A Montrealer has sold his rare recording of The Velvet Underground & Nico on eBay for $25,200 US ($29,073) to an unknown bidder.

That's much less than the $155,000 US offered for the acetate recording earlier this month in an online bid that proved to be a fake.

Collector Warren Hill bought the acetate at a New York flea market for 75 cents and later realized it was a one-of-a-kind edition of the album with alternate mixes and a different track order.

The Velvet Undergound's 1967 debut sold only about 50,000 copies in its first release, but Rolling Stone magazine has since named it the 13th greatest rock album of all time.

The first auction on the work attracted brisk bidding that rapidly moved above $100,000 US, but the winning bidder sent Hill an e-mail saying he could not pay for the recording.

Hill opened bidding late last week in a second online auction that attracted much less attention, but resulted in the bid of $25,200, which he accepted on Thursday.