Big money in number plates? That's what we've been saying!
It's a message we've shared time and time again. We'd love to see more people enjoying private number plates and benefiting from the investment opportunities they can offer. When others catch on and look into the topic they reach the same conclusion we've known to be true for a long time: there is big money in private registrations.
But it seems that as soon as the lesson is learned it is forgotten and the media don't keep their fingers on the pulse. Interest peaks again every now and then when a price record is broken, or when DVLA censorship of controversial plates sparks another brief buzz in the tabloids but, apart from that, our profitable industry slips back under the radar.
Second opinions
Years ago, we regularly quoted a leading motoring journalist who declared that private number plates could be "better than money in the bank". We don't wheel that one out anymore, as the source of the quote is lost in the mists of time, but plenty more high-profile people with personal experience in the number plates market and sound investment-expert credentials have echoed the endorsement. When we interviewed TV Dragon and personal plates owner Duncan Bannatyne for our magazine, he observed that private plates are a great way to ease the pressure to constantly buy a new car, thanks to their ability to mask a vehicle's age. He also said that he had made money on number plates.
Duncan's Dragons’ Den denmate James Caan, another personal plates fan, commented "If you look back over the last ten years, the value of number plates has gone up quite a lot. You know, there’s only one of each plate, and I also think that’s the fun thing about it. If I wanted JC 1, I’d be the only person in the country who had got it.”
Ahead of the game
We're always happy to see media awareness of the broad appeal and investment potential of private registrations. A recent (November 2022) Daily Telegraph 'Money' article carried the headline "Big money in the red-hot world of personalised number plates". The main substance of their piece was, basically, a story that Regtransfers told in 2014 when Ferrari dealer John Collins paid more than half a million pounds for the registration 25 O. Although it's an old story it remains completely relevant.
The motivation and determination that moved Collins to pay that unprecedented sum for a UK car registration are representative of personal number plates fans in general. This fervent enthusiasm drives a market that remains as dynamic and stable as ever. Prices defy gravity - they go up more easily than they come down - and that is regularly demonstrated by the sums people are prepared to pay at auction for top-quality private plates. It is this insatiable appetite for good number plates that makes them such a great investment opportunity.
We may not use the old quote anymore but we stand by its message: a good private plate, bought and sold at the right time, can be better than money in the bank.
