The DVLA is set to put up 2,000 car registration number plates for sale tomorrow morning, and a seasoned collector has shared his insights on the best ones to buy. The forthcoming auction of personalised number plates is set to start tomorrow (Wednesday, May 14) at 10 am.
Neal Bircher, 60, from Uxbridge, West London, boasts a collection of hundreds of plates valued at “hundreds of thousands” and stores approximately 350 in his garage, while holding the rights to another 220.
According to Neal’s expertise, dateless number plates – those with a single digit preceding or following them, examples with just one letter, and shorter plates bearing common initials are amongst the most valuable.
For instance, Neal predicts that 910 AM could generate substantial interest in the DVLA sale, given its £2200 base price and ‘AM’ being sought-after initials, in contrast to 232 XW which starts at the same price but may not draw as many bids. In terms of plates unlikely to appreciate, those styled after Northern Irish registrations that include ‘I’ and ‘Z’ sit at the market’s lower end.
Neal, who juggles time between IT management consulting and part-time number plate dealing, shared: “As a general rule, the shorter the better, and also the popularity of initials is a very common factor. Dateless plates are always popular and can be good investments. ‘1’ plates have proved very good investments, whatever the letters, and so plates such as 1 XDX will be expensive even though ‘XDX’ is unlikely to be many people’s initials.”
He continued: “1 YOB starting at £2400 is an interesting one – reminiscent of ‘YOB 1’ which famously adorned Slade guitarist Dave Hill’s Rolls-Royce in the 1970s! In recent years dateless plates that contain only a single letter have become more sought after – for example 125 B starting at £2500, or 8118 D starting at £2500 in this auction.”
Neal added: “And those where the letter is ‘O’, and hence the plate can look as if it only contain numbers, have really grown in popularity of late. Hence 54 O starting at £2500 might well fetch the top price in this action. ‘540’ is also a model of BMW.”
Neal also suggested that it is wrong to assume that more valuable plates are those that look as though they spell out words. He explained: “People sometimes assume that if a plate looks as if it spells a word then it will prove valuable. That may well be the case if the word is relevant to a business or profession, but if it’s just a random word then not necessarily so.”
He also shared some of the plates less likely to appreciate in value. He said: “Registration numbers generally tend to grow in value, but the ones less likely to do so are those at the lower end of the market, especially some of the Northern Irish style plates, containing the letters’ ‘I’ and ‘Z’. But there can be exceptions with those as well.”
Neal warned that making money from number plates requires a lot of research. He said: “People who are trying to make money have to be very careful. It requires a lot of homework if you’re looking to invest or make money. Two very similar-looking plates might have very different values. AJB would be worth far more than XUY for example because of how common the first set is for initials.”
He added: “Not everyone is, but some are interested in the backstory behind plates. There are a lot of people who are in clubs and associations who ask me a lot of questions every day about value and the history of plates. People are very interested in when it was issued, to know what vehicles it was in, who owned it etc.”
You can find more information about the DVLA auction here.
Some of the plates on offer:
- CIG 300 Lot 324 Starting price £300
- AB16 BUM Lot 18 Starting price £250
- MOU 555E Lot 119 Starting price £250
- PO25 CHE Lot 1390 Starting price £250
- F44 YYY Lot 639 Starting price £200
- A96 COX Lot 31 Starting price £200
- A600 DAY Lot 35 Starting price £200
- CR16 PTO Lot 372 Starting price £250
- SAV 146E Lot 1586 Starting price £250
- EA69 GLE Lot 509 Starting price £250
- OOH 11H Lot 1336 Starting price £300
- FAM 1T Lot 583 Starting price £500
- 145 SAM Lot 1578 Starting price £800
- 77 JET Lot 840 Starting price £1200
- 36 ANT Lot 116 Starting price £1200
- DMZ 1 Lot 457 Starting price £2000
- 910 AM Lot 92 Starting price £2200
- 1 YOB Lot 1991 Starting price £2400
- 1 LTR Lot 1075 Starting price £2400
- 54 O Lot 1309 Starting price £2500
- 2025 M Lot 1096 Starting price £2500
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