60s legends The Hollies, The Monkees and Adam Faith.

The LPs, all in excellent condition, were among bags and boxes of records brought into the shop, in the Thoroughfare, by a man who was seemingly clearing out his record collection.

Staff do not know who the man was, but wish to thank him again for his donation.

Merriam Keeble, manager of the shop, said: “The records were brought in as a job lot – there were bags of them and a couple of boxes.

“It has taken us a little while to sort through them, but there are a number which are really valuable and we are extremely lucky.”

Ms Keeble added when the shop receives any goods she thinks might be valuable, they are examined by experts to make sure they are not under-priced.

“It was quite a surprise when we heard how much they were worth. This is the first real lot of records we’ve had brought in,” she said.

“We’ve had quite a bit of interest in them. We’ve sold a couple and we’ve had quite a few dealers coming in trying to knock us down in price, but we’ve stuck to our guns and said ‘no’ because we believe they are worth every penny.”

She added: “People are very generous and we’d like to thank everybody who has donated to us this year, without whom we wouldn’t be able to do our work.”

The British Red Cross is a volunteer-led humanitarian organisation that helps people in crisis, both at home and overseas.