I get some magazines, and watch fifth gear where they covered the world of license plates (called personalized or vanity plates in the U.S.) They are auction from the govt, then there is a healthy broker / re-seller market. Some plates made no sense but command big money. Then there is the concept of "covering up the year of your car".....why? here is an example of prices from typing Ferrari into the a dealer http://www.regtransfers.co.uk/ E2 FER £999 Enquire View Why Us Discount E4 FER £999 Enquire View Why Us Discount E5 FER £999 Enquire View Why Us Discount TUR 80 £75000 Enquire View Why Us Discount 6 FER £33325 Enquire View Why Us Discount FER 12V £30000 Enquire View Why Us Discount FER 61E £24995 Enquire View Why Us Discount SO03 ENZ £23495 Enquire View Why Us Discount 456 FER £21500 Enquire View Why Us Discount V12 FER £20495 Enquire View Why Us Discount F3 RRY £19995 Enquire View Why Us Discount 40 FER £17495 Enquire View Why Us Discount 575 FER £15445 Enquire View Why Us Discount 147 RED £14495 Enquire View Why Us Discount F3 RGY £12500 Enquire View Why Us Discount FER 64L £12495 Enquire View Why Us Discount FER 12Y £12495 Enquire View Why Us Discount 555 RED £11795 Enquire View Why Us Discount D12 EAM £11795 Enquire View Why Us Discount
I've wondered this too. If you look in English auto magazines they will even mention how cool a particular plate is in articles when it doesn't even make sense. An old 930 targa in 911 & Porsche World was one example. $7000 for a plate? WTH?
I think the deal is that there aren't personalized plates there, so one has to look for normal sequence plates that have extra meanings.
I get the impression from the motorcycle magazines that plates must be bought from private vendors, and have the make of the vehicle on them. Further, the motorcycle riders seem to try to make the plates smaller than legally required, I suppose to distract from the bike less. It almost seems sport to see how small a plate can be made and get away with it.
Record price paid for a reg no. in the UK is £75k about $135k - This was for K1 NGS - which oviously spells KINGS - bought for an estate agent(realtor) company of the same name. UK registrations are becoming more complicated. In 1963 they brought out the first suffix plate (A) - eg FER 123A - where the A represented the year of registration. To save me trying to explain further here is an article I found on the web at http://www.ukcar.com/features/reg_year.htm UK Car Registration Formats If you were to design a registration system for UK Cars the obvious step would have been to have two numeric characters first, this system would have lasted for 100 years. The British civil service could never have dreamt up a system fiendishly simple so here is what they have done instead in the last 100 years. The first registration marks were made up of one letter with one number, the first (A1) being issued by London Council in 1903. Later formats were comprised of two letters and four numbers. These series were replaced as and when they were exhausted. So, whilst the Liverpool series KA lasted for only two years between 1925 and 1927, the series SJ was still being issued by Bute Council in 1963. By the mid 1930s, the two letter/four number series of registration marks were exhausted in some areas, and new three letter/three number series were introduced. AAA 1 was issued (by Hampshire County Council) in 1934 through to AAA 999 and the commencement of the BAA series in 1936. This process continued until the mid 1950s when marks were reversed to three numbers/three letters. Between 1963 and 1965 councils began to issue "suffix" registration marks - three letter/three numbers and a year suffix. The registration year ran from 1 January - 31 December until 1967, when the suffix change was moved to 1 August. In 1973 the appearance of registration plates was changed for the first time since 1903. From 1 January, vehicles were required to have reflective number plates - black on white at the front and black on yellow at the back. Reflective plates were introduced so that unlit vehicles could be seen more easily at night. The regulations also provided for the size, shape and character of registration marks. Prefix registrations - 1983 saw the completion of the suffix format of registration marks. and the beginning of the yearly PREFIX series "Q" marks -Also in 1983 Q marks were introduced. These are issued to vehicles of indeterminable age, e.g. kit cars which are built of major components from more than one donor vehicle, or imported vehicles where the date of first registration cannot be established. 1999 Prefix plates now run twice a year UK Registration Plate Year Identifiers Suffix Letters A 01 February 1963 31 December 1963 B 01 January 1964 31 December 1964 C 01 January 1965 31 December 1965 D 01 January 1966 31 December 1966 E 01 January 1967 31 July 1967 F 01 August 1967 31 July 1968 G 01 August 1968 31 July 1969 H 01 August 1969 31 July 1970 J 01 August 1970 31 July 1971 K 01 August 1971 31 July 1972 L 01 August 1972 31 July 1973 M 01 August 1973 31 July 1974 N 01 August 1974 31 July 1975 P 01 August 1975 31 July 1976 R 01 August 1976 31 July 1977 S 01 August 1977 31 July 1978 T 01 August 1978 31 July 1979 V 01 August 1979 31 July 1980 W 01 August 1980 31 July 1981 X 01 August 1981 31 July 1982 Y 01 August 1982 31 July 1983 Prefix Letters A 01 August 1983 31 July 1984 B 01 August 1984 31 July 1985 C 01 August 1985 31 July 1986 D 01 August 1986 31 July 1987 E 01 August 1987 31 July 1988 F 01 August 1988 31 July 1989 G 01 August 1989 31 July 1990 H 01 August 1990 31 July 1991 J 01 August 1991 31 July 1992 K 01 August 1992 31 July 1993 L 01 August 1993 31 July 1994 M 01 August 1994 31 July 1995 N 01 August 1995 31 July 1996 P 01 August 1996 31 July 1997 R 01 August 1997 31 July 1998 S 01 August 1998 28 February 1999 T 01 March 1999 31 July 1999 V 01 August 1999 28 February 2000 W 01 March 2000 31 July 2000 X 01 August 2000 28 February 2001 Y 01 March 2001 31 July 2001 Believe me after 2001 it got even more complicated and I couldn't explain because even I don't understand it! So we cannot choose a random word with 6 letters(?) as you can, the plates are all issued by the government agency the DVLA. Cheers Kevan See you down the road - with huge grins on our faces
I think the most expensive plate was purchased by a Japanese family, I think it was just the number 8, and paid over £0.5m for it. I was young at the time but remember news reports. I could be wrong about the £0.5m but it is thereabouts IIRC. K1NGS sold for I believe £250K or thereabouts, and also MU51C was up for over £200K at one point too.
I stand corrected Ali - can't find the £0.5m story though. Polly Curtis Wednesday August 7, 2002 What's in a name? About £100,000 if you want one on a number plate and it happens to be Singh. And, according to new research, people are prepared to pay such a sum to boost their egos. A survey based on personalised number plates, conducted by Professor Andrew Oswald, of the University of Warwick, found that having such a plate is purely a status symbol. "Simply for a 5" x 15" rectangle of plastic, some people will pay the price of a flat in a nice English city," said Professor Oswald. "Where diamonds and watches have a function - to look pretty or tell the time - number plates don't have a function apart from status, yet people will spend thousands of pounds on them." Professor Oswald, and colleague Matthew Corder, surveyed a sale of nearly 3,000 number plates. What they found was that status symbols, while having no intrinsic function, are valuable to the ego. "This market has no humour, it's entirely based on ego. They don't pay for funny words, they pay for their own name. Very human and somewhat sad, but there you have it," said Professor Oswald. The research shows that ego is big business. And so do the figures. The most expensive number plate ever sold was for an ego-busting £250,000. It read K1NG. The research found that a three-letter word raises a number plate's value by £200, while the average first name will put £1,100 on the price and a surname £1,300. The British government has made £700m selling number plates. That last paragraph is unbelievable! Cheers Kevan
