Feeling the Pinch After This Year's Big Spend?
Might your number plate provide a solution?
If you own a vehicle, have you ever considered that its number plate might be personalisable to a third-party buyer? If not, now might be a good time to look into your registration's value. It's something many people have never previously thought about, but it could provide you with a source of cash without the need to part with a possession you need.
IS A NUMBER PLATE REALLY WORTH A SUM OF MONEY?
The good news is that it's very easy indeed to find out, and it won't cost you a penny. Some sellers are surprised by the amount they're able to get for their plate on the private market. A number plate's value depends on a wide array of factors. But if you'd like to know what sort of figure you could get, it's both straightforward and free to get a professional valuation. We'll come to that in a moment.
BUT I DIDN'T BUY MY REGISTRATION. CAN I STILL SELL IT IF IT'S NOT "PRIVATE"
Let's first answer the question of what people mean when they refer to a "private" number plate.
The official source of number plates is the DVLA - the governing body of motor-licensing - which issues free "default" registrations to new vehicles every year, and additionally sells some registrations. When a registration is obtained directly through this official source, it's not considered to be private.
"Private" plates were at some point subject to official issue too. The difference with them is that they've since been removed from the vehicle to which they were originally assigned, and then re-sold on the private market.
Which means that originally, there was a period during which even the most desirable plates on the market were not private. The great majority of plates were not "born" private. So the fact that a plate has been on a vehicle from new does not, in itself, matter.
HOW DOES THE PRIVATE MARKET WORK?
There are different channels of trading number plates on the private market. The transaction can be conducted peer to peer - literally one private individual selling directly to another, albeit with the express consent of the DVLA. Alternatively, the sale can be passed through a private dealer, who essentially acts as an agent, and guarantees the transaction so that the buyer always gets the registration and the seller always gets the money. This is the safest way for a seller to sell.
The private plate market is naturally popular with sellers, because it provides them with enormous scope for selling their registration. However, it's also enormously popular with buyers, because the range of plates available is vast, there are some serious bargains to be found, and the private market accesses the most prestigious number plates from years gone by. We recently looked at the competitive edge that the private market has over direct purchase of a new plate through the DVLA.
So buyers are always looking closely at the private market, into which your registration, if you were selling, would be placed.
In the private market, a dealer may act as a third-party broker, sitting in between two private individuals: one buyer and one seller. Or alternatively, a dealer can actually purchase registrations into its own stock, and then sell them to the public as a retailer. We do both. And whilst we can only buy into stock a minority of the plates we're offered, we can act as a selling agent with almost any plate submitted to us.
The takeaway?
The person who decides whether or not your registration plate enters the private market, is, to a large extent, you.
And whilst there are some legislative procedures to observe in the selling process, a dealer acting as an agent, on your behalf, can handle all of that for you. In short, you fill in a very short form, and someone else takes care of the evaluation, marketing and selling for you. Best of all, because the commission is charged to the buyer, you don't need to worry about seller's fees. Even the professional valuation is packaged into the free service.
"IS THERE A PRELIMINARY CHECK I CAN DO TO DETERMINE WHETHER MY PLATE IS WORTH ANYTHING?"
There are certainly some factors you can look at.
If your vehicle is brand new or recent, and you've owned it from its birth, it's unlikely that the plate will be worth a mint. That's because the DVLA, who will have issued the original registration, has high awareness of the number plate market, and will aim to avoid allocating registrations with significant personalisation potential to vehicles by default. That makes total sense. If it's obvious that someone is prepared to pay, why give it away for free?
However, if you've bought a secondhand vehicle, the chances of its plate having value open up somewhat.
Firstly, a previous owner may, themselves, have fitted a private registration and not removed it before selling the vehicle. If that's the case, you could be sitting on a paycheque, and it would certainly be worth submitting the registration for a free valuation if you could do with some ready cash.
Secondly, depending on how old the vehicle is, even the original registration could be of interest to a third party. If a character set in the number plate looks as if it could match someone's initials - for example JLM or RTP - once again, it could be advisable to have the plate professionally appraised.
"IF MY PLATE TURNS OUT TO HAVE VALUE, HOW EASY WILL IT BE TO SELL?"
A multi-package dealer service, like the Sell a Plate package available to sellers for free through NetPlates, is just about as easy as it can get. Although it may not always be the quickest way to sell, there's no proactive effort required beyond the initial request - which takes about a minute to complete and send. After that, you can relax while everything is done for you. Here's a realistic summary of what happens:
- In a typical timeframe of 3 to 5 working days, you'll receive a free valuation, which will provide an accurate sense of the plate's market value. After processing, the valuation will be emailed to you. The free valuation comes as part of the free Sell a Plate service. It's properly market-researched, but it's purely a piece of information, and it's not in any way expedited. If you're looking for an express valuation, you can get one within 24 working hours, accompanied by a full valuation certificate, signed by one of NetPlates' senior pricing experts. The premium service costs £25 plus VAT.
- Assuming you've taken the standard free route and you're seeking to sell, you'll find in your valuation email a "Sell My Plate" button. When you click this button, you'll generate a confirmation email, signalling your intention to market and potentailly sell the registration. You won't be committing to anything. You're just saying you'd like your plate to be marketed.
- Your registration is syndicated to the search results across a network of prominent dealers' sites. These facilities are extensively used by potential buyers of number plates to find their ideal match. On NetPlates' site alone, there are thousands of plate searches per day, and NetPlates is only one of the participating retailers. NetPlates' search algorithms are sophisticated in their ability to match. For example, if you were selling MA12 CEY, anyone searching the name Macey would see your plate as a top match. If you were selling PA02 ULO, the algorithm would priority-match it to "Paulo". Searchers can, if they wish, use asterisks as wildcards, and this opens up the possible matches further.
- When interest is expressed in your plate, you'll be notified. You can approve or decline any deal offered.
- If you approve a deal, the sales process will be handled for you. You'll be kept informed regarding any information or documentation required from you.
- You receive the full amount of payment agreed. The buyer pays the commission, so if your registration is on retention, there won't be any deductions. Only if the registration needed to be removed from your vehicle before sale would there be a deduction - in which case you'd receive the agreed payment amount minus the £80 DVLA transfer fee.
WHAT ARE THE TOTAL COSTS INVOLVED IN SELLING A REGISTRATION?
NetPlates will not charge you to sell a number plate. However, in order for a sale to progress, your registration would need to be removed from your vehicle. If you haven't already done this, and placed the registration on retention, there is a fee, payable to the DVLA. But you have a choice as to how you go about it.
What many sellers do is leave the registration on the vehicle until a sale is confimred. This ensures that you don't have to pay anything unless the plate sells. Once a sale is confirmed, the easiest option is simply to let the dealer - NetPlates - remove the reg for you. The £80 removal fee is then passed directly from NetPlates to the DVLA, and deducted from your return price. So if your registration was selling to return you £990, you'd receive a payment of £910.
Alternatively, you could choose to process the removal of the plate yourself, directly with the DVLA. You'd then pay the DVLA the £80, and upon sale you'd receive the full agreed payment from NetPlates.
"WHAT HAPPENS IF I LIST A PLATE FOR SALE AND CHANGE MY MIND?"
This happens, and it's absolutely fine. We ask that you please let us know if you do change your mind. That way, we can remove your plate from sale and save you the bother of our team contacting you with expressions of further interest. One of the easiest ways to let us know about any changes is via our on-site chat facility, which is staffed by humans from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. We can normally process your request and confirm on the spot, without any extra steps. You can also let us know about changes by email or by phone.
"I'D BE PROVIDING MY EMAIL ADDRESS. WOULD I RECEIVE SPAM?"
When you make a valuation/sell-a-plate request, we ask for the absolute minimum amount of information that we can realistically use to operate the service. That is, your registration, your name, your phone number, and an email address. Unless you specifically click the tick box to subscribe to our newsletter, we very strictly will not use your contact details for any correspondence that does not relate to the sale of your registration.
"HOW LONG DOES IT NORMALLY TAKE TO SELL A REGISTRATION USING THE FREE SERVICE DESCRIBED ABOVE?"
Unfortunately, this is impossible to accurately predict. Ultimately, the system is search-based, which subjects each plate to the factors of both visibility and comparison. That is, how visible is your plate in the search results? And how does it compare with other plates in the same block of results?
Some types of plate have little competition within their most obvious search term. These plates have a much better chance of attracting rapid interest, because they're very visible, and they don't have a great deal of competition. Other plates can be battling hard for attention.
There are, however, some things you can do to help speed up the sale of your plate:
- Be realistic about the price. When you submit a registration to the service, it's possible to select a price range, or even to specify an exact custom asking price. If you're not sure of the plate's value, the simplest option is to select "I don't know" when the form asks how much you're looking for. Most often, the team will be happy to list at the return price you specify. But if the amount is above the market value, it could mean that the registration takes a long time to sell. You can change the price later, but we recommend, in a case where you're not sure how much to ask, that you select "I don't know" on the request form, and then let the pricing experts set a return price. You'll still have the chance to accept it. And even then you're not committing to anything. If you receive an offer for that amount, you're still under no obligation.
- Keep an eye on your plate's progress. Because of the way search results spread to websearch resources and become more visible over time, we recommend allowing about six months to see if your plate begins to attract interest at its original price. If, after that period, you've had no expressions of interest, perhaps consider reducing your asking price by a modest amount. A modest reduction can make a big difference, because it changes the dynamics of comparison within the search results, and can also change the position of registration in the listings, making it more visible.
- Consider making the registration more visible still. The staple Sell a Plate service is entirely free to the seller. But some sellers use a premium addition to the service, which promotes the registration to the biggest UK number plate Facebook group in existence. With well over a quarter of a million members, the group is extremely busy, and everything is taken care of for you. Professional crafting of the promotion, publication with trusted branding, provision of the secure checkout, etc. You don't need a Facebook account, and your personal data is never submitted to Facebook. At the time of writing, the premium promotion is priced at a one-off payment of £25 plus VAT, and the promo remains in the group indefinitely. We'll only remove it when the plate sells or if you ask for it to be removed.
WHAT DO I DO AFTER I'VE SOLD MY PLATE? DO I HAVE TO BUY ANOTHER ONE?
No. If you remove a registration from your vehicle and you don't have a private plate to allocate, the DVLA will automatically assign a default replacement. This doesn't incur a cost.
NOTHING TO LOSE
So you really don't have anything to lose. There's no gamble when you use NetPlates as an agent. There would never be a necessity to speculatively forward any money. The £80 DVLA fee can simply be deducted from your proceeds. And of course, if you didn't have a buyer who would pay more than the £80, you wouldn't sell the plate.
Let's finish with a handy button which will take you straight to the submission form. Curious as to what your number plate is worth? Our team are waiting to deliver you that news: