DVLA Auction of Personal Number Plates - August 2008

DVLA held its fourth number plates auction of the year at Legoland in Berkshire earlier this month.

The top prices were:

1 RAN - £51,500
108 AL - £31,000
88 M - £20,900
81 ACK - £18,000
88 A - £12,800
1 USY - £12,500
1 EVB - £11,000
351 NGH - £10,900
NAW 4B - £10,500
1 KFR - £10,500
F3 RNE - £10,500

Credit crunch or not, people are still prepared to pay large amounts of money for that unique personal number plate. This doesn't however tell the full story, as many registrations didn't even get a bid at the starting price. Compare the last DVLA auction where 151 lots remained unsold due to lack of interest, to this latest auction where 261 registrations didn't get a single bid at the opening price.

What should we read into this? Our opinion is the dealers who generally soak up a lot of the non-desirable registrations at auction and simply take them into stock, have become a little more choosy about what they actually buy. There was no shortage of interest in the names and popular two and three letter initial combinations. However, the not so popular combinations featured in the registrations 4 BEJ, 2 CJY and 67 WG led to them being not sold.

Just as in the stock market right now, stock selection is as crucial as it has ever been. The last thing you want to be doing is sinking a few thousand pounds into a personalised number plate that stays with you for many years, if the intention in to sell it on for a profit. If you are buying for keeps however, this could be the perfect time to pick up a bargain.