2008-11-04 09:33:32 - Results from the first sealed bid sale of private number plates by the DVLA

The first sealed bid sale of private number plates held by the DVLA came to it's conclusion on 31st October 2008. 1500 registration numbers had been offerred for sale and bidders were invited to register and make their bids via the agency's website. Reserves were set for each number although these did not seem to be excessive. Results for this

first sale will no doubt be scrutinised and analysed before the experiment is repeated. There was both good news and bad at the end of the sale with the sale raising over £840,000 in bids and when you add vat and the transfer fees to this the total raised for the government will be nearer £1 million. The bad news was that over 460 numbers went unsold, nearly 30% of the total although when the list of numbers is examined it must be wondered why some of the unsolf numbers were on offer. Top bid was for 250 SWB which brought £51520, a surprising amount for that registration number. Most prices were closer to retail values than trade prices and there were few bargains. It remains to be seen whether the exercise will be repeated.