Private Registration Plates - Find Out How Private Plates Are Valued

These days many motorists enjoy adding accessories to their vehicles, and private registrations are the icing on the cake for many vehicle owners, with the last ten years seeing a huge growth in this industry. Personalised private plates extend their vehicles, giving them a distinctive quality. The beauty about unique registrations is that they give people individuality on the roads.

Currently there are over 76 million personal number plates actually available, with prices ranging from about £100 to tens of thousands and in some cases, over £100k. Therefore, there are private registrations affordable for almost everyone.

Valuing private registration plates correctly takes knowledge and experience of number plate dealers, and there is a whole range of factors that determine the market value of a personal plate.

Generally, the age and novelty of a number plate are the principal factors governing its value. Older plates tend to command a higher price and also tend to be rarer since there are less of them. Fewer numeric digits in a registration plate also drive the value up, with 1's being the most sought after and therefore the most expensive.

The popularity of initials also has a bearing on the value of private registration plates. The more popular the initials, the higher the registration will be priced at. The most valuable are the shortest, dateless registrations with one number and one letter - for example, A 1.

Cherished registrations representing words are also valued highly - for example, W4 TER and AR53 NAL. Since these plates are very appealing, and given the fact that not many variations on the words exist, the age makes less of a difference.

There is no sign yet of the private plate market declining, with sales increasing on an annual basis. It seems that the British public's fascination with these novelty pieces is on the rise. Understandably, given the yearly increase in prices, many investors attempt to capitalise on this exciting market as alternative opportunities to housing and stocks and shares.