Record Numberplate Collectors!

There are two distinct breeds of number plate collectors and with a few exceptions, the majority tend to belong to one group or the other.

One group collects rare and unusual plates, usually concentrating on a particular theme, for example, the plates of Australian or American states. Some want a complete series of plates starting with every letter of the alphabet. Others search the world for international rarities. This style of collecting is similar to philately and plates can be valued from $10 to $1000 at the top order.

Then there’s the low number scene.

This is where the really big money is spent and, according to some, is where the big egos can be found. A kind of reverse snobbery applies here. He who drives with the lowest number wins.

What makes these low number plates so desirable is the ”right to display” them. The new owners will typically mount the original tinware in their dens and display brand new plates on their cars.

The record price paid for this privilege was $680,000 for NSW 2 at a Bonhams & Goodman (now Sotheby’s) auction in 2003. It’s rumoured that two years later, Bonhams sold NSW 6 for even more ($1 million was one guesstimate) after private negotiations between vendor and buyer after the auction.

Both results were claimed as world records at the time.

The record for a two-digit plate, NSW 18, is $248,600 and in the crazy period before the credit crash, Bonhams sold NSW 282 for $74,600 and Victoria 626 for $24,860. These are records for three-digit plates in each state.

NSW plates tend to fetch more than their Victorian equivalents, an indication of the comparative egos of each state’s collectors according to some observers.