We've been preaching the investment potential of personal number plates for more years than we can count. We've produced web pages on the subject, we've written blog posts about it and we've reported how the media is, very slowly, catching up.
We've said it many times: lots of people who have invested their money in good quality private number plates have seen fantastic returns on their outlay. In some cases, cherished plates have outperformed more traditional investment commodities and collectables by a significant margin.
Read all about it
In the last few weeks, we've seen the news picked up again - several times. The Independent, This is Money and others have carried articles acknowledging the increasing values of cherished registrations. This is Money highlighted the great performance of number plates compared to other investments and also published an article illustrating examples of buyers who have enjoyed huge profits when reselling astutely chosen private number plates. The stories related the good fortune of investors who saw their plates increase in value by 700% and more, netting thousands of pounds in profit.
Fortune favours the bold
To win as spectacularly as that, the buyer must obviously have the courage to invest a substantial sum but perhaps not as much as you would expect. In some cases, the increases in value don't happen overnight but veteran investors know that timing is as important as choice. In one case cited by an article, a gentleman who paid £8,000 for his registration in 2004, sold it this year for £85,000.
Other buyers are content to invest much larger stakes. The highest publicly confirmed price paid for a UK number plate was the half million paid by Ferrari dealer John Collins in 2014. It's not clear whether or not John will ever sell his coveted 25 O registration but he was determined to win it at auction.
The sky's the limit
Businessman Afzal Kahn is another experienced number plate investor who sunk a hefty sum into his private plate purchase. The £440,000 he paid for F 1 in 2008 was wisely spent if one is to believe the reports that he has since been offered £10 million for the registration. Whether or not the figure is accurate, Mr Kahn was confident enough to decline. Exactly what the potential of F 1 might be is impossible to say but even if it just doubled Afzal Kahn's winning bid at the auction, it would take the crown as the UK most expensive number plate. When one considers the amount of money involved in Formula 1 racing, that record certainly seems breakable.
If you are interested in private registrations as an investment, see our investment page or contact us for information.
