DVLA auction, February 2023

The second DVLA auction of 2023 took place at The Cambridge Belfry, Cambourne, Cambridge from Wednesday 22nd February to Friday 24th February. This was a live auction event.

The good

The highest price at this most recent sale was the £75,194 paid for 46 O.

That makes three auctions in a row that have shown an 'O' registration as top performer. In January, 42 O was sold for an all-in price of £124,204, while 66 O commanded the highest price in November 2022 when it sold for £81,113.

There were quite a few good representations of names, words and football teams: AR23 NAL (£12,920), EV22 TON (£4,446), JV51 NGH (£8,041), ST21 KER (£3,162), LU66 AGE (£6,500), 8 UCK (£16,130), A55 LAM (£15,488) and quite a few more all got their message across at a glance. Some of them seem to have been pretty solid bargains.

Other names commanded fairly high prices despite not being quite as visually obvious, including 153 NGH (£19,982) and HA71 LEY (£10,737).

The intriguing

As always, there were several that made one wonder at the purchaser's intentions and others that seemed likely to have some significance but which defied our guesswork and speculation. For example, ATM 80Y (£7,142) could refer to someone who is a big fan of automated teller machines. It could also be the choice of an aspiring superhero named Atom Boy who has yet to get the hang of keeping his secret identity secret...

UP70 BED (£6,500) was obviously purchased by some poor, overworked soul who wants nothing more than a nice lie-down. Or perhaps not. THE 904T (£26,017) is another interesting one to speculate about. On balance, we suspect this may simply have been bought by someone with a penchant for metaphor and a high opinion of themselves. As actual goats don't drive, we can't think of a reason to reference one on a number plate.

The bad and the ugly?

B16 BUM (£8,169) was a cheeky one that raises a few questions. Presumably, someone either intends to display this on their own vehicle or expects someone else to display it on theirs. We foresee interesting conversations in the purchaser's future.

We saw another "devil" plate at this latest sale: DEV 111L sold for £15,873. This latest infernal offering lags some way behind DEV 11L, which achieved an all-in total of £37,573 at the auction in October 2022. Still, it's a visually effective plate which conveys its meaning at a glance.

CHO 5T was apparently chosen to represent the word "ghost". Although the resemblance isn't perfect, it still achieved a respectable £8,683.

A brief comeback

We must also mention that the resumption of DVLA's live auction events after the hiatus instigated by Covid-19 looks likely to be a short-lived affair. The DVLA plans to hold two more live venue auctions before returning to online events as a permanent arrangement. Advances in technology as well as economic and logistic considerations mean that this has been on the cards for a while.

Many people will miss the live events. For regular attendees they have been an opportunity to catch up with people rarely seen but with an increasing proportion of bids coming from parties who are not physically present, there is little actual need for people to travel a long way to compete for the numbers they desire.

* Prices include fees and taxes.

The penultimate DVLA live venue auction will be held in Chesterfield in June. Meanwhile, DVLA's next sale will be an online timed auction running from Wednesday 29th March until Tuesday 4th April 2023.

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