Rated by our customersDVLA Number Plate Auctions
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”.
How popular any name or initial it contains is: You are more likely to get good money for a registration plate that spells out a name like 5UE than you are with a more unusual name, simply because there is more demand for Sue (or Dave or Mel) than there would be for Hector, Primrose or Zebedee
How valuable the letters and numbers the plate contains are: in terms of numbers, lower numbers with fewer digits tend to be the most valuable when reselling personalised number plates, making BOB 1 more valuable than BOB 379. Sequential numbers (123, 456 etc.) and repeated numbers (444, 88) are more popular than random combinations, and special occasion numbers like 18 and 21 can also boost a number plate’s value a little. In terms of the letters in a number plate, the likelihood of a series of letters being a name or a person’s initials increases the value of the plate, too.
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