I'm a big fan of The Beales.

Kat,
I know that Taiwan released the White Album (The Beatles) as a 2 LP set on the "DRAGON" Label in 1969. It has the flimsy plastic coated covers but it was a gatefold release. I cannot remember the catalogue number but it has a different picture on the cover to your picture and was on Black vinyl. I hope this either helps you or confuses you even more (hopefully not the latter). Good luck from a fellow Aussie.

Thanks
I guess this album was released a lot. And with so many defferent covers. (Does any one know how many?)

We have only ever had the 1 LP so i don't know what happened to the 2nd one if it actually was released with 2. The sleve does not appear to be torn or anything so it does not appear that there was ever a 2nd LP attached like some of the gate fold descriptions that have been mentioned.
Perhaps there is a lonely 2nd half of the album out there somewhere waiting to be reunited with its lost twin  

I can't find anything new at the moment. But I'm interested if there's news.

This release could be similar to the 1968 White Album release from Columbia (South America). In Columbia, it was released as 2 seperate albums. "The Beatles Volume 1" & "The Beatles Volume 2". This could the same sort of thing.

Historical these records were specially made for the United States Forces that were stationated on Taiwan in the sixties. At some times more than 35.000 GI´s were stationed there to protect Taiwan against China. To keep them happy and of course to make some money the local industrie just began pressing their own versions with western rock music, under them of course The Beatles. But all of them were counterfeits, no royalties was paid to the Beatles record company. By the way more than 150 !!! different titles were released until the late 70ies.

Funnily most of them carries mispelled names.

Sgt. Peppeb´s loney hearps club band as a example

On european collector markets I have seen them for prices around € 50,00 and more

Hope I could help

Source: The Beatles Worldwide by Christoph Maus http://www.beatles-worldwide.com

Thats interesting i will have to check out that site and read up a bit more on it. Thanks

I recently had 2 different people in my town look at the record to get an idea of its value.

One person (Record buyer and seller on ebay) said they thought it was an authentic release and would sell for at least $250AU and the other (Second hand record shop employee) thought it was a rare bootleg and would be worth $60 - $80 in my town and possibly in the $100's AU in a larger city.

So i guess it depends on what someone would pay.

Quoted from Kat

So i guess it depends on what someone would pay.

Sure. But that's always the point. The price depends on how bad the buyer wants to have it.

Quoted from Bobber

Also, I've asked an Australian seller of these things for some information by e-mail. Nothing received yet...

This is his not so breathtaking answer:

yes the record appears to be chinese it has some kind of value as a curiosity it is not an official beatle record but a pirate copy the cover is probably paper wrapped in plastic on both sides. Common in asia but probably not common in Europe.

Yeah not so breathtaking. But thanks for asking your friend about this. Its a shame he wasn't able to solve the mystery all together. We would be pretty dumb to not work that much out ourselves by looking at it hehe. Oh well

At least we might deduct that such an album is rather common in Asia. If you wanna sell, go elsewhere!

^Uhm, I meant to go and sell it in the States or Europe. Not to go to a different forum of course.  

Bobber i hope my comment did not offend you as that was not intended.

I really am not interested in selling the album (even if it was worth something). I simply was quite curious as to its history and release as it had been a mystery to my family for many years. Maybe i did get a little excited when someone suggested it might be worth something more than peanuts in value as a collectable and like anyone would, you hope you have a rarity in you hands. In my case (thanks to yours and others help) i have been able to find answers to most of these questions and now know a LOT more about this record than i did to begin with. While i might not have a mystery gem i am pleased to know more about it (even if it is a common Asian bootleg).

I guess i can now say i am the proud owner of a just a common old Asian bootleg with spelling mistakes.

Thanks so much to all the people who helped me out with different bits of info:

  Raxo
  Bobber
  An Apple Beatle
  Kevin
  Apple Sauce
  fancymechances
  TheMasterOfGoingFaster
  ARC65

Sincerely
Katrina

Quoted from Kat

Bobber i hope my comment did not offend you as that was not intended.

I really am not interested in selling the album (even if it was worth something). I simply was quite curious as to its history and release as it had been a mystery to my family for many years. Maybe i did get a little excited when someone suggested it might be worth something more than peanuts in value as a collectable and like anyone would, you hope you have a rarity in you hands. In my case (thanks to yours and others help) i have been able to find answers to most of these questions and now know a LOT more about this record than i did to begin with. While i might not have a mystery gem i am pleased to know more about it (even if it is a common Asian bootleg).

I guess i can now say i am the proud owner of a just a common old Asian bootleg with spelling mistakes.

Thanks so much to all the people who helped me out with different bits of info:

  Raxo
  Bobber
  An Apple Beatle
  Kevin
  Apple Sauce
  fancymechances
  TheMasterOfGoingFaster
  ARC65

Sincerely
Katrina

1.- Re-welcome to the forums, Kat!!!

2.- Remember that "common old Asian bootleg" doesn't mean "common album" ... bootlegs are not common, ... Decca Tapes included!  

3.- Hope that you're here, with all of us, for a very long time ... and we'll be able to say to you: happy birthday ... this Monday!  

P.S. I'm pretty sure that you'd offended nobody here and that Bobber's OK with you, don't worry.