Selling a number plate – crazy commission fees?

Today I spoke to a client who had decided to sell her name number plate with us.

I know dealers’ commission fees on number plates can be high…. in the most extreme cases we know dealers charge fees of 50% of the advertised selling price. Until today. This lady’s registration number is advertised on a dealer’s site for £1450. Should it sell for the asking price, she will receive just £600! That’s a whopping fee of 59%! Ouch!

To make things worse…. she had also approached another dealer. The other dealer was selling the same registration number for just £475. A price that’s well below what the number plate is worth. So it doesn’t leave a lot once commission fees have been paid! This dealer had persuaded the owner that her number plate was worth very little. There are very few similar number plates available on the market at the moment… they’re all gone. So this one for £475 would be an absolute steal. So what’s the deal here? Why is it priced so low? I can only assume that, as a low priced number plate will sell quickly, the dealer can realise a commission much more quickly…. compromising on the size of the number plate commission itself.

We did an independent valuation of this registration number…and came up with a price of £1200. Selling the number plate privately (with no commission fees of course) will mean the owner keeps all of the achieved selling price. And the buyer pays a more sensible price too. And the dealer gets zero…. sounds good to me.

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