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How much for a licence plate? Dubai Charity auction fetches unbelievable new record.
HOW MUCH FOR A LICENCE PLATE? DUBAI CHARITY AUCTION FETCHES UNBELIEVABLE NEW RECORD.
It’s hard to imagine, but the world of personalised car registration/number/licence plates is actually a very big money maker. I mean let’s be honest, it’s 100% a vanity thing, when you add a plate to your car that’s not a simple system-generated, you’re telling people you’re different to the masses. Some plates are based on names or nicknames, many are based on the bar make or model and some are linked to well-known brands. Some countries allow complete words on licence plates while others will only allow a combination of letters and numbers so owners need to be creative making some letters or numerals phonetic so that the desired word may look like a jumble, but saying it out loud will reveal a word. In the United Kingdom and the UAE, the fewer numbers the better, or should we say, the more valuable. Actually, make that ridiculously, insanely valuable. The right combination of letters can raise enough money to feed millions of people, and that’s what the recent charity event in Dubai was all about.
This particular SXdrv writer has a personalised plate on his car, purchased around 15 years ago for the princely sum of R2500, or about AED590 and in that time it’s value has only increased to the current price of purchase for a personalised plate, which isn’t much more at all. The wife’s car has a simple 3-letter personalised plate that is actually worth more than ten times the initial purchase price but she’s not selling, although she’s been approached by a few Jaguar owners who want a cat on their car. In Dubai an auction was recently held to raise money for charity, the aim being to feed one billion people, which sounds nigh on impossible, yet looking at the money spent it’s highly likely that empty tummies will be fed a billion times and more. In the UAE, single-digit licence plates are the most sought after, and the lower the number, the higher the value. At this Dubai charity auction there were four registration plates up for sale, Y66, V66, F55 and AA8. The letters are located to the left of the plate and so the main display on the plate you’d see on the car would be the number so AA8 displays more like a plain 8.
When the auction kicked off, it was clear that big numbers would be thrown around, but they play on a whole other level in Dubai. The plate Y66 pulled in AED3.8 million, or a cool R16,2 million ($1,03 mil), and the plates V66 and F55 raked in AED4 million R17,05 million ($1,08 mil) a piece. The AA8, which would be the rare and special single digit display plate, pulled in an absolutely mind-blowing AED35 000 000. That’s THIRTY FIVE MILLION. In local currency we’re looking at just R149 191 729, or $9 529 254. Yup, over nine million US dollars for a licence plate. It’s highly likely that the plate will always be worth more than any car in the world. Well, of the current cars we have. It may see fitment to an electric hypercar of equal value far, far in the future.
The auction was called The Most Noble Numbers charity auction and it was set up by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, with the aim to raise money to provide food to needy people across 50 countries through the One Billion Meals campaign. We think it may just happen because the auction managed to raise an amazing $14.4 million in less than two hours. These are some mighty impressive numbers, but this mad money only put the AA8 plate into 3rd place on the most expensive number plates list. Runner up is the plate MM in California that fetched $18.1 million, or a mere R283 765 465. Top spot is reserved for the plate F1 in the UK, that’s currently valued at $45.72 million, or a whopping R7 167 82 158.00. Yes, that’s seven hundred million.
Take a look at the short YouTube video showing the auction of the world’s most expensive car number plate auction to raise money for charity, held in Dubai below: Most expensive car number plate auction in Dubai | Facts In Focus
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