Investment Number Plates And What To Buy

Most of us would not want to be seen draped in large amounts of gold jewelery but in the same breath, it must be said, after watching its resent price rally during the course of the financial down turn, a lot of us may now wish we had sold our homes and bought a few kilos of the stuff, instead.

Whilst the price of gold may now have settled down a little, the long term investor will know that, as a rule, gold will hold its value with inflation. He will also be aware, however, that any profit is subject to Capital Gains Tax.

To a lot of people, displaying a personalized number plate on a vehicle carries the same stigma as wearing excessive amounts of gold. This is an understandable point of view but one which, I think, may obscure peoples awareness of the fact that owning a personalized plate does not mean you have to wear it. It can be held on a retainer (V750 Certificate of Entitlement) at a cost of 25 pounds a year. Another interesting point is that, whilst the value of a personalized number plate will move up with inflation, unlike gold it is not subject to C.G.T. if it is bought privately. (At the time of writing this article, at least).




Obviously, there can be no standardized price for private registrations, as there is with gold, because each one of them is unique which means some will be more desirable than others. This may be off putting to a lot of potential investment buyers as they would be unsure if they were paying the right price for a registration. In reality, though, a market without standardization is the right place to look for a bargain. You just need to know where and what to look for.


Where to Buy

The most important point to remember is; Do NOT buy a registration from an after market dealer. Every dealer will have marked up the price of the number plates they are trying to sell, and if the one you happen to be interested in is being resold for a private owner then, of course, it will have been marked up twice.

So, ideally you should buy a previously unused registration as there will be no previous owner trying to make a profit on it, and also you should be buying from the same place as the dealers, themselves. Unused registrations are only supplied by the D.V.L.A., via their website or at auction.


What to buy

Though each number plate is unique there are a few guide lines that you can use when researching your purchase.

Vehicle registrations were introduced in 1903 starting with A1 and, due to the ever increasing number of vehicles on our roads, have had many different incarnations up to the eight digit registrations of the present day. As a rule, the older, the shorter and the lower the number on the registration, the more valuable it will be.

If you have upward of five thousand pounds to spend then I would suggest you buy a plate beginning or ending in one (e.g.; 1 R.M.L. / R.M.L. 1) as, historically, these have always been the most desirable. As I said before, the best prices will be from the source so you should look out for auction dates on the D.V.L.A. website if you decide you want to buy one of these earlier number plates. A good way to compare prices is to look at the prices achieved by number plates of the type you are interested in, from the last auction, and see what similar ones are going for on the dealer websites.

Whilst a registration that spells out a name is usually a good choice, a random word is often a better one, as it will have a broader appeal should you ever wish to sell it. With this type of number plate the age and length rules do still apply but to a much lesser extent. E5SAY is almost twenty years old with just five characters whereas UP51ART is only eight years old with seven characters but, as you can see, there is an obvious desirability factor to be considered. (The more desirable your number plate, the more valuable it will be at resale.)

If you decide on a word plate rather than your initials then you may want to consider two word plates as well (e.g. FR06 BOX). These plates are generally cheaper than single word plates but, again, the desirability factor plays a large part in the value.



If the sums of money discussed above seem a little high then the best place to look is the D.V.L.A. open sales website. There are a huge amount of bargains to be found here, in fact two of the plates mentioned in this article came from this site at prices that may surprise you (UP51ART was 799 pounds and FR06 BOX was 399 pounds).

The D.V.L.A. do try to price the number plates they are selling according to their market values but with an average of 30 million registrations on their website at any one time and around seven million new ones being added biannually, they inevitably miss, and so under value, thousands of them.

If you can find these plates then you will have found the best value registrations that it is possible to buy because, in doing so, you will have by passed the number plate dealers, the previous owners and the in house price scrutinizers at the D.V.L.A.

No matter which route you take, remember, there are millions of personalized number plates out there so do not rush your choice and try not to follow the herd. Just keep in mind all those worthless B.M.W. number plates that are littering our scrap yards already.

Reg

Twitter Suspension And Why It Does Not Work

When Twitter asks; “What are you doing?”
Be very carefully how you answer.





Hands up, everyone who has a Twitter Account!

Now, put your hand down again, if you have ever used Twitter to plug your line of work. (Be honest!)

Lastly, put your hand down if you have NOT read all the rules. (Again, be honest.)

Obviously this is a hypothetical scenario but my guess is, if you were to put these questions to a thousand Twitter users, by the time you had finished there would be very few hands remaining. Unfortunately, according to the rules of Twitter, this would mean you had a room full of spammers.

Before we go any further I should state that I did use Twitter until a few days ago when my account was suspended for spamming. I opened it to be greeted with this message;

"This account is currently suspended and is being investigated due to strange activity. If we have suspended your account mistakenly, please let us know. See Suspended Accounts for more information."

Assuming this to be an easily fixable error, I looked into it further until I came to this message;

"Your account was suspended for cross-posting duplicate tweets across multiple accounts, a violation of our terms of service and the Twitter Rules that we take very seriously. Your account will remain suspended for a minimum of one week; you may petition for reinstatement on or after August 17, 2009."

An obvious and blatant spamming tactic on my part, you may think, but the simple truth is; I only ever had one account. As frustrating as this situation may be for me, personally, it is nothing compared to the frustrations of Twitter, itself.

I have to admit that, according to the rules of twitter (which I have now read), I was not whiter than white when using it. In my short time as an account holder I came to the conclusion that most users (the ones that I was interested in following, at least) were tweeting, either from or about their work, personally posting links and pictures on their page that they believed their followers would be interested in. I followed suit believing this to be a good use of twitter as generally speaking, our work is what people would be most interested in. If Stephen Fry, for example, were to talk about the weather or the lovely cup of tea he was drinking (being extra careful not to mention the company who manufactured it) who would be interested? We want to know about his work because that is what is interesting about him. As for the rest of us mortals, because our jobs may not be as interesting to most as Mr. Fry’s, we look for people in a similar line of work to ourselves to banter with and share information. If we are not to discuss what we do, how are we to find these people?

This could prove a difficult area for Twitter to police. Once you have read the rules on spamming, in particular, you realize that, if all of them were to be upheld to the letter, they would have very few users left indeed.

There is talk of Twitter Business, a service that will allow people to advertize what they do without fear of persecution. But will anyone use this as a social network? More likely, people will only use it if they are looking for a specific service. So, a search engine, then, which only allows the advertiser 140 characters to explain what they do in order to sell their wares. This will leave the advertiser with only one real option; to put up links to somewhere else where he can go into more detail about his product or service. The links would, more than likely, be to a website... Which has to beg the question; Why not cut out the middle man and just use a search engine instead?

This is probably the conclusion most people (and most spammers, for that matter) will come to once the hype dies down a little so lets hope that it is not the way Twitter plans to monetize itself or it will probably have a lot of disappointed paying advertisers on its hands.

So, if Twitter Business doesn’t seem likely to be viable in the long term, we are left with, plain old, Twitter; a social network where people are not allowed to publicize what they do for fear of being suspended.

It does go without saying that none of us enjoy receiving spam and that Twitter has to do something to prevent it, lest people will stop using the service. But, if it is to be trusted by its users, it cannot be suspending them for cross posting duplicate tweets across multiple accounts without first checking that these users are actually guilty of the infringement. If they continue to do so then the current suspension policy will ultimately achieve the opposite of its objective.

Though my Twitter account has now been reinstated, I now cannot escape the feeling that trying to rebuild my social network would be, at best, humiliating and at worst, just pointless, knowing, as I do, that Twitter could close it at any moment due to circumstances that are neither my fault nor within my control (if they actually exist in the first place). And so it is for these reasons, I will probably not use my account as much as used to and would certainly not have opened a new one had the original not been reinstated as I (and, I suspect, my erstwhile followers) would have seen this as an admission of guilt.

Much more importantly for Twitter, however; if I were a dyed-in-the-wool spammer, do you think the suspension of one account would offend so badly as to deter me from opening new ones? I would imagine that a real spammer would be back the very day after his first suspension with a virulent vengeance.

In short; the wrongfully convicted may never return whilst the genuine spammer will simply grow two new heads for each one that is severed.



Reg

E2 REG (Why Didn't I Think of That!)

I've just discovered E2 REG on my Twitter travels.
A very different service to Regfinder.net but probably just as good at what it does.
You sign up and register your private plates on their data base along with the price you want for them and potential buyers email you directly with offers....
And - so far as I can see - its absolutely bloody free...!
Good work people.

Reg.

Mad as a box of Frogs...?

Just showing off now but I found this on Reg the other day for £400 and had to buy.
Needs to go on a Lambo really or some other nutter bastard sports car..
(Or maybe a 'Power Ranger' type motor bike?)

Reg

Ha Ha Ha.....!

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

I'm not havin' that...!

UP51DES for £1565.....!

Attention all!
The DVLA have just released 5644 straggler plates from the range below.

51BYL
DAN
51DAN
51DAR
51DAT
51DEK
51DER
51DES
51EEK
51EVE (STEVE?)
51GMA
51GNS

'UP51DES' is still available if one of you is quick...!
As for the rest of you?
Spend a bloody tenner on Regfinder.net and you'll find thousands more words like this. (tight gits!)

Reg

How To Fit New Number Plates To Your Vehicle

You don't have to be a mechanic to replace the number plates on your vehicle. Whether you are fitting new ones or replacing broken, lost or stolen ones, this article will guard you through the process from start to finish.

There will usually be just two scenarios where you find yourself needing to change a number plate on a vehicle. Firstly, exchanging an existing one and secondly, replacing a broken, lost or stolen one. In either case you will need very few tools and very little technical expertise.

Before you start keep in mind that the front number plate is the white one and the yellow one goes on the back (That sounds obvious, I know, but its a surprisingly easy mistake to make). Also that if you are replacing your original number plates with a personalized registration then before you fit the new plates to your car you must assign the registration to the vehicle. If you don t then the registration is not legal and you could end up with a fine and points on your license.

To assign the registration you must fill out the appropriate parts of the V750 certificate and then send it or take it in person with the required documents to your nearest D.V.L.A. Local Office. The sections of the certificate to be filled in will depend upon your particular circumstances. A step by step explanation of all these sections, as seen on the back of the V750 certificate, can be found in the Regfinder.net Help Index under the heading of Ordering a Number Plate from D.V.L.A. and you will find details of your nearest D.V.L.A. Local Office in the Got a Question? pages of the D.V.L.A. website.


(Scenario 1)
Exchanging your existing number plate.


You will need:

1. A cordless or electric drill

2. A 4mm to 6mm drill bit

3. A Philip s screw driver


Doing the Job:

1. Remove the original plate from the vehicle (Pop open the plastic caps and undo the screws)

2. Place the original plate exactly on top of the new one and drill holes in the new one using the original number plate holes as a template.

3. Screw new number plate to the vehicle using the original holes in the bumper (Don t forget to put the plastic caps on the screws first).


(Scenario 2)
Replacing your broken, lost or stolen number plate.
(If you don’t have the original one to use as a template)


You will need:

1; A cordless or electric drill

2; A 4mm to 6mm drill bit

3; A Philip's screw driver

4. A small amount of grease or anything of that texture (jam will do)


Doing the Job:

1; Unscrew the old plates. (or find placement screws if lost or stolen)

2; Put the old screws back in (without the plastic cap).

3; Put a blob of grease’ or jam on the screw heads.

4; Offer up the new number plate centrally until it touches the two screw heads.

5; Remove the screws.

6; Carefully, drill the new plates where the grease blobs appear. Remember you will be drilling from the back of the number plate so don t apply too much pressure or you may damage the front as the drill bit goes through.

7; Screw the new plate on. (Don t forget to put the plastic caps on the screws first).


If you re still uncertain about this process then its probably a better idea to go down to your local mechanic or car body shop and offer one of the lads 20 pounds to fit the number plates for you. It should only take him half an hour and you will probably find that he will supply any new plastic caps or screws that may be required.

Reg

Why Number Plate And Registration Dealers Are Expensive

Of course, we d all like a personal registration mark like the recently sold F1 plate but for most of us, the 440,000 pounds price tag would prove a little prohibitive. So, the trick, when searching for a private plate, is to find a good one that nobody knows exists but everyone would want if they did.

The D.V.L.A. is without doubt or exception the best value provider of UK personalized number plates there is. No one else can realistically compete because the D.V.L.A. creates them all in the first place. It is the only place you will ever find a genuine bargain. If you can find one, that is.

With a stock list often in excess of 30 million registrations you could spend the rest of your life trying to find words, names or phrases within it when most of the time you re not really sure what you re looking for until you see it, and when most of the number plates don t make a word, anyway.

Even if you had the time and patience for a task of this scale, the D.V.L.A. stock is in perpetual flux, selling between 500 & 1000 number plates every day with millions more being added every 6 months. Its not that surprising then, that most people either give up the search completely or turn to one of the many privately run, after market, registration plate dealers currently operating.

Private dealers mostly offer a good service but can never offer the best value. They make their money by marking up the product which in itself would not seem too unreasonable. Every business needs to make a profit, however some of the top dealers need to spend 50,000 pounds a week on advertising before they do. This money has to come from somewhere.

An example of this pricing is the registration mark: UP51ART. I bought this registration from the D.V.L.A. for 799 pounds after finding it by default using the, then manual, Regfinder algorithm and realized I had to be on to something as it had been available on the D.V.L.A. website for nearly 3 years without anyone else noticing it. You don t have to look very far in the private dealers advertisements to see that most 7 letter word number plates of this caliber are on sale for at least 10k.

Knowing that with the Regfinder.net system I could find thousands of such registrations I briefly thought my day job would soon be a thing of the past. But its not that simple. I have contacted most of the private traders regarding UP51ART over the years and been offered fixed contract prices of between 1200 and 216 pounds. Needless to say UP51ART is staying in my possession for the foreseeable future.

It could always have been worse, though. I could have bought UP51ART from one of these companies for 10,000 pounds and then been told the fixed price that they would be willing to guarantee me for it if I wanted them to sell it for me again.

All of this lead to the decision to build Regfinder.net. The number plate search engine. Now, Instead of manually trawling through the whole D.V.L.A. registration number stock with pen and paper we have turned the idea into an algorithmic database that is updated daily for everyone to use and have found over 200,000 words and names in as many different ways possible.

To date, Regfinder.net has found, categorized, availability checked and price checked over 30 million readable registration marks starting from A at the beginning of the prefix plates up to 13 in the current style, most of which are still available or will be in the future. Regfinder.net links you directly to your registration of choice on the D.V.L.A. website. All of the available personalized number plates found on Regfinder.net are bought directly by the user from the D.V.L.A. for the D.V.L.A. price.

Unlike all the private dealers Regfinder.net does not mark up the D.V.L.A. prices, nor does it receive any form of payment from the D.V.L.A. or any of the private companies. This project was started with a Robin Hood style design remit in mind and we believe that everyone who uses this service will be so pleased, they will tell others about it. Word of mouth will be the only advertising we will need.

Reg