Market Scene : In Britain, Vanity Licenses Are Selling Like Hot Plates : Frenzy over elite tags drives owners to pay whopping prices while putting money in the country’s coffers.
LONDON — The fad began back in the 1950s when gap-toothed comedian Terry-Thomas tooled around town in a car bearing the license plate TT 1. Not to be outdone, singer Max Bygraves was soon driving MB 1 and prestidigitator Paul Daniels’ car was tagged MAG1C.
The British are crazy about vanity plates, and they are aided and abetted by the Department of Transport which feeds the frenzy by auctioning off desirable combinations.
Each August, the initial license letter changes and the DOT’s Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Agency, with an eye on revenue, puts some tantalizing plates on the block. This year the letter was M, and the combinations for sale included MI OWN, MIAOW, MIDAS and MI6 SPY.
An August purchase delivers the buyer a double whammy of prestige--the possibility of a unique vanity plate and the M designation proclaiming a car from the new model year. Car makers complain that 25% of all yearly purchases are made in August, skewing production schedules and driving up storage costs. But police authorities insist the prefix system is helpful because people can remember the first letter of license plates of offending vehicles. And for the buyer, the difference of this year’s M prefix over last year’s L can mean several hundred dollars in resale value.
The license agency further pumps up demand with a vigorous campaign advertising the vanity plates up for auction in bidding that runs through the year. Unlike many American states, where drivers can select vanity plates at a nominal cost, rare registrations command whopping prices in Britain, sometimes more than the car.
In Britain, the plate stays with the car for life, unless the owner decides to sell it to someone who wants to share the vanity. Often the number 1 is substituted for the letter I in top-selling plates. For instance, the latest government-sponsored auction sold M1DGE for $9,600, M1LKY for $7,800, and M1NKS for $4,200. While MI OWN, for possessive types; MIAOW, for cat-lovers; MIDAS, for millionaires; M1SER, for cheapskates; M1CKY and M1NER were put up for auction in September.
Those with an interest in espionage might bid for MI6 SPY, since MI-6 is the popular designation for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service.
A typical plate not on the auction block this August was a combination of numbers and letters: M435 YEX. But thousands of other M permutations that the DVLA believes have some special appeal are available on a first-come, first-served basis at $500 each. The DVLA restricts any combination it considers improper. Ordinary licenses come at no cost, but all British drivers pay a road tax of approximately $200 a year.
The license agency reckons that since it adopted the practice of selling elite plates five years ago it has sold about 300,000 for a total of $225 million.
The highest recorded price in a private sale was an auction at Christie’s in 1993 that brought a price of $352,000 from an anonymous buyer. The plate: K1 NGS.
Though automobiles had been tagged in Paris since 1893, the first British plates were not issued until 1903, by the London County Council. The second Earl Russell, philosopher Bertram Russell’s elder brother, waited in line all night for the plate, which was designated A 1.
Car numbering was based on groups of two and then three letters and numbers, allocated regionally. These plates, with the last two letters indicating where a vehicle was registered, are prized today. The annual letter identifier, like this year’s M, was introduced in 1963.
And about that time, motorists got interested in vanity plates.
Rolls Royce went to great expense to insure that its top showroom model sported RR 1. Similarly, Ford Motor Co. went after CAR 1. A Jaguar dealer chose BUY 1. Chanel Perfumes had a delivery van labeled NO 5. Even the National Coal Board acquired a van marked NCB 1. Porsche owners like variations of the 911 theme.
A woman interested in astrology spent $6,750 for the plate L1 BRA, her birth sign. An animal lover paid $1,950 for K9 DOG. Insiders say the agency controls in a slow flow some of the highly desired plates such as D1ANA, F1RST, CHR1S, DAV1D and B1NGO.
In 1989, the Transport Department authorized the DVLA to sell head-turning plates for profit. These days, some 1,000 people a day call the DVLA hot line to inquire about specialized plates for sale.
Meanwhile, a nationwide business in buying and selling special plates has developed, and newspaper classified sections run long lists at whopping prices. An ad in the Sunday Times lists J1PSY at $15,000. Another lists FB 1, at “best offer considered over $75,000.”
“People are willing to pay a very high price for a one-of-a-kind plate that means something to them,” says Donald Marks, a plate dealer in Hull. Some buyers want personal or witty plates. Others seek rare plates that go back decades and might reflect identification with a particular region.
“They have many different reasons for buying,” he says.
One purchaser, Philip Pond, explains: “It became my ambition to have a distinctive plate on my car, if only to personalize the impersonal and opt out of the ‘You must have the latest registration letter’ rat race.
“I came across details of an Attractive Vehicle Registration Numbers auction to be held in Harrogate in North Yorkshire. I discovered 9999 PP among the lots for sale, along with another desirable number from my point of view: PJP 1. It seemed too good an opportunity for Philip Joseph Pond to miss.
“However, a Patrick John Pincombe, a retired financier, ensured that lot 402--PJP 1--was not to be mine,” Pond recalled. “He had been looking for PJP 1 for 20 years. He bid $7,800. In due course, lot 498--9999 PP--came up. The price rose to my last bid, $3,300. The gavel came down and 9999 PP was mine.”
The DVLA provides the license-buying public--through the hot line--with three special types of plates for “cherished and personalized registration numbers.”
“Select” registration where the purchaser chooses from 52 number combinations and then completes them with three letters of the buyer’s choosing, possibly to match one’s personal or company initials. Prices start at $517.
“Custom” registrations with thousands of leftover A, H, J or K plates with combinations that might have personal significance.
“Classic” registrations, which in the words of the DVLA are “truly prestigious and considered by many to have an investment value.” These are sold through four or five annual auctions at various national venues. They are advertised extensively and the agency issues a catalogue of numbers. Sealed bids are accepted. Most prices range upward of $1,500.
The DVLA, in its advertising, hawks the personalized plates as “a perfect gift for any occasion.” As a sample, it suggests for a golfer A18 TEE.
One dealer offering unusual combinations admits: “I think people who pay exorbitant prices must be daft. But they do seem to want rare personal plates.”
