The DVLA held its last personalized numbering auction from Wednesday 24 October to Friday 6 October at the Down Hall Hotel, Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire, and continued to be successful in attracting offers from the public and retailers in the area, the -Line, by phone and by mail. DVLA’s are only allowed to steal registration numbers that were not previously assigned to a vehicle, they can not auction numbers that belong to members of the public or registrations that no longer have the original vehicle.
The biggest success was the sale of WE57 HAM (West Ham) which brought 45,000 the lobster that was led by a bidding war between avid West Ham supporters, the winner was anonymous after the internet was auctioned off. This breaks the previous record for a football-related record as AR53 NAL collected 36,000 in 2004. It was also a unique piece of memorabilia in the form of a large framed plaque signed by 44 Hammers footballers, including Sir Geoff Hurst MBA and Martin Peters MBE. This was raised to 1,100, with proceeds going to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK. The second-highest sales were for the number 1 DAM record at 25,000 which for these popular initials did not look excessive with the number 1 and 78 G at 16,000. The number 1 plates continued to gain popularity with 1 WEE bringing in 15,000. 1 TAA brought in the same amount and 1 RRJ brought in 14,000.
Some good offers were B111 DUF (Bill Duff) at 350, BER 3T at 450, LON 3R at 600, and DOU 99Y at 800. Surprisingly high offers were for CRA 19S (8. 600), SCR 44P (8. 600), and ALL 3X (9000) done). Some surprisingly unsold numbers were PAM 911S with a reserve of 500 (maybe a Porsche 911S is not really a girl’s car?) And RUM 5S with a reserve of only 400. Some of the most attractive registration numbers were COO 1L at 7500, GOA 1S at 7100, CLU 8S at 8700, and MU55 ELS at 5000.
All prices are bids made in addition to the numbers that the buyer would have paid a commission of auction help, v. on the. t. at 17. 5% and 80 D. O. T. transfer fee, this adds about 25% to the amount of the offer.
The total auction revenue was of course over 4 million barrels and a transfer fee of 80 for each issue is also payable, bringing the total catch for the treasury to almost 6 million.
Another auction is scheduled for December 4, 5, and 6 at Tankersley Manor, Barnsley, South Yorkshire. This will likely be the last for 2007, although there have been occasional specialties around Christmas in the past for a small number of very exclusive topics that should bring huge deals.
The free catalogs can be downloaded in PDF format from the DVLA Brand Sale website, then you can choose how you want to bid and register to bid on these sales. You can also see the complete list of custom license plates offered in Excel or Adobe Flash format.