Personalised Number Plate Information

NUMBER PLATES:

A high-end four-wheeler carrying an ‘MLA’ sticker was spotted parked in Prakashnagar, Begumpet with a fancy registration plate carrying the number AP2 AB 2222.

The vehicle was spotted by Mr Hari Satya Sandeep, a social media user who often shares pictures of traffic rule violation on the Facebook page and Twitter handles of the Hyderabad traffic police. Mr Sandeep said the car with MLA sticker was not parked properly and its fancy number plate was a violation of the rule.

“When I checked its challans on the Hyderabad traffic police e-challan portal there were no pending challans. They may have cleared the challans but in that case they would have changed the number plate if they were fined for it,” Mr Sandeep said.

Asked about this, Dr V. Ravinder, joint commissioner Hyderabad traffic police, said, “As we have received the complaint we will look into the matter and will take action accordingly.”

Mr Vinod Kanumala, chief functionary of the Indian Federation of Road Safety, said, “Abuse of rules by LAs is very common. The law makers are the primary law breakers.” He said he had noticed a barcode number plate on a car in the city.

Number plate 2 of category 1 was the biggest attraction at the Abu Dhabi Police’s open vehicle number plates auction on Saturday, sold for Dh10.1 million.
The popular auction generated a revenue of more than Dh55 million, auctioning 60 distinguished Abu Dhabi number plates at Emirates Palace hotel.

Abu Dhabi Police, in cooperation with Emirates Auction, held the public auction on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its establishment.

Organised by Emirates Auction, the auction listed the numbers on the company’s website, including five double-digit plates, 15 three-digit plates, 19 four-digit and 17 five-digit plates.

Number plate 2 was the only one-digit licence plate in the auction, and was the first one-digit Category 1 number plate sold in a public auction.

Other number plates featured in the auction were 10, 60, 333, 600, 999, 1000, 1111, 5050, 6000, 6060, 6666, 9090, 9999, 10000, 55555, 60000, 66666.

WOULD you pay more than $150,000 for a piece of metal measuring just 19cm by 13cm?

That’s the length to which collectors of historic South Australian licence plates are prepared to go to secure their piece of SA motoring history.

The 17 historic SA plates to go under the hammer have reserves ranging from $2999 for SA “467-470’’ to $120,000 for SA “90’’, right up to $149,999 for SA “29’’.

Stewart Kay, proprietor of Historic Plates, said licence plates had proven to be great investments.

“In terms of their metallic value, forget gold and platinum, it’s the most expensive metal in the world,” he said.

“Some of the three-digit numbers we have ranging from $17,500 to $22,000 – and we’ve sold some three-digit numbers for more than $50,000 previously – they were $1500 only in the late 2000s, so they’ve increased quite significantly in that time.

“We find people are using them in their self-managed super fund or to finish off their collectable car.

“If you’ve just bought the latest $400,000 Porsche or Mercedes or whatever, a $20,000 numberplate is the only way to finish it off.”

SA Government records show the “29” plate was first issued in 1907 to Dr E.V Fooks of Gawler, who registered it on an 8hp De Dion car.

“The reserve is $150,000 and we’ve arrived at that on past sales, but interestingly a couple of months ago, the number 29 Sydney plate sold in Sydney for $750,000,” Mr Kay said.

“All of our plates usually sell online or the following day but we offer all our plates at a market correct reserve. But under auction, anything is possible.

“The days of a $1 million South Australian numberplate is not too far off.”

So what else could you spend $150,000 on in South Australia?

According to realestate.com.au, $149,000 will buy you a three-bedroom home on 615sqm at Elizabeth East. For $149,990 you could drive away in a new 2017 Maserati Levante 3L 6 cylinder SUV.

And if you’d prefer a holiday, $150,000 will buy a couple 34 nights in the exclusive Osprey Pavillion of Kangaroo Island’s luxurious Southern Ocean Lodge.

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Number Plates as an alternative investment

Investing in car registration plates may seem like an unorthodox way of making money and a considerable statement in the process. Nevertheless, hundreds of investors and drivers now choose to purchase car registration plates with significant future returns available. The most obvious reason for purchasing car registration plates is to personalise your vehicle, to make you stand out from the crowd.

Even a mere decade ago, drivers with personalised registration plates were seen as wealthy and successful. In the present day, car registration plates are now more accessible and economical for the everyday working man to purchase. Drivers looking for a potential investment must keep in mind that the registration plate they purchase must be easy to sell on in the future.

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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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In 1963, numbers were running out once again, and an attempt was made to create a national scheme to alleviate the problem. The three letter, up to three number system was kept, but a letter suffix was added, which changed every year. In this scheme, numbers were drawn from the range AAA 1A to YYY 999A for the first year, then AAA 1B to YYY 999B for the second year, and so on. Some areas did not adopt the year letter for the first two years, sticking to their own schemes, but in 1965 adding the year letter was made compulsory. As well as yielding many more available numbers, it was a handy way for vehicle buyers to know the age of the vehicle immediately. At first the year letter changed on 1 January every year, but car retailers started to notice that buyers would tend to wait until the New Year for the new letter to be issued, so that they could get a newer" car. This led to major peaks and troughs in sales over the year, and to help flatten this out somewhat the industry lobbied

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When you key in the vehicle number there is an immediate response which shows its make, model, age, colour, insurance status and owner. Databases know all that for every vehicle, instantly.

It’s amazing how law-abiding everyone becomes when the whole lot is known, and joined up. Without exception. In a blink. And with very little time cost or inconvenience.

So why can’t your PIN be like your number plate, holding an interconnected record of everything anyone has a right to know about you. No more forms and questionnaires and endless administrative complication and time cost-for a bank account, a mobile phone, a car log book, a licence, a permit, a title deed, service utilities, passport renewal or whatever.

Just key in your PIN and a password that gives your permission, and any supplier will have instant and complete access to the (selective) information the law entitles them to.

Computers do all the crunching and privacy categorising, and keep a permanent digital record to guarantee an audit trail that will keep everybody honest-including the administrators.

And if things can be joined up per person, they can also be joined up for all the people and provide a treasure chest of national statistics for planners and the general public.

As a non-contentious example, we could know the total number of vehicles, their class proportions, age - and anything else about them of use, interest or importance at the push of a button.

There are lots of reasons why we need to know more about our national fleet of vehicles with four wheels or more. But robust data is somewhere between scant, inconsistent and non-existent.

We have to resort to extrapolation, a bit like this: In the past decade, all Kenya’s main motor companies have sold about 140,000 new vehicles of every shape and size from town runabouts to prime mover trucks.

That figure represents about 10 per cent (maybe) of today’s total national road-going fleet of things with four wheels or more. The average age of that portion is about 5 years.

Over the same period, there have been about 860,000 used imports mostly aged about 8 years on arrival.

The average age of that contingent today is therefore around 13 years. Put both groups together and you have a million vehicles with an average age of about 12 years.

The rest of the fleet about 400,000 - was already here 10 years ago, having arrived in much the same new-used proportions. So that segment’s average age was also around 12, and is therefore now around 22.

With some slightly trickier arithmetic, we can therefore estimate that the overall average age of all the vehicles in Kenya today is about 15 years. That’s not a precise fact, but it is a strongly indicative probability.

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It had been expected to sell for between £15,000 and £25,000 but the first Manx vehicle registration plate ever to be issued was eventually sold last week for £100,000. It is, says auctioneer Murray Keefe, a valuable piece of Manx history.

It was the first Isle of Man number plate and people do like to have number 1. At the auction we had 4 telephone lines wanting to bid on the number plate and quite a few bidding in the room so I was not surprised it made so much money knowing that some of the plates in the United Kingdom make substantially more than that. "

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