DVLA Transitions to Exclusive Online Auctions for Personalised Number Plates

Reg Plates Article

DVLA Transitions to Exclusive Online Auctions for Personalised Number Plates

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has announced a significant shift in its approach to personalised number plate sales, moving away from in-person auctions to an exclusive online format. This change marks the end of an era, as the last in-person auction took place last month at Stratford Manor.

Effective immediately, all DVLA auctions will be conducted online, with auctions scheduled to occur almost every month. The next online auction will commence on Wednesday, November 22, and conclude on Tuesday, November 28.

This transition to online auctions aims to provide greater convenience and accessibility for drivers seeking personalised number plates. The online platform will offer a user-friendly interface and a wider range of registration options, catering to diverse preferences and budgets.

Despite the shift to an online format, the anticipation and excitement surrounding personalized number plates remain unchanged. Two plates, "150 A" and "1313 A," are poised to generate substantial interest, with starting prices set at £2,500 each.

The most expensive number plate ever sold at a DVLA auction, "25 0," fetched an astounding £400,000, excluding additional fees. This record-breaking plate, purchased by John Collins, pays homage to the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO.

Prior to the standardization of number plate formats in 2001, "K1 NGS" held the title of the most expensive number plate, selling for £185,000 in December 1993.

The DVLA has implemented various changes over the years, including the introduction of local memory tags and a shift from annual to biannual registration releases.

Commenting on the transition to online auctions, Jody Davies, Head of DVLA Personalised Registrations, expressed enthusiasm for the new approach. "There is always a sense of excitement in the room as people bid for their perfect registration," Davies noted. "We anticipate a continued level of enthusiasm and engagement in our online auctions."

With the DVLA's latest move, the world of personalised number plates enters a new era, embracing the convenience and accessibility of online transactions while preserving the thrill and excitement associated with acquiring these coveted identifiers.

How close a series of letters or numbers are to a real name of word: if the match quality is high (and the numbers and letters are very convincing in making a popular word), the value of the registration plate will be higher. This means that a match like 5IMON, for the name Simon, will be worth a lot more than a more obscure set of letters and numbers that are not as convincing a match, such as S17 MMM for the name Sam.

The style of the plate: this means establishing if it is a new-style plate, an older-style format or if it is dateless or Irish, for instance. Other options are that it is a prefix-style plate or a suffix-style plate. New-style number plates, which have been produced since 2001, tend to be the least valuable because they are a bit less appealing to some collectors, plus the rule about not having plates that are newer than your car can also come into play, putting people off from buying a newer-style plate for their older car. Prefix-style number plates, which were in production between 1983 and 2001 can be more popular as more vehicles are entitled to have those licence numbers, and they may have fewer characters in total. Suffix-style plates, issued from 1963 to 1983 are relatively rare, which means they can attract higher prices than prefix-style plates and newer designs. Dateless number plates, also known as cherished number plates, were produced between 1903 and 1963 and are nearly always the most valuable number plate configurations; they have fewer digits and their dateless nature means that people can hide the age of their car. Irish number plates are similar to dateless number plates, especially because they don’t have a year identifier. They also tend to be cheaper than other types of vehicle registration plates.

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