Private license plates are increasingly big business. The prices of many are rising and collectors who know how to spot a winning combination of letters and numbers make tens of thousands of winnings on a single record. And since the DVLA started selling them in 1989, sales of the records have brought the Treasury more than £2 billion.
Most of the six million buyers are car owners who want to give their car a little va-va-voom. They are also popular as thoughtful and personal gifts. But a growing number are starting collections as an investment. Since not all records see their value grow, here’s how to spot the potential winners.
Popular signs
Many choose one that has a special meaning to them personally, for example with their initials or as a reminder of a certain date. But to make money with signs, you need to figure out which combinations are likely to be the most popular in the future. With over 64 million records up for grabs on the DVLA website and online marketplaces, collectors need to choose carefully.
Peter Johnson, director of online marketplace Primo Registrations, says license plates with only one, two or three characters have proven to be a good investment. “They are skyrocketing in value,” he says. ‘In 2015 those were worth less than £10,000, but now you’d be lucky if you bought one for £30,000. They are hard to come by and will become even scarcer over time.’
Numbers that refer to a year of birth are also very popular, he says. “Numbers 65 to 80 were worth a lot in years past, but now anything between 80 and 95 is selling much better because a growing number of people born between 1980 and 1995 are buying these registrations,” Johnson explains.
Numbers up: Peter Johnson, director of online marketplace Primo Registrations, with his license plates
Not surprisingly, Jody Davies of the DVLA adds that plates with letters like A and O that are easy to use in names are also very popular. “Any numbers from 1 to 99 are very popular, as are round numbers or triple and quadruple numbers,” she says.
Commonly named records command high prices and hold their value because they are scarce.
The DVLA makes a limited number of records that spell certain words or names to maximize the value of copies already sold.
‘Lots of people ask their name, but some like David or Simon were all sold many moons ago,’ says Ms Davies. “We look for alternatives that contain certain letters and numbers, but we only make a limited number for certain words or names, otherwise we risk devaluing them.”
How can you buy one?
Anyone can buy a new registration of their choice to replace their existing one. The DVLA sells new license plates that have never been owned before and accepts applications if there is a specific combination you would like. If your request is accepted, it will be auctioned by the DVLA for you to bid on.
The DVLA holds nine auctions a year — three in-person and six online — and there are no fees to bid. The next auction will run online from 10th to 16th May, with starting prices from £70. Bidding on some of the more attractive plates will start at £2,500, including ’25I A’, ’82 O’ and ‘8888 A’. A set of new number plates issued for new cars made from September 2023, bearing the number 73, were made available last week.
Nearly eight million new registrations will be added to circulation, with many names and words available for purchase for the first time. These dated registrations are issued annually. They have two letters followed by two numbers (73 this year) and three letters at the end. For example, we have ‘HA73 VEY’ spelling Harvey or ‘EL73 BTH’ spelling Elizabeth.
To buy a custom board already in circulation – or to sell one you own – you can go to an online marketplace. Most of these, including Regtransfers.co.uk and Primo Registrations, offer free appraisals. It costs £80 to transfer the plate to your car.
Follow the trend
Registrations that are in line with current trends, such as football, well-known names or new car models are also popular. The DVLA has a specialized team that devises such tenders for auction.
For example, a recent wave of Bitcoin-related combinations was sought after by cryptocurrency fans and raised tens of thousands of pounds. In February, the DVLA sold ‘BTC 1M’ for £10,000, while ‘BTC 500X’ went for £51,010 in May 2021.
Striking combinations can bring huge prizes. The ‘DEV 1L’ number plate was sold by the DVLA in 2021 for £308,253. This is the registration that appeared on Cruella De Vil’s iconic car in the 2016 films 101 Dalmatians and its sequel 102 Dalmatians. The record was only a prop for the movie, but was issued later.
The owner of the ‘I BNK’ registration made a staggering 743 per cent return – £66,100 profit – in just seven years. They bought it in 2014 for £8,900 and resold it for £75,000 in 2021, according to sales company Regtransfers.co.uk.
Mr. Johnson, 49, who has personally invested in thousands of registrations, has made a tenfold profit on some thanks to his keen eye. He bought ’49 P’ for his company in 2004 for £8,000, then sold it a few weeks ago for £85,000. He bought the number plate ‘FLA 55H’ – spelling ‘flash’ – for £10,000 a few years ago. It retails for £25,000. His favorite ‘O45’, which he has on his car, is on sale for a whopping £110,000 – more than double what he paid in 2020. The record, first issued in Birmingham, is over 120 years old.
Smokin’: The DEV 1L plate of Cruella De Vil’s iconic car was sold by the DVLA in 2021 for £308,253
Brutal number
The DVLA bans number plates it deems too brutal for Britain’s roads, but many issued decades ago before strict rules were introduced are still in circulation and passed down from owner to owner.
Angela Bahn, from Regtransfers.co.uk, says there are several of these legacy plates for sale on the website, including ‘ORG 45M’, for £112,500. Another, ‘BOT 7OM’ is on the market for £18,746.
However, these license plates are not the best investment, as many people find them too embarrassing to put on their cars.
£65,000…on a plate!
Lee Hill, 39, from Surrey, has bought hundreds of private number plates over the years and made a profit of up to £65,000 on each plate. “They just don’t seem to depreciate and I hate having money in the bank. The plates are tangible,’ he says.
A recent sale made him £65,000 profit for a record he owned for only two weeks and had only one letter and one number.
Lee, who owns a company that ships super cars, currently has 20 license plates, but there are four or five that he says he would never sell because he uses them on his cars and they have sentimental value. “I have ‘HII LEE’, which is my full name. Both ’84 LEE’ and ‘LEE 84’ contain my year of birth,” he says.
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