What is it worth?

[ToeKnee]

Just bought a private plate for my SL yesterday, heat wiring fire the form to arrive so I can transfer and get plates made. L666TPM (my initials) £250 of DVLA site

 

[E53AMG]

Just bought a private plate for my SL yesterday, heat wiring fire the form to arrive so I can transfer and get plates made. L666TPM (my initials) £250 of DVLA site

You devil Tony [emoji16]

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[Dippo]

Anyone read this?

Twats in crisis as UK runs out of X5 number plates | Sniff Petrol

 

[John]

Trouble is even ___8 ENZ plates on DVLA are only £250 so excluding the £80 fee the absolute most the OP's plate is worth is £170. Most prospective buyers would rather buy the plate from DVLA than privately so to entice someone to buy the OP's plate it will need to be around £100 IMO.

Not hating personalised plates here, I have one on my SL, just being realistic.

Well exactly - that's my point really - it renders a plate that doesn't even spell Benz even less valuable. Unless it means something to someone, it's not worth anything.

In a world where abbreviation is king, twitter etc, how on earth can something that like looks like an abbreviation of Mercedes Benz be worthless, thats ridiculous. I'm not expecting thousands for the plate but know that good plates go for good amounts to those that want them. I have a private plate on three of my cars because it amuses me and some of them amuse others, at 52 I can also remember the plate when trying to pay for parking space. ITS A BIT OF FUN.

You are taking this too seriously and personally.

Being amused by something doesn't automatically mean someone will want to pay money for it.

Until someone hands you significant money for the plate, it's worth nothing - the very basic level of economics.

We are all different so by all means take a punt, have some fun selling it and see if someone does share your supposed valuation.

You've asked people on here what they think the plate is worth and as no one seems to share your view on the estimated value of the plate, you presume they hate number plates...

Not the case for me as I've a personal interest in them and I like them as long as they don't require modification to work or look cheesy.

I've got better things to spend upwards of £250 + £80 on!

 

[E55BOF]

...how on earth can something that looks like an abbreviation of Mercedes Benz be worthless...

But it doesn't, really, does it? That's our point.

I don't 'hate' private plates, but I'm afraid I view with considerable disdain plates that sort of look like an abbreviation of something if you use your imagination and read the numbers as letters, particularly when they are put on rather ordinary cars to try to enhance either the car or the plate's value. There are many on this forum that seem to share a similar view...

 

[219]

He wants £450 for each one, their £500 from Mercedes.

Are you sure ? Last time I asked ( couple of years ago ) they were just shy of a grand .

Same for 190E front wings .

 

[219]

I have to admit i'm astounded at the hatred for private plates which are meant as a bit of fun or individualism absolutely not what i expected, especially as one of the longest running threads on this site is what plate did you see lately. For those so against a bit of fun and individualism and offering useless comments on price I bought my daughter a plate which spelt out her name for £280, a very similar one was also available but I didn't need it for the same price. All of a sudden there are actresses on TV popping up with this name and the price of the other jumped to £1,400. Ridiculous non real world comments.

You are entitled to your view , but I see little or no value in vanity plates . I don’t ‘hate’ such plates ; I’m completely indifferent to them and don’t take any notice of them , few people even look at registration numbers on other cars .

What does annoy me is when people alter a registration mark to make it look like something else and I do wish DVLA would recall marks found to be mis spaced or characters altered with black , white or yellow screw covers . One warning on record then forfeit would be about right in my book .

All plates are equally ‘private’ in that they are unique to the vehicle they are assigned to and no one else can use it .

Unless the plate actually spells out a word ( such as Jimmy Tarbuck’s COM 1C , Paul McCartney’s MUS 1C , or the butchers van In Falkirk with M1 NCE ) or is a genuine cherished plate like SX 1 ( Lord Roseberry’s plate , last I saw on his old series Land Rover and the first plate assigned in West Lothian ) another friend has SX 33 , then I see little value in them and most , if just an ordinary number which happens to include someone’s initials will be completely meaningless to everyone else and certainly does not make a car ‘ stand out from the crowd ‘ .

I can also get the couple of letters and digits that spell someone’s initials, but doubt that anyone other than Val Doonican would have wanted VD 1 , which he had on his Rolls-Royce . My dad , years ago , offered to buy me 1 DTH , my initials, but I thanked him and said no .

As I stated earlier, my SL has an Irish plate which was on the car when I got it ; I wouldn’t have paid anything for it , and suspect the vendor couldn’t get anything for it , hence leaving it on the car . I did offer it to my sister when she remarked on it , just for her paying the transfer fee , as I’d be quite happy with the car on a K prefix plate , but not K1 NKY , thank you .

Nor would I pay the likely asking prices for DER 3K or D3 REK .

 

[219]

What you’ve got to realise is that people type things into their keyboard that they wouldn’t dream of saying face-to-face and remember this quote (told to me not long after I joined this forum) -

Opinions are like ****holes; everyone’s got one, the problem is when the ****holes have opinions!

Clint Eastwood famously said that in one of the Dirty Harry movies

 

[219]

In a world where abbreviation is king, twitter etc, how on earth can something that like looks like an abbreviation of Mercedes Benz be worthless, thats ridiculous. I'm not expecting thousands for the plate but know that good plates go for good amounts to those that want them. I have a private plate on three of my cars because it amuses me and some of them amuse others, at 52 I can also remember the plate when trying to pay for parking space. ITS A BIT OF FUN.

I don’t even perceive it as looking anything like ‘ Mercedes-Benz ‘ , it just doesn’t work for me , the only thing I’d notice is the mis spacing , which is unlawful.

Oh , and many of us don’t indulge in twitter and the like .

 

[E53AMG]

Personalised plates can also be a nuisance if you want some anonymity, I met a business supplier at a country restaurant a couple of weeks back, on arrival he said to me "is that your SL in the car park" when I confirmed it was he said "I thought so from the initials" so he now knows what I drive...

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[219]

Personalised plates can also be a nuisance if you want some anonymity, I met a business supplier at a country restaurant a couple of weeks back, on arrival he said to me "is that your SL in the car park" when I confirmed it was he said "I thought so from the initials" so he now knows what I drive...

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Yep , I recall the same happening to my boss at the time a number of years back : he had a bright red 911 , complete with whale tail spoiler ( lovely car ) and plate with his initials . Customer saw it outside his premises , remarked ‘ you must be doing well John , time you gave us some discount ‘ . It didn’t help his business , and he ended up getting a Peugeot estate car for work and kept the Porsche at home .

 

[E53AMG]

Yep , I recall the same happening to my boss at the time a number of years back : he had a bright red 911 , complete with whale tail spoiler ( lovely car ) and plate with his initials . Customer saw it outside his premises , remarked ‘ you must be doing well John , time you gave us some discount ‘ . It didn’t help his business , and he ended up getting a Peugeot estate car for work and kept the Porsche at home .

One of the reasons my detailer gets to borrow this is because his mate refuses to take it to work for the same reason and he likes it driven from time to time to keep battery charged etc..

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[Darrell]

One of the reasons my car washing bloke gets to borrow this is because his mate refuses to take it to work for the same reason and he likes it driven from time to time to keep battery charged etc..

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[Darrell]

Personalised plates can also be a nuisance if you want some anonymity, I met a business supplier at a country restaurant a couple of weeks back, on arrival he said to me "is that your SL in the car park" when I confirmed it was he said "I thought so from the initials" so he now knows what I drive...

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On Facebook there is an “Inside Mill Hill” section and there is one guy who is very vocal, gobby , irritating and very obnoxious. It turned out that he lives very near me, the reason I found out is because he has 2 naff plates on his cars. One has his first name and the other attempts to spell his surname. I mentioned on the particular group that the guy lived very near me and he waded in getting very lairy and moaning about me revealing the area where he lives.
My answer to him was to take the stupid plates off your cars that are advertising your actual house!!

 

[Oldbarrack]

You are entitled to your view , but I see little or no value in vanity plates . .

If you don't understand the never ending increase in value/cost of Cherished number plates,
as opposed to Private/Personal number plates, it fully explains why you spend so long typing about something you don't understand.

Dealers typically only pay 33 - 50% of retail sale price for cherished plates, as, in fairness they can take up to 1 or 2 years to sell.

I currently only display currently two, as they are my initials.
I've taken family members ones back due to the now current value,
but have a thick wad of V778's, some of which I have held on retention for up to 40 years.

Those cost between £10 to £400 in my much younger days, but have outperformed almost all other traditional fiscal investment vehicles by a very, very long way,
as demonstrated by an auction last Wednesday, those of quality are now well into now 6 figures - the above, incl all fees, cost, by your measure, to an obvious idiot , £291,600 all inclusive.

Below the radar that's about 30 - 40% of what other, rather better combination numbers change hands for privately, partly because as it was sold in an obscure Irish auction site few knew of until after the event..

 

[markjay]

Not much difference between a cherished plate and a bar of gold.

In either case you buy one knowing/hoping that you can sell it at any time and recoup your buying price or even turn a profit.

And there's no difference in essence betweek a fool paying over the odds for a plate and a fool buying gold at above market value.

Plates are like shares, houses, or precious metals - buy right and your investment is protected.

 

[Oldbarrack]

Not much difference between a cherished plate and a bar of gold.

In either case you buy one knowing/hoping that you can sell it at any time and recoup your buying price or even turn a profit.

And there's no difference in essence betweek a fool paying over the odds for a plate and a fool buying gold at above market value.

Plates are like shares, houses, or precious metals - buy right and your investment is protected.

An interesting take, but when did you see a Cherished plate value go down; always excepting a cash strapped distressed sale?
This does happen, but rarely; just before the 31st Jan tax payment deadline I bought a nice 2x2 of my initials at about 30% of similar plates prices on the known sites as the seller could not afford to pay his tax bill.

Gold is certainly not the best measure, houses get kept unless highly mortgaged, higher priced, mature owner quality homes often don't have one, so sellers hold until a market drop corrects, but the long term trajectory of houses, like Cherished plates, is always up.
God stopped making land a long time ago, hence a 10 fold increase in land prices, on which homes are built, in the last 12-15 years, long term as above.
the same applies to arable and amenity land.

Whilst there may now be an argument that the DVLA auctions prices are now well overpriced; that is a direct result of their depleting stock being sold to buyers with zero knowledge paying through the nose, I fully agree.

The current resale market sale prices elsewhere are based on a combination of:

• The number of digits; ie: a 1x1 2x1, or a 2x2, 3x1, etc, etc
• Then the commonality of letters, ie: J is the prime 1st initial, hence greater value, and that continues throughout the entire number of letters, be it 1, 2, or 3. (Many prefer an 11 to a 2 for example, values reflect that.
  
• Genuine first issue date, or a new DVLA creation of previously unused council reg numbers.
• And a few others I won't detail.

 

[markjay]

Well, as they say, scarcity generates value. In other words: supply and demand.

This is really the entire theory behind the market value of cherished plates (or any other item traded on the free market, for that matter).

 

[Oldbarrack]

Well, as they say, scarcity generates value. In other words: supply and demand.

This is really the entire theory behind the market value of cherished plates (or any other item traded on the free market, for that matter).

Yes indeed; just returned from unit in Panama Free Trade Zone;
now Cuban law has changed they are flocking there and paying 10 times what Aldi sell their Brik-a Brack for

The bigger irony my Chinese suppliers only charge me +/- 10% of Aldi prices, so needless to say I've quadrupled the size of our new warehouse and sales area.
Make hay while sun shines, I give it 2-3 years before margins become a race to the bottom on profit margins, so I suspect this is my swansong in import/export at my age I guess....

 

[zipdip]

Well I never bought a number plate with the aim of selling it later,I paid a small amount at the DVLA for a plate that the shows the first letter of my christian name then a space followed by the rest spelling out my whole surname,now apart from giving it to my grandson when I give up driving,or the police get so hot on the miss spaced plates that it gets confiscated,I see no harm in it,the only time the police have shown any interest has been when I make a rare visit to a McDonalds,the old bill like their burgers and twice have looked at it while sitting in their car,so a extra cup of coffee or another ice cream for the grandson sees the old bill on their way.