Number plates for investment; personal registration | National Numbers
The original "cherished" registration marks (those without a year letter at all) have increased in value over the
years - some to an incredible extent, making them ideal number plates for investment.
Remember, this market covers the years 1904 - 1963 so by definition even the last
marks issued are now more than 40 years old.
We liken this end of the market to the antiques market.
To follow are some examples of increasing market value over the years:-
JP 6998 (issued in the 1940's) sold in 1993 for £1800 and is now worth somewhere in the region of £4500. GH 315 (issued in 1930's) sold in 1992 for £3000 and is now worth about £6500. The above examples show the average sort of increase. However, the very rare or short plates have gone through the roof, such as C1 currently valued at over £200,000.
Irish Number Plates
The Northern Ireland mark, once considered the "poor relation" providing cheap cover plates only can no longer be regarded in this way.
The most sought after marks spell names for example: BAZ from Belfast, JIL and GIL from Enniskillen and GIB from Armagh.
In 1993 it was possible to buy BAZ 2440 for £149, now you would expect to pay £500 - £600
Another example is provided by GIB 5894 sold in 1993 for a mere £200. Mr. Gibson could now make about £600.
Suffix Year-Letter Market
If you want to start investing and you haven't got £1000's to spend, this is where you should start. There has always been a reasonable interest in marks such as SUE 57W. In other words anything spelling a name, but there has really been a marked surge in interest recently
For example KEN 405P sold in 1991 for £600. A similar plate now would expect to retail at above £1000. Another example would be SUE 390W, which sold in 1998 for £850, such a mark (if you could even find one) would now make at least £1500.
This also holds true for popular initals. For example JAS, JMW, MAW etc. The shorter the plate the better. Obviously a suffix mark on a new BMW or Mercedes is clearly a cherished plate since suffix marks finished in 1983 so even the later ones are more than 20 years old.
Prefix Year-Letter Market
Masses and masses of plates have been sold in this market. This is where the vast majority of people started "Making their Mark". As with any mass market, most of the examples will not increase in value and only represent a bit of fun for their owners. However, there are some classics like most of the "A" series. For example A3 JMB purchased for £145 in 1991 would now retail at £1500, representing a ten fold increase. Top class A1's and A11's not to mention M1's, H1's and M12's would all command massive profit margins as well. (M12 is used to represent "MR"). Prefix plates that are worth investing in represent names, eg: one of the most expensive plates ever sold at auction was K1 NGS at over £230,000! Read more at Cheap Registration.
New Format Market
When the prefix plates ran out in 2000, a new type of mark was invented with the 2 area identifiers at the front plus 2 numbers followed by 3 random letters. The format is a bit unwieldy, but it is possible to make words or names given a bit of imagination.
For example, RU55 ELL, LU51 OUS, AM02 OUS, TO02 FAR, MU52 PHY... now over to you.
Finally, you can't flash your building society book at people, but your special number plate makes a statement about you, while increasing in value at the same time.
IF YOU'VE GOT IT - FLAUNT IT!!
If this is your first venture into buying a Number plate for investment then we would like to put your mind at ease. The whole ethos behind our business is customer satisfaction and that's why we have gone to the trouble and expense of becoming registered to BSI Quality Mark. For this reason, we are not allowed to make up our testimonials, as we have to account to British Standards for their authenticity. We are inspected annually by a BSI inspector and you can be assured that we will put the same care into carrying out your transfer as for all our other thousands of satisfied customers over the last quarter of a century.
