Once a symbol of the social elite, and normally only seen on luxury cars of the rich and famous, the private number plate industry has boomed in recent decades and if bought wisely have been proven to be a very worthy investment, making it the only part of your car that will appreciate over time.
What makes a private number plate valuable?
One of the major factors that affects the price of a registration is the demand, the more people that have an interest your plate, the higher the price will be.
The shorter the number plate the higher the valuation as these tend to be the most sought after by potential buyers looking for a good investment. Also, the age of a number plate makes the value increase with dateless plates usually being more desirable and in high demand as some are over 100 years old!
A personalised number plate will hold its value. Why? Well, as each one is unique, over time it increases in value. In fact, private number plates have historically gained in value over the years, so much so that people are choosing to invest in number plates instead of putting money into ISAs or bonds and like we said above, there is only one of each number plate in the UK. There are no duplicates unless illegally made but that is a story for another day…
Less is more with number plates
DVLA started selling private number plates to the public thirty odd years ago. In the 1st financial year of the 1st auction, 1989/90, they sold 658 plates, the following year this number increased to 26,161. In the 2018/19 financial year almost 404,000 registrations were sold. Currently around six million personalised number plates have been sold, mostly coming from the £250 plates, generating a massive £2 billion for the treasury. (Data taken from DVLA 2019, as this number, especially since the pandemic, will be much higher now.)
The key to finding a number plate as an investment is looking for numbers and letters combined that spell something next to each other, the most popular being those that contain names, as well as those with few digits. For example, DEV 1L, J4 MES, B1 LLY, A1, 1A, G1, SA 9, JC 1 etc.
Who is interested in buying a private number plate?
Well, in a recent DVLA survey showed that 69% of respondents would buy a private registration because of a personal connection, a name or initial, 6% for their business, while 17% said they saw them as an investment. A personalised number plate could also give your car a face lift. That is, they can make hide the age of your car, which can be a reason for someone to buy one too.
Criteria for a good investment plate.
The type of number plate format: Dateless (Usually the best), Suffix, Prefix or Current Style.
The numbers on the number plate: Some numbers such as 1,11, or repeating numbers (666, 99, 22), sequences (123, 456, 321, 115) or even birthday years (80-99) have more appeal than others to private reg buyers. 1 is the most prized out of all the numbers though.
The initials on the number plate: There are just some initials and combinations of initials that are just straight up better, such as J being the best for first name initial. So, initials that always demand money are J, A, E, K, C and they are just some to name. Other ones like X, Y, Z are becoming more popular, especially X then Z but these are “Usually” the bottom half of the respective, dateless reg market.
*Please note the above information is more tailored to dateless registration format’s*
Then Suffix, prefix and even current style normally see the best returns when they spell a name or a word especially if it is spelled “perfectly”.
Are number plates a good investment?
Number plates that appreciate in value are short dateless number plates, for example, F 1, 25 O, or specific names or words ie: JAM 3S, DEV 1L, D4 RTS, they are also the registrations that will cost you a lot of money initially, but overtime usually gain if the owner doesn’t “need” to sell it.
Looking to start investing in a reg?
Take a look on our website at the thousands and thousands of number plates to suit all budgets with prices starting at just £275, it is a perfect & unique gift for everybody.
Click the link www.moonstoneplates.com/buy or press our logo to go back to the home page to begin your number plate journey!
Or If you would like to speak to someone you can call our team Mon-Fri 9am to 6pm at 01995 213112 or click here to contact us!
Looking to sell a number plate?
Alternatively, if you have a private number plate and are looking to sell or know someone who might you can click here to go to our sell page or give our team a call on 01995 213112.
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