Hong Kong Number Plate Sells for £150,000

An an auction in Hong Kong on Saturday 7 February 2009 the car registration "2318" sold for $1.7 million HKD (£152,000). The winning bidder was an unnamed woman who purchased this as when spoken '2318' sounds like 'yee sam yat baat' meaning 'easy life and prosperity' in Cantonese.

Mr Liang Qiwei was bidding against the eventual winner but ended up buying '3218' for $750,000 HKD (£67k) and also 'MY8' at $440,000 HKD (£39K) instead. Both of these number plates are gifts for his sons. Mr Liang, who deals in racehorses considers them to be a bargain. He said, “I can easily pay $2 million to $3 million for a horse. So what I paid for the licence plate numbers is nothing in comparison.”