Personalised quantity plate gross sales double over 10 years | EUROtoday

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Rob England and Tom Moseley

BBC News

Neal Bircher Neal Bircher poses on bent knee in front of his white Mini that has a 'GLO 5' number plateNeal Bircher

Neal Bircher with a quantity plate representing Gloucestershire, the county of his start

Sales of personalised quantity plates have greater than doubled over the previous decade, figures obtained by the BBC counsel.

More than 1.2 million transactions passed off in 2024, up from about 500,000 in 2014, in accordance with knowledge from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

That consists of plates purchased immediately from the DVLA, in addition to those who change palms privately. Plates might be purchased for lower than £50 – however probably the most profitable mixtures can fetch a whole lot of hundreds of kilos.

Experts informed the BBC personal plates had been more and more being seen as an funding – usually by no means even getting used on a automobile.

The worth of personal quantity plates is determined by the recognition of the mixture of numbers and letters.

The DVLA raised £276m for the federal government from personalised registrations within the final monetary 12 months.

‘I’m going to purchase extra’

Rob Nicholls from Exeter has a quantity plate that includes his initials on his BMW, and lately purchased one other two plates he didn’t use, as a substitute promoting them on for a revenue.

“They do seem to be increasingly popular,” he informed BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme.

Rob, who works as a finance director, says buying and selling plates was a “fun sideline” to have alongside his day job.

“I know they annoy some people, some don’t like them,” he says.

“Is there a value? Yes. Can it increase in value? Yes. I’m probably going to buy more because it’s an interesting, tangible asset.”

Rob Nicholls A split image of Rob Nicholls and his personalised number plate X5 RRN on the back of his black BMWRob Nicholls

Rob thinks folks purchase plates partly as a result of they’ve sentimental worth, but additionally many see them purely as belongings.

‘It’s all about picture’

Another progress space is amongst younger folks, thinks Noor Dar.

The 17-year-old from Manchester enjoys deciphering the messages behind plates – phrases like YOU 105T are standard – and peruses Facebook teams the place completely different mixtures are shared.

“It’s all about image,” he says.

“There are two sides, I think. Yes, you have collectors, people who buy cherished plates. Then there’s the younger generation, who aren’t bothered about plates that are valuable – they want plates with meaning.

“On social media, folks within the automobile scene are sometimes recognized by their quantity plates.”

Personalised number plates that have never been used before can be bought directly from the DVLA via its website or online auctions.

The number of plates being put on a car for the first time has nearly doubled since 2014 to just under 450,000, according to the figures obtained by the BBC via a Freedom of Information request.

The agency says it has a bank of more than 60 million registrations. It also has a team that analyses market trends to identify lucrative registrations it can release to make the most money.

But this doesn’t include combinations of numbers and letters that the DVLA thinks “could trigger offence, embarrassment or are in poor style”, which are withheld.

Meanwhile, plates that are already in circulation can be bought through third-party dealers, who sell at private auctions and on their websites.

Plates are also traded on Facebook groups and eBay.

The market for these previously used plates is the area that potentially saw the biggest increase.

Since 2014 the number of these transactions has tripled to about 800,000, according to the DVLA’s figures.

The data includes plates being sold, and those either put on or taken off vehicles. It can also include applications to change the owner’s details, like their address.

‘£25 to hundreds of thousands’

Mark Reynolds, sales manager at Plate Hunter, one of several private dealers, says he sold the number plate KS1 just before Christmas for £285,000 to an anonymous buyer with the same initials.

“I feel as soon as upon a time there was a component of pretentiousness to quantity plates, which I feel is gone, as a result of you’ll be able to decide up a quantity plate as low cost as £25 proper as much as a whole lot of hundreds,” he says.

“So I feel the market is simply a lot extra accessible to all people.”

Neal Bircher, who describes himself as a “quantity plates nerd”, has been collecting them his entire adult life and is in the process of writing a book on the subject.

Neal Bircher Neal Bircher next to an 'NEA 1' plate on his red car, and his mother Anthea who has an 'ANT 112A' plate on her blue  MiniNeal Bircher

Neal Bircher’s mother, Anthea, also has private plates

As well as a current collection of about 220, most of which are for sale, Neal has plates representing his first and second names, as well GL05 for Gloucestershire, the county where he was born.

He says in the distant past the DVLA had seen personalised plates as an inconvenience, but in the 1990s changed its mind and chose to engage with the trade, making its vast pool of unused registrations available to the public.

The DVLA figures show transactions peaking in 2021, which Neal puts down to the lifestyle changes brought about by Covid.

“Presumably it was attributable to many individuals having time on their palms and spare cash that they weren’t spending on commuting, socialising and holidays,” he says.

“The momentum continued all through the Covid interval and even at this time, curiosity has solely eased off slightly.”

But, despite private plates’ popularity, Neal warns it isn’t always easy to make money from them.

“Plenty of individuals dabble,” he says.

“I might urge anybody to go in with slightly little bit of warning, as a result of I’ve seen many examples of individuals pondering ‘gosh, that is straightforward’ after which purchase a hoard of plates and possibly they don’t seem to be all saleable.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czdlr7q78qyo