Collector Makes Almost £80,000 on a Number Plate

Collector Makes £77,000 Profit on Personalised Number Plate

Personalised number plates are more popular than ever and are becoming big business. Most vehicle owners see a private plate as a way of adding a personal touch to their car, or as a unique and thoughtful gift for a loved one. But, as the prices of rare number plates surge, an increasing number of buyers are collecting them as an investment opportunity.

Collector Peter Johnson recently sold the plate ’49 P’ for £85,000, having only paid £8,000 for it in 2004, a staggering profit of £77,000. He paid £10,000 for ‘FLA 55H’ in 2021 and it’s now on the market for 25,000, while his rare plate ‘O45’ is on the market for £110, 000, over twice as much as he paid just three years ago. But how do you know which plates to invest in?

Private Number Plates to Look Out For

The majority of buyers choose a plate that relates to them, such as their initials or an important date. But, if you’re looking for an investment, you need to have an eye for number and letter combinations that might be highly sought after in the future. Private number plates with two or three digits tend to be highly prized. They were among the first to be issued and they are timeless.

Plates with the numbers 1 to 99 or three or four of the same number are popular. In the upcoming DVLA number plate auction, some of the more prized plates will start at £2,500, including ‘8888 A’, ‘82 O’ and ‘251 A’. Any plate that spells a name is sought after, but they are becoming harder to find.

However, you can get creative by using numbers for letters, such as 0 for O, 3 for E, 4 for A, and 5 for S. Examples of these will also feature in the auction, including the newly issued ‘73’ plates ‘HA73 VEY’ for Harvey and ‘EL73 BTH’ for Elizabeth. Other sought-after plates are those with the names of sports stars and celebrities, or with a car make or model, such as BMW, VW, MG, MB, JAG, etc.

A recent trend has been for cryptocurrency related number plates. Earlier this year, ‘BTC 1M’ sold for £10,000, while in 2021, ‘BTC 500X’ fetched £51,010. Also in 2021, ‘1 BNK’ was sold for £75,000 pounds, a whopping £66,100 more than the seller paid for it in 2014. A collector from Surrey recently sold a plate he’d only owned for two weeks and made an astonishing £65,000 profit.

Are You Ready to Invest in a Personalised Number Plate?

At CarReg we currently have over 70 million personalised number plates on our database, so you’re sure to find one that suits. If you’re looking for something special, bear in mind that the most prized plates are going to require a bigger initial outlay but could also give you the greatest return. But any plate can rise in value if it means something special to the buyer. Start your search today.