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DJ: “Well it’s only twelve months old, it carries the name STOKE and it’s already worth thousands of pounds. I wouldn’t mind that private number – ‘S7 OKE’. It could be the new number plate on your car if you’re prepared to pay for it. Just how much is it worth and why? Well let’s find out, cos Len Stout, whose from Regtransfers – the company which is selling the registration, is on the phone now.”

DJ: “Hello.”

Len: “Good Evening.”

DJ: “Thanks for coming on. So come on, how much would it cost me then for ‘S7 OKE’?”

Len: “You have to take a deep breath cos it’s going to cost you at least £25,000.”

DJ: “Twenty five grand!”

Len: “Sounds lots of money, doesn’t it?”

DJ: “Phwwwahhh. And it really .. I mean I saw this in the paper and it really does look like the word STOKE, doesn’t it?”

Len: “It is the absolute spelling of STOKE in number plate terms.”

DJ: “Yeah. This is the official one is it. Have you had any takers?”

Len: “We’ve had several offers, but none of them seem to want to come near the asking price at the present time. We haven’t had it that long, so we’ll bide our time. There is always someone out there for a top quality number plate, such as this.”

DJ: “Well .. what kind of figures are we talking about – the people who have come forward already? How close are they?”

Len: “Less than £20,000.”

DJ: “Well how much less than £20,000?”

Len: “Two or three thousand.”

DJ: “Two or three thousand less than..”

Len: “There is always an element of negotiation with registrations like this, but we’ve got to get somewhere near. With such a quality plate and it is the ultimate STOKE plate and in the number plate business when you have the ultimate plate, it does actually command the best price. Very much like paintings in a way. The perfect painting by a well known artist is always worth a lot more than perhaps something a little more lesser known, but looks equally as good.”

DJ: “So if someone phoned up tonight and offered you £20,000, you might think about it?”

Len: “We’d go away, have a chat, confer, see if there was enough leeway in it and then come back to them. It wouldn’t be the ideal offer obviously, but we do consider some.”

DJ: “I mean do you know where the interest is coming from? Is it from people in this area?”

Len: “We would have had some interest from STOKE, but it is a reasonably common name as well, that we would have had other enquiries from throughout the country. The good thing about STOKE is that it’s not only a place, it’s someone’s name, it’s a football club and a lot of people also look at registrations like this for investment purposes as well.”

DJ: “Yeah, well how much do they go up by then? I mean, let’s face it, if you’re spending £25,000, it’s going to have to appreciate a bit more than that to make some money”

Len: “I wouldn’t give you an exact figure, but what I would say is that in our experience anybody that buys top quality plates such as this, will always maintain it’s value and invariably over a period of time, appreciate in value. This is one of the strange things about the number plate business, when you buy quality, it’s always worth good money.”

DJ: “How often, I mean how long will you keep hold of this at that price then, if it doesn’t get the offers that you’re looking for?”

Len: “Well, we’ll sort to have to face that when we come to it, but we will hang onto it for as long as we think we need to. When you invest in purchasing in the first instance, it’s money that needs to be turned into a profit to maintain our business and as the biggest dealer in the country, we need to do that. But we’ll hang on for quite some time. We’ll bide our time till the right person comes along.”

DJ: “All right, so presumably you’re the only company that has this number plate?”

Len: “Yes. We actually specialize in buying all the top quality names.”

DJ: “So you basically think of the names and go off searching for them, buy them for – I don’t know how much this one cost you, then you make a huge profit on them.”

Len: “Even I don’t know. Funny enough with a lot of these, we don’t actually make huge profits. We have to rely very often on good turnover on lots of other registrations.”

DJ: “So it’s got to make it’s money then, has it, for you too..?”

Len: “Yeah we have to make our money on it, because I mean when we invest so much in advertising and promoting ourselves throughout newspapers, the internet and magazines that every business – because they need to make a profit. They wouldn’t exist otherwise, would they?”

DJ: “Well I mean, you will let us know that if someone listening to this now gives you a call and offers you the money.”

Len: “We would definitely let you know, yes. We’ll send you a bottle of champagne.”

DJ: “Please yeah, well there you go – a bottle of champagne on the way because there is nobody here that can afford it. Certainly I can’t.”

Len: “One of the other strange things is, because you’re in the potteries aren’t you?”

DJ: “We are indeed, yes.”

Len: “We’ve actually got POTTER.”

DJ: “Don’t get me going! Don’t get me going!”

Len: “We have and we have HANLEY which I believe is an extremely well known ..”

DJ: “That’s where I’m sitting. Now I’m in HANLEY now.”

Len: “Exactly, we’ve got that as well, you see.”

DJ: “Don’t start me off – how much are they?”

Len: “HANLEY is again £25,000 because it is the ultimate version of HANLEY with regards to registrations, POTTER is only £15,000 - For POTTER fans”

DJ: “Oh, only – a snip!”

Len: “I know it sounds a lot of money when you think about it, but if you know the business and understand how they are priced, you can then put it into context.”

DJ: “So if anyone listening to this is feeling flush, what do they do if they’re interested in making you an offer then?”

Len: “Well all they got to do – they can either first of all go to our website, Regtransfers.co.uk, just check on any of them – there is thousands, even millions there.”

DJ: “Easier than that, can they just give you a phone call?”

Len: “Or they can call us on, phone number – would you mind me mentioning that?”

DJ: “No, give it to us now then.”

Len: “It’s 01582 477333.”

DJ: “Let us know, won’t you?”

Len: “And the good thing about that is we are now here 24 hours a day.”

DJ: “So they can call you… “

Len: “Day or night.”