Four car registrations sell for more than £68,000 at auction

Four car registrations with a starting price of between £200 and £300 have ended up being sold for a combined £68,324 as buyers sought the unique plates.

Analysis of the DVLA’s recent September auction by specialists Regtransfers found that the plates which commanded the highest prices often included ‘recognisable words, phrases or references’.

It’s why headline lot H80 RSE – which can be read as ‘Horse’ – fetched £17,644 despite its initial £200 estimate, while MAF 71A, resembling ‘Mafia’ ended at £16,778 from its £300 starting price.

A Ferrari fan was likely in the audience when P15 STA fetched £17,396 from its £200 starting price, with the plate seeming to read ‘Pista’ – a reference to the Italian brand’s iconic 488 Pista supercar.

A final plate, ‘533 YAA’, which can be perceived as ‘See Yaa’ reached £16,506 from its £250 starting price, with the four registrations collectively achieving almost 72 times their combined starting prices.

Mark Trimbee, CEO of private registration specialist Regtransfers, said: “Buyers will pay a serious premium for a registration with personality, and though we’d be guessing at best, we imagine that the new owner of H80 RSE is most likely an equestrian enthusiast to at least some degree.”

Another plate – ‘242 A’ – was the one which reached the highest price of the whole auction when it sold for £42,116, nearly 17 times its £2,500 starting price.

Of the 2,000 registration plates included in the sale, 1,980 found buyers and generated £6.76 million in total.

Trimbee added: “A 99% sell-through rate is a strong result by any measure, and £6.76 million from a single sale shows there’s real depth of demand in this market right now, not just at the very top end. For anyone sitting on a registration and wondering whether now is a good time to sell, results like this are a fairly clear signal.”