Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

Are you a cat lover with a few hundred quid to spare? How about a huge Dennis the Menace fan keen to show your appreciation via the medium of your motor?

Well you’re in luck as the DVLA – the body in charge of car registrations in the UK – is holding 2017’s first live auction of registration numbers this week and among the plates on offer are WH15 KER ( yours for a starting price of £700) and BE11 ANO (a mere £400).

The event – which starts on Wednesday – will see a total of 1,500 personalised registrations being auctioned to members of the public.

The registrations on offer have been chosen by DVLA to suit all tastes, styles and budgets and range from plates that reflect names such as EL17 OTT, HA15 RRY and PA14 ULA through to quirkier offerings such as OUR 848Y, OLD 800K and YOU 105E.

And fans of Harry Potter could find themselves spellbound by POT 110N which carries a reserve of £250.

The agency will be aiming to build on the success of its live auction programme in 2016, which raised £25.6 million through five sales – setting a new record for a second consecutive year. Last year, the total sales of personalised registrations by the DVLA surpassed £147m, taking the total amount raised since the sales began in September 1989 to £2.4 billion.

Sales by the agency suggest that interest in personalised plates has soared in recent years with a 150 per cent increase of registered bidders for its live sales since 2011. On average 9,500 customers com[pete for lots per auction.

Adam Griffiths, of DVLA Personalised Registrations, said: “It’s been nearly three months since our last live sale, and I am really excited by our first sale of 2017 where some really great registrations are available to bid for. We have experienced two successive record-breaking years and, when you look through the catalogue at the registrations we have compiled for this sale, I am very hopeful that this success will continue.”

He added: “Bidding in person is by far the most popular way to buy a registration and it is at the auction where you will find the real atmosphere – it’s a great day out and we make the experience as enjoyable and friendly as possible. If you can’t make it to the auction we offer free telephone, internet and absent bidding facilities”.

Just some of the 1,500 personalised registrations included in the forthcoming sale include:

115 A (reserve – £2,500), ABY 641L (£250), AMB 2R (£350), ARO 88IE (£250), AUS 111E (£250), 350 B (£2,500), B111 NDS (£250), B111 NKY (£250), BA11 DGE (£400), BE11 ANO (£400), BOS 551E (£250), BUB 4 (£1,200), 105 C (£2,500), CA17 RLY (£400), 888 CM (£2,200), 8111 D (£2,500), 247 DR (£2,200), 845 E (£2,500), ENS 20 (£1,200), FAS 70 (£1,200), FEZ 488 (£300), 458 FUN (£1,200), 111 G (£2,500), GA13 BBY (£400), GET 81G (£300), GTR 2R (£350), 120 H (£2,500), HGV 81G (£300), HOT 911A (£250), IG 111 (£2,200), 1000 J (£2,500), JOS 55H (£300), KAR 4H (£350), LE66 OTT (£700), 811 LS (£2,500), 500 M (£2,500), MAX 80W (£300), NAZ 5 (£500), NER 111S (£250), 72 O (£2,500), (£400), POT 110N (£250), RO13 BYS (£700), SMY 17H (£300), 801 T (£2,500), 812 TH (£2,200), TW15 TER (£700), UV51 NGH (£700), VAZ 110 (£300), W42 DLE (£250), W166 LES (£250), WH15 KER (£700), 222 X (£2,500).

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As a company we sponsor sporting events such as the 'White Gold Cup', and many local events for clubs, charities and schools.

We also sponsor the Generation FMX freestlye motocross team.

So let the experts take the stress out of buying or selling your registration mark. Why not browse this site, and if you need any further assistance, we are on hand from 9am until 7pm Monday - Saturday, 10am - 4pm Sunday.

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Are you a cat lover with a few hundred quid to spare? How about a huge Dennis the Menace fan keen to show your appreciation via the medium of your motor? Well you’re in luck as the DVLA – the body in charge of car registrations in the UK – is holding 2017’s first live auction of registration numbers this week and among the plates on offer are WH15 KER ( yours for a starting price of £700) and BE11 ANO (a mere £400). The event – which starts on Wednesday – will see a total of 1,500 personalised registrations being auctioned to members of the public. The registrations on offer have been chosen by DVLA to suit all tastes, styles and budgets and range from plates that reflect names such as EL17 OTT, HA15 RRY and PA14 ULA through to quirkier offerings such as OUR 848Y, OLD 800K and YOU 105E. And fans of Harry Potter could find themselves spellbound by POT 110N which carries a reserve of £250. The agency will be aiming to build on the success of its live auction programme in 2016, which raised £25.6 million through five sales – setting a new record for a second consecutive year. Last year, the total sales of personalised registrations by the DVLA surpassed £147m, taking the total amount raised since the sales began in September 1989 to £2.4 billion. Sales by the agency suggest that interest in personalised plates has soared in recent years with a 150 per cent increase of registered bidders for its live sales since 2011. On average 9,500 customers com[pete for lots per auction. Adam Griffiths, of DVLA Personalised Registrations, said: “It’s been nearly three months since our last live sale, and I am really excited by our first sale of 2017 where some really great registrations are available to bid for. We have experienced two successive record-breaking years and, when you look through the catalogue at the registrations we have compiled for this sale, I am very hopeful that this success will continue.” He added: “Bidding in person is by far the most popular way to buy a registration and it is at the auction where you will find the real atmosphere – it’s a great day out and we make the experience as enjoyable and friendly as possible. If you can’t make it to the auction we offer free telephone, internet and absent bidding facilities”.

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Unique Number Plates

Y B-ZAR?

Because his license plate is APRIST - short for apiarist, a fancy word for beekeeper.

Lots of people don't get it, because it's not a very common word," said Clark, who keeps honeybees in the backyard of his Old Louisville home. "Every once in a while, somebody sees is and asks me about beekeeping and honey. But the whole point of a vanity plate is to create a word which is just like the real words but is itself a puzzle, so when you're driving down the road, it's 'Oh, yeah, I got it!'""

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Record numbers of motorists are driving cars fitted with personalised numberplates amid a surge in “auto vanity”.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency sold a record 374,968 registrations last year, up 12 per cent in 12 months and almost five times the total in the mid-90s.

The trade in numberplates made more than £110 million for the Treasury in 2016-17 alone, a record annual total.

The rise coincides with an increase in the number of registrations made available by the DVLA, combined with a sharp rise in the value of rare plates over the past two decades.

In an era when we’re all supposed to be flaunting our individuality, the trend for personalised car number plates has apparently never been higher. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), which sells new and never-issued registrations, sold 374,968 last year, an increase of 12%.

Among private dealers, who sell pre-owned plates, business is just as good.

“For the past five years, [the market has] been steadily rising.” It is thought one reason is a personalised plate makes the age of the car less obvious. But he also says social media has played a huge part. “It’s, ‘Hey, everybody, look at me’,” he says.

People post pictures of their new cars on Instagram, and adding a private plate “seems to be something that people can use to boost their social media reach”.

At the entry-level end of the market, “registrations that start at £250, on average there are 800 of those sold every day.” He says one fairly common customer is the parent who buys a personalised plate for their child on passing their driving test, to go with a new car. “My typical client would be someone in their 40s or 50s, they’ve got a bit of money sitting about and always fancied a personalised number plate.”

At the extreme end, plates can fetch more than £500,000. In 2014, one classic-car dealer bought a “25 O” plate, reportedly for his Ferrari 250 GTO, for £400,000 (the final price, including fees, was £518,000) and a “250 L” for £130,000.

“The numbers that were selling for £1,000 in 1980 now sell for £150,000. What probably changed it was in the late 80s, when the government started to sell numberplates. We in the trade all thought it would devalue the numbers, but it didn’t, it just got more people interested.”

A personalised plate is “a prestigious thing. There’s a little bit of vanity about it,” says Saperia. As for those of us who believe it’s the mark of a bit of a berk, Saperia points out that the DVLA’s sale of personalised plates “bring more than £100m every year to the treasury”.

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It should be noted that there are no restrictions on using a vanity or cherished registration on a car that is newer than the original date of the registration plate, but it is prohibited to transfer a registration that is newer than the vehicle it is used on. This is to prevent the transfer of newer registrations to older vehicles as a measure to protect consumers.

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The original NSW licence plate No. 4 sold under the hammer on Monday night for $2.45 million, setting an Australian record.

Chinese-Australian wine collector and sex toy magnate Peter Tseng bought the rare collector’s item before a crowd of 300 people at the 2017 Shannons Sydney Winter Classic Auction, who applauded when the hammer fell on his purchase.

Mr Tseng, who arrived in his red Ferrari bearing the No. 2 licence plate, is a renowned number plate collector, owning the Hong Kong-registered No. 1 number plate and a personalised licence plate “ONE” registered to his 1969 Mercedes in Sydney.

Mr Tseng is understood to have bought the 1910-registered plate from entrepreneur Steve Shelley, co-founder of workforce management software company Deputy and owner of the Burraneer mansion “Nautilus”, which won Australian House of the Year last year.

The No. 4 plates were last seen on Shelley’s dual cab ute before it was registered at the Shannons auction with a guide of $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

After an opening bid of $1 million, bids quickly rose in $100,000 lots between two buyers until Mr Tseng raised his hand at the $1.35 million level. Mr Tseng did not put his hand down throughout the auction, leaving it raised for the next 22 bids until the mystery underbidder – known only as “Ray” – dropped out.

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The original NSW licence plate No. 4 sold under the hammer on Monday night for $2.45 million, setting an Australian record.

Chinese-Australian wine collector and sex toy magnate Peter Tseng bought the rare collector’s item before a crowd of 300 people at the 2017 Shannons Sydney Winter Classic Auction, who applauded when the hammer fell on his purchase.

Mr Tseng, who arrived in his red Ferrari bearing the No. 2 licence plate, is a renowned number plate collector, owning the Hong Kong-registered No. 1 number plate and a personalised licence plate “ONE” registered to his 1969 Mercedes in Sydney.

The crowd at the number plate auction applauded when Peter Tseng made his record purchase.
The crowd at the number plate auction applauded when Peter Tseng made his record purchase.

Mr Tseng is understood to have bought the 1910-registered plate from entrepreneur Steve Shelley, co-founder of workforce management software company Deputy and owner of the Burraneer mansion “Nautilus”, which won Australian House of the Year last year.

The No. 4 plates were last seen on Shelley’s dual cab ute before it was registered at the Shannons auction with a guide of $1.2 million to $1.4 million.

After an opening bid of $1 million, bids quickly rose in $100,000 lots between two buyers until Mr Tseng raised his hand at the $1.35 million level. Mr Tseng did not put his hand down throughout the auction, leaving it raised for the next 22 bids until the mystery underbidder – known only as “Ray” – dropped out.

Peter Tseng arrived at the auction in his red Ferrari, which bears the No. 2 licence plate.
Peter Tseng arrived at the auction in his red Ferrari, which bears the No. 2 licence plate.

The sale result – at more than $1 million above the highest guide expectations – was the most expensive item sold on the night, which included car memorabilia like the 1920s Michelin Compressor and a 1924 Rolls Royce Barker cabriolet that sold for $123,000. The second most expensive item sold on the night was a 1960 Mercedes Benz Roadster 190SL for $195,000.

The $2.45 million sale result is double Sydney’s median house price and matched the recent sales of a renovated three-bedroom, two-bathroom Victorian semi on Woollahra’s Roslyndale Avenue, and a Californian bungalow also with three bedrooms on almost 600 square metres on Macpherson Street in Cremorne.

Like most single-digit number plates, the No. 4 number plate is known for its ownership providence, most notably when it was registered to the Rolls Royce of Aussie John Symond, founder and executive chairman of Aussie Home Loans.

Sources have come forward to reveal Aussie John sold the plate in late 2015 to art collector and leading Brett Whiteley art dealer Steve Nasteski in late 2015 for about $850,000.​

Mr Nasteski is another well known number plate collector, having bought as many as eight rare two-digit number plates from the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin in 2004 through Nasser Elkordi, an associate of John Ibrahim and former flatmate of radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands.

Despite Nasteski’s penchant for number plates, he sold the No. 4 plate last year to Mr Shelley for between $800,000 and $900,000.

At that level, Mr Shelley would have made a windfall of more than $1.6 million on the number plate in the 18 months he owned it.

Mr Tseng featured in the 2013 Australian documentary film, Red Obsession, narrated by Russell Crowe, which tracked the dramatic rise and fall in the price of French wines between 2011 and 2012.

Monday night’s auction is expected to set a new benchmark in the cost of single-digit plates. Mr Tseng’s purchase of the No. 2 plate set a record at $750,000 that was topped in 2008 when the No. 6 number plate sold for $800,000.

The No. 1 plate is owned by the family of the late founding chairman of Australian National Airways, Sir Frederick Stewart, who had owned it since the 1930s.

In Victoria, single-digit number plates are also investment-grade assets. The No. 1 VIC plate is owned by former Foster’s Group chief Peter Bartels.

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The first series of number plates were issued in 1903 and ran until 1932, using the series A 1 to YY 9999. The letter or pair of letters indicated the local authority in whose area the vehicle was registered, for example A - London, B - Lancashire, C - West Riding of Yorkshire. In England and Wales the letter codes were initially allocated in order of population size (by the 1901 census) whilst Scotland and Ireland had their own sequences incorporating the letters S" and "I" respectively, which were allocated alphabetically: IA = Antrim, IB = Armagh, etc. When a licensing authority reached 9999, it was allocated another two letter mark, but there was no pattern to these subsequent allocations as they were allocated on a first come first served basis. There are three interesting anomalies where a zero has been issued - The Lord Provost of Edinburgh has S 0 and his Glasgow counterpart has G 0 while the official car of the Lord Provost of Aberdeen has RG 0. In addition the Lord Mayor

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