DVLA Auction March/April 2023

Graphic showing the top 5 prices in DVLA's March/April auction

The DVLA's March/April 2023 auction was an online-only event, running from Wednesday 29th March until Tuesday 4th April 2023.

There were fewer real headline-grabbers or stand-out names, words or similar this time and, as one might expect, the prices reflected that. That's not to say that there weren't still some good numbers up for grabs.

The best

The top performer this time was the neat 197 O which achieved £54,021 all-in. This continues the trend of O numbers topping the price charts and brings that format's unbeaten run to six auctions in a row.

At the DVLA's live auction event in February, 46 O came out on top when it sold for £75,194 and, as we pointed out in our report of that sale, 42 O was sold for an all-in price of £124,204 in January and 66 O commanded the highest price in November 2022 when it sold for £81,113. The fact that 197 O contains three digits rather than the two of the other top O sales explains its slightly lower price.

The pretty good

Although there were few real headliners, there were some very good registrations for sale, and even those words and names with less than perfect representations are commanding good prices. So long as the message is easily readable, people are quite happy to excuse a slight misspelling.

We can only assume that OEV 1L was chosen for its at-a-glance resemblance to "DEVIL". Despite the imperfection of the spelling, the purchaser obviously thought it as good as, or better than, some other versions we've seen sold at previous auctions. They parted with a healthy £38,613 which is more than was paid for DEV 11L (£15,873 in Feb 2023) or DEV 111L (£37,573 in Oct 2022).

Similarly, SOP 91E (£28,341) and AMB 11R (£27,057) are far from perfect but their meanings are clear and the prices, while affordable, are not as high as they would be for exact representations. These variations on common names are proving to be a promising investment.

Another very good representation, and good fun as well, was FU55 POT which sold for £9,235. Surely we don't need to spell it out.

The notorious

Controversy is always lurking somewhere nearby at auction time. No doubt there are those who disapprove of the "Devil" plates that we have seen are proving so popular. We wonder what they would make of GAN 957A. Bearing in mind DVLA's occasional censorship hair-trigger it is a little surprising that one was allowed out to play but some sharp-eyed G snapped it up for £10,005.

There were a few number 1 registrations in the sale. The three that did best were 1 THS (£25,644), 1 JXD (£24,489) and 1 YDS (£20,021).

In total, this auction saw 2473 sales and 26 numbers that went unsold. Buyers parted with a total of £7,205,192.96, of which £6,823,172.16 went to DVLA/government.

DVLA's next auction will be another online, timed event and will take place on Wednesday 10th May - Tuesday 16th May 2023.

Plate	Price *
197 O	£54,021
110 L	£47,614
OEV 1L	£38,613
510 W	£38,600
210 N	£30,935
SOP 91E	£28,341
AMB 11R	£27,057
1 THS	£25,644
1 JXD	£24,489
92 EL	£24,425
88 RAD	£21,690
DBS 770	£20,637
4 HJW	£20,123
1 YDS	£20,021
950 S	£19,995
5 DEO	£19,995
MOD 1T	£19,841
AAA 1M	£19,635
660 G	£19,481
ROB 71N	£19,353
BO10 GNA	£19,353
19 SSS	£18,647
93 RAJ	£18,069
99 GUN	£18,069
313 A	£18,069
4004 OO	£18,056
5 OJC	£16,939
PU23 WAL	£16,913
181 JL	£16,798
150 SB	£16,785
FA22 ELL	£16,785
60 PET	£16,143
110 MH	£15,578
93 UK	£15,565
4 YVA	£15,501
XRS 3	£15,501
ELA 12A	£15,501
55 ANT	£15,501
400 Y	£15,128
AMM 4D	£15,051
1989 S	£15,013
450 B	£14,885
7 BAV	£14,499
550 P	£14,345
PBX 1B	£14,217
4 TSM	£14,217
53 VW	£14,217
365 MR	£14,217
AMR 91T	£14,217
17 JSS	£14,204