Number Plate 1 D Sells for £352,411.25

March 26, 2009 - PRLog -- The British car registration number 1 D sold for £352,411.25 to Lebanese property developer Nabil Bishara who bought the plate as a birthday present for his wife, at an auction held by the DVLA on 25th March 2009, reports private number plates specialist Regtransfers.co.uk. The sale, which took place at Ardencote Manor Hotel and Country Club, Claverdon, Warwick was the latest in a regular series of sales organised by the agency that regulates UK vehicle number plates.

Lot 280, 1 D, was the star attraction at the event. With a reserve of £20,000 - the highest ever set at a DVLA auction - it was clear that a good sale price was expected. The £285,000 winning bid does not represent the real full cost to the number's new owner, however. With fees and taxes, 1 D's total cost will be £352,411.25, a sum that puts it at number 2 in the table of the UK's most expensive private number plates ever.

Another lot attracting significant attention at the three-day auction is 2 O, the second in the 'O' series of numbers that DVLA is releasing gradually throughout the year. 2 O will be sold on 27th March, the last day of the event. The first number in the 'O' series, 1 O, sold for a total cost of £210,242 in January of this year. Some commentators have speculated that the new owner of 1 O may also show an interest in 2 O.

A Regtransfers.co.uk spokesman said, "The high end of the private plates market is still very, very active and evidently people are still willing to pay whatever they must in order to secure these very exclusive numbers. These sales are always exciting."

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Information for editors:

Photographs and video clips from the auction are available from Regtransfers.co.uk. Contact Rick Cadger on 01582 470089 or email rick@regtransfers.co.uk

The following is a list of the 15 highest prices ever paid for UK private number plates.

F 1 ------ £440,625 Jan-08
1 D ----- £352,411 - 25th March 2009
M 1 ------ £331,500 - Jun-06
VIP 1 ---- £285,000 - Jan-06
GS 1 ----- £258,775 - Jul-05
51 NGH --- £254,000 - Apr-06
1 RH ----- £247,952 - Nov-08
K1 NGS --- £231,000 - Dec-93
1 O ------ £210,242 - Jan-09
1 OO ----- £197,000 - Apr-06
1 A ------ £160,000 - Dec-89
1 HRH ---- £113,815 - Jan-09
MR51 NGH - £101,050 - Apr-06
3 S ------ £94,035 - Jan-09
S1 NGH --- £86,000 - Nov-98
RU55 ELL - £79,314 - Apr-06

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About Regtransfers.co.uk: Regtransfers was established in 1982 and has since grown into a dynamic company employing more than 90 people. Not only was Regtransfers one of the first independent cherished registration specialist companies formed in the UK, it is now the largest, both in terms of the number of employees and of its unrivalled stock of exclusive, top quality registrations.
Regtransfers is the publisher of Regtransfers.co.uk: The World of Personal Number Plates, the UK’s only FREE, full colour, professional magazine for the personal number plates industry and enthusiasts. Each issue of our magazine features celebrity interviews and a range of number plates articles and information. It also includes categorised listings of the best personal number plates currently available in the UK. The magazine’s quality and appeal is reflected in the demand it generates: circulation is currently 80,000 per issue.