Number Plates News

No Surprises at Emirates Auction

23 March 2010

We have, by now, become somewhat immune to the telephone number prices paid for registrations at the periodic United Arab Emirates auctions and the results of the latest event prove to be no exception.

At the first of this year's sales, at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, 97 plates [including 10 motor-cycle registrations] changed hands for a total of over AED 12m. That's around £2,150,000.

The top individual price, of about £323,000, went to G 44. This places it at an impressive 40th place in the run-down of the world's all-time most expensive plates, pushing most of the top UK plates down a notch, including VIP 1 [UK ranking = 5], which drops to 43 in the world arena.

Among the other high-fliers were the £201,200 paid for the motor-cycle plate, E 32 and £129,300 for H 666. And all this from an attendance of just 400 clearly very rich people.

Director of the Vehicles and Licensing Department, Mohammed Abdul Karim, commented, "Bidders hailed from various spectrums of the community and nationalities, which reflects a strong relevance and continuing success of distinguished number plate auctions."

Impressive as these latest results are, no less than four UK plates have commanded more and remain above G 44 in the rankings: M 1, 1 D, S 1, and F 1, still the UK number one at £440,625.