Number plates

Number Plates have the X-factor

2009-08-12T13:00:00.002+01:00

We know that number plates are popular with celebrities. And this is true with Aston Merrygold who recently purchased a registration with the letters JLS in honour of being a member of the newest boy band.

Read the full story Pop Success on a Plate for Boy Band Star

DVLA Number Plate Auction Round-up

2009-08-11T09:16:00.002+01:00

Last week (Wednesday 5th Aug - Friday 7th Aug) saw the fourth DVLA number plate auction of the year. There was a total of 1600 number plates available over the 3 day event. As I reported on Friday last week, the third day of the auction saw the two biggest sales of the event.

The first lot on Friday morning was 4 O which was expected to have considerable interest and it didn't disappoint. Mr Kuwari, a London based member of a Qatar diplomatic family was there to bid for it. It has been reported that the family missed out on the previous 'O' registrations that were auctioned earlier this year. This time however, he managed to secure the registration 4 O for £63,128.75 (including fees and taxes).

4 O however, was not the highest price paid at the auction. Unexpectedly, the number plate 1 PNE, sparked an even bigger bidding war at the auction. A mystery bidder and a buyer who was representing a businessman linked to the football club, Preston North End went head to head for the plate. In the end the mystery buyer got his way with a winning total bid of £86,617.50. No-one before the auction could have predicted that!

Another great looking plate was ST08 ART. We wondered before the start of the auction if the Stobart Group would be interested in this and it seems we were right. Steve O'Conner has a 5% share in the group and is the Executive Director in charge of its Ports Division. Mr O'Connor paid £43,348.75 for ST08 ART. He also purchased two other unrelated plates at the auction.

Other notable ones that sold are:

PAL 4S: £19,366
JUT 1A: £14,915
HAY 33R: £13,432
888 MAX: £12,072
KHA 44N: £10,465
F1 HOT: £9,970
ANG 1M: £9,970
CO09 ERS: £9,476
AND 1P: £9,105
ARF 44N: £9,105
DAR 5H: £9,105
81 DW: £7,498

And a great one L1 CKS was sold for £18,624.

(All prices shown include fees and taxes)

DVLA number plate auction update

2009-08-07T12:38:00.002+01:00

There is currently a DVLA number plate auction in progress at the RBS Williams F1 Conference Centre in Wantage, Oxfordshire.

Before the auction, 4 O was expected to be the star of the show. The registration 4 O is the fourth number to be auctioned this year as part of the 'O' series that started with 1 O being sold in January for £210,000 (including fees and tax). 2 O was sold in March for £142,248.75 and 3 O went for £63,128.75 in June 2009.

The auction finishes later on today and so far the two most expensive registrations have been sold on this final day.

As expected there was quite a bit of interest in 4 O which was eventually sold for £63,128.75 - the exact same amount that 3 O was sold for.

More surprisingly was the registration 1 PNE. There was considerable interest in this number plate. It even surpassed the price achieved for 4 O. 1 PNE sold for a total price of £86,617.50. Who could the winner of this be? If anyone has any ideas, let me know.

I'll write a complete roundup of the auction on Monday.

Number Plates Gallery

2009-08-05T12:02:00.003+01:00

I am loving our number plates gallery! Have you seen it lately? Well, let me tell you a bit about it.

The gallery is a collection of cars with personalised number plates. These are photos that have been collected over the years or have been sent in by customers and number plate spotters. A huge thanks goes to Noel Woodall and Brian Heaton who have allowed numberplates.com to reproduce images from their books so that you can see the historical photos and really see the plate 'through the ages'.

So for example you can see the registration CRA 1G on four different cars.

You can also search on car make, so if you just want to see Ferraris, you can. Or you can filter the pictures by category such as business, celebrity or no 1 plates. Or if you are looking for a particular registration, maybe one that you have bought or sold, you can search for that too.

And it's not just UK registrations we are looking for. There is also an international category with photos from countries such as France, Poland and Hong Kong.

And if you your photo isn't there, why not send it in for inclusion? We are hoping that this will be the biggest and best collection of great cars and number plates on the web, so it would be great if you could be part of it.

So why not take a look for yourself - number plates gallery.

Ramside Hall, Number Plates and a Competition

2009-08-04T15:43:00.002+01:00

It's great seeing how companies use number plates to advertise their business. One example is the Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club situated in County Durham.

A little while ago, Ramside decided to add some branding by acquiring a number plate for the company minibus. As you can see from the picture below, they couldn't have found a more apt registration and it looks great on their minibus.

Numberplates.com is currently running a comptition in association with Ramside Hall Hotel. The prize is a night's bed and breakfast for two in the luxurious setting of the North-East's most prestigious hotel.

Why not have a go at http://www.numberplates.com/competition/

If you win, you may decide to go during a weekend when Ramside hold one of their many events. A particular favourite is the various tribute acts ranging from Dolly Parton to Elvis to Michael Jackson. Sounds like it should be great fun.

Numberplates.com on Twitter

2009-07-10T16:27:00.001+01:00

You can now follow numberplates.com on Twitter. Why not keep up-to-date and follow us?

Ferrari Concours 2009

2009-07-08T10:30:00.002+01:00

Went to the Ferrari National Concours at Broughton House in Northamptonshire on June 28th. Was a very hot day and a there was a great turn with some beautiful cars. There must have been 200 Ferraris there that day. And of course a lot of them had great number plates on them.

Thought I'll share some pictures with you.

For more photos why not check out our number plate gallery.

Vinnie Loves His Number Plates!

2009-05-14T15:33:00.002+01:00

Vinnie Jones may have moved to Hollywood but recent pictures show that his love of number plates are still with him. Vinnie, footballer turned actor was pictured in Hollywood, driving his Range Rover with the number plate 'UK VIN'. And driving behind him in a Jaguar was his wife, Tanya. Her car had the registration 'UK TANYA'. It's not known why they were driving separate cars - maybe they wanted to show off their car registration?

Plate Confusion

2009-05-07T14:59:00.002+01:00

In the UK number plates are unique. Of course you will get similar variations but you can be sure they are definitely all different. The only time you will see two identical registrations is when one has been cloned. When this happens, it can be quite a nightmare. Spare a thought then for the people in America, where even if you have a registration, there could be 68 others just like it. That's right - it is possible for one registration to be shared by 69 plates.

Marie Lai, a resident of Lisle, Illinois received traffic fines from New York even though her car was parked in her garage, 500 miles away. That's a nine hour drive! After a lot of investigating and with help from a newspaper's “Problem Solver” column, Lai found out that the offences were caused by another vehicle with the same registration.

Ernie Dannenberger, director of the vehicle services department in the Illinois secretary of state's office, said that there should not really have been any confusion. Although it is possible for commercial vehicles and domestic passenger vehicles to have same license plate numbers, commercial vehicles have a slightly smaller letter at the end of the plate character string.

So how is it possible that one registration can be on 69 vehicles? Well, these variations are possible because the state allows various custom or “specialty” plates to be issued. These variations include 18 college plates, 18 military plates and 33 other private plate versions promoting various groups and causes. The number plates are apparently distinguished from one another by a two-letter code, smaller than the main characters, which is stacked to the right of the main registration ID number.

Doesn't seem very distinguishable to me!

Insanity Plates!

2009-05-05T11:36:00.003+01:00

It's not just the UK that love number plates. In America, personal registrations or vanity plates as they are known over there, are just as popular. The system in the US differs from that over here. They are a lot more flexible with the format of their registrations and almost anything (as long as it gets past the issuing authorities) goes. This though can make filtering what are seen as offensive or inappropriate plates much more difficult.

Recently, I came into contact with Jason who recently got into plate spotting in the US.

He sent us this picture of a car spotted in Washington.

And just to show you can have anything here's a car with just 'U' on. Who could the U be?

And for someone who wanted a vanity plate but couldn't decide what to have:

Check out the other photos on Jason's site at Insanity Plates.

Flags Finally Allowed on UK Number Plates

2009-05-01T14:55:00.003+01:00

It's taken eight years but at last it is legal for drivers to have flags on their number plates. In 2001, it was only the Euro flag that you could legally display however drivers were also told that the national flags would be legal and the legislation would be altered within a month. For some reason, it wasn't. So for the last eight years, anyone with a national flag had illegal plates. Although authorities had been asked to take a 'relaxed attitude' to these, it didn't stop the police stopping and fining drivers.

Now finally, we are officially allowed to display the Cross of St George, the Scottish Saltire, the Welsh Dragon and the British Union Flag on our number plates. However, anyone who has a national flag on their plates will find that they are still required to display a “GB” sticker when heading to Europe.

Another

2009-04-24T08:54:00.001+01:00

We know that the DVLA have previously blocked some combinations of letters from being issued but in the America they have to look at cases on an individual basis. This is because the USA have a flexible registrations system where individuals can choose almost any combination of numbers and letters with a rigid format system. Imagine Kelly Coffman-Lee’s surprise when she was told her registration was x-rated. State officials in Colorado decided that 38 year old Coffman Lee’s suggestion, ‘ILVTOFU’ could be interpreted as an profanity. However, she insists that the plate represents her and her family’s love of tofu, a staple of the family as they are vegan.

Mark Couch, a spokesman for the Department of Revenue says, "We don't allow 'FU' because some people could read that as street language for sex."

This has caused such a stir that the story has even been reported on the famous liberal news and comment website The Huffington Post.

Number Plate Auction Round-Up

2009-04-03T09:32:00.003+01:00

Hey everyone, sorry it's a little late but here's a roundup of the DVLA number plates auction that was held over three days from Wed 25th Mar - Fri 27th Mar 2009. The auction was held at Ardencote Manor Hotel, Country Club & Spa in Warwick.

The two main attractions were '1 D' on the first day and the second of the 'O' series on day three. And they didn't disappoint.

The registration '1 O' was sold in January 2009 for an impressive £210,242 and there was speculation that the buyer may return and try for '2 O'. The eventual winning bid of £115,000 came by phone so at the moment we don't know if it was the same person or not. The total amount paid for it was £142,249.

The big one - '1 D' - went on day one for a whopping £352,441 (including fees and taxes). This was bought by Lebanese property developer Nabil Bishara as a present for his wife. Now that's not a bad birthday gift!

Here are some of the other best sellers (prices include fees and taxes):

HU57 LER- £37,168
11 MRN - £25,300
G80 RGE - £16,275
90 A - £15,533
PHF 1 - £15,162
82 S - £14,915
151 S - £14,915
LUC 1Y - £14,297
B4 LLS - £13,308
TOO 81G - £12,690
RUG 13Y - £12,443
3 PEP - £11,701
86 J - £11,454
71 W - £11,454
2 KAH - £11,206
90 MR - £10,712
78 H - £10,217
86 JM - £10,094

Number plate 1 D sells for £352,411

2009-03-27T14:01:00.004Z

Today is the last day of the DVLA auction at Ardencote Manor Hotel and Country Club, Warwick. Once again there have been some great sales, showing the resilience of number plates.

As expected, the registration '1 D' was the star of the show when it sold on Wednesday 25th March. A record breaker even before the auction had started by commanding the highest ever reserve set for an auction of this type. It didn't take long for the bidding to reach £100,000 and the plate eventually sold for a hammer price of £285,000. The total price paid including fees and taxes was a staggering £352,411. This sets the record for the highest price at a DVLA registrations auction.

The number plate was bought by Lebanese property developer Nabil Bishara who bought it as a birthday present for his wife. '1 D' is expected to go on her Bentley.

Stoke fans and their number plates

2009-03-24T14:39:00.003Z

Tom Talbot from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire is a fan of number plates - in fact he has 40 of them. His latest purchase is 57 OKE, in recognition of the local football team. The plate was sold at auction in January and had a reserve of £1900. Mr Talbot paid £7000 in total and said, "I'm very pleased to be the new owner, especially at the price I got it at. It was well within my budget.”

Tom's company, Talbot Alsger, a waste disposal firm in nearby Tunstall village also benefits from his hobby. He has put his pastime to great effect by supplying some suitable numbers for the firm's vehicles. The fleet is instantly recognisable as they proudly adorned numbers like AL54 GER and TUN 574L.

After Tom purchased his first Stoke number, he was contacted by Catherine Handley, 37 after Catherine had seen reports in the local newspapers. Ms Handley had the registration GO57 OKE and thought it would be a great addition to Mr Talbot's collection. He agreed and bought it from her earlier this month.

Upcoming Number Plates Auction

2009-03-19T11:45:00.002Z

Next week there is another DVLA number plates auction. This will be the second one of the year and will be held at Ardencote Manor Hotel and Country Club in Claverdon, Warwick.

There will be 1600 lots available throughout the 3 day event starting on Wednesday 25th March 2009. Many different plates will be on offer.

You could show off your new personal number plate with 'BRA 6S' or if you're feeling a bit on the slow side, you may opt for 'DUM 8B'.

The star of the show will be without doubt the registration, '1 D'. The reserve for this number is a record breaking £20,000 and is the highest reserve ever to be set at a DVLA auction. '1 O' was sold in Janaury for £210.242 and '1 D' is expected to go under the hammer for more.

Also being auctioned is the second in the 'O' series - '2 O'.

Comic Relief

2009-03-16T12:28:00.004Z

Comic Relief raised a record £58m over the weekend. Ryman was an official sponsor of the event and raised over £500,000 by selling official Comic Relief merchandise. The Ryman staff also got involved with their own money-raising ideas.

One of those was Theo Paphitis's chauffeur, Michael Brown. Michael and two willing companions decided to pull Theo's Maybach, complete with Ryman number plate, for a mile down the Mercedes test track in Surrey. I went along on February 14th to see how they go along. I forgot to mention they decided to do this dressed as nuns! I'm still not quite sure why! Theo's car was transformed to a bright red with Red Nose Day splats all over it.

They managed to indeed pull this beast of car the full mile and have so far raised over £1300. You can still sponsor Michael and his team of nuns by going to www.myrednoseday.com/nunsonthepullmichael

New Number Plates Magazine Out Now

2009-03-11T10:38:00.002Z

The new Regtransfers.co.uk magazine is now available. This is the 20th issue of the magazine published by Regtransfers dedicated to number plates. The exclusive interview this time is with entrepreneur James Caan from BBC TV's Dragons' Den. There is also, of course, the usual mix of letters, stories and listings and a feature on Theo Paphitis's car being pulled by his chauffeur, all in aid of Comic Relief.

Order your FREE copy here.

Dr Seuss on a plate

2009-03-04T23:26:00.002Z

On my way to work yesterday I saw the number plate DR53 USS. It was spaced DR 53USS and of course I don't condone the mis-spacing of plates but I have to admit I thought this looked great and made me smile. Especially as the day before (Monday 2nd March) would have been the 105th birthday Theodore Geisel or Dr Seuss - what a coincidence I should see this registration the day after!

I wonder what other names are out there?

Check out Batman in our gallery and Scooby.

If you see any good or funny plates why not send them to pr@numberplates.com

Hong Kong Number Plate Sells for £150,000

2009-03-03T10:06:00.002Z

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.”

£100k for MN 1 number plate

2009-02-16T12:02:00.002Z

At an auction held at the Mount Murray Hotel and Country Club on Friday 6th February 2009, the number plate MN 1 sold for £100,000 to an anonymous bidder. Not bad for an island with a population of 80,000.

"I think everyone was about to fall off their chair in amazement", said a spokesperson for the auction organisers.

The registration was part of a collection owned by the late John Moore who had a large collection of classic cars and number plates. When MN 1 was originally issued it was to a George Drinkwater of Bradden and was used on his steam powered car.

Snow Day

2009-02-10T15:57:00.002Z

Well the end of last week was written off for many people due to the snow. I can't remember seeing that much snow before and I'm older than the "twenty years since we've had this much snow". I do remember seeing the number plate 5 NOW a few years which would have been very appropriate for last week. I don’t have a picture of that but here’s a picture of some snow dressed as a snowman.

Number plates as investments

2009-02-04T16:05:00.002Z

The DVLA held the first of this year's six personalised number plate auctions last week. The auction for 1600 private registrations took place at Whittlebury Hall, Towcester, Northamptonshire.

The top 3 best sellers of the auction were:

1 O - £210,242
1 HRH - £113,815
3 S - £94,035

1 O was sold to an phone bidder who wishes to remain anonymous.

1 HRH was bought by a Berkshire-based businessman. He said, “In my mind, there aren’t many registrations that can better 1 HRH. While bought as an investment, it will be placed on one of my cars.”

And venture capitalist, Spencer Day bought 3 S. He said, “There’s no better time than at present to invest money in personalised registrations. While I have no immediate plans to sell it, I am confident 3 S will give me a healthy return on my investment.”

Don't know where to invest your money? It seems number plates are a good bet.

Royal Number Plate sold for £113,815

2009-01-29T15:33:00.002Z

The number plate 1 HRH was sold today at an auction held at Whittlebury Hall, Towcester, Northamptonshire for £113,815.

There was a great deal of publicity about this registration before the event and at the auction there were several journalists and TV crews including one from the BBC and Channel Five's Fifth Gear programme. The atmosphere was intense as the bidding increased. There was a round of applause when finally, an anonymous phone bidder outbid the two interested parties in the auction room. One had left the room after bidding over £90,000 and Mr Akram and Mr Singh would have to go back to Scotland without the plate they had travelled so far for.

2009-01-27T16:52:00.002Z

Happy Chinese New Year! The Chinese New Year actually started on January 26th so I'm a little late but never mind. This year will be the year of the OX. Coincidentally, at a number plate auction on Friday 30th January, the registration 55 OX will be up for sale.

This got me thinking - what other animal number plates are available? Well, I've had a look and I've found RAT 7Y for the rats, D24 GON for the fiery dragons and DOG 1 - no explanation needed there! Has anyone got a registration that represents their birth sign?

Well, I'm going to enjoy the rest of Chinese New Year, which just means more food really. Well, someone's got to eat it!