A clapped-out scooter which doesn’t even run has sold at auction for a whopping £91,000 due to the desirability of its number plate. The rusting machine itself was worth less than £1000 and the likelihood is that it will be scrapped, however the J68 registration number is hugely desirable and attracted huge interest when it went under the hammer in Jersey. An anonymous buyer splashed out a whopping £91,000 for the used scooter, making this an auction record for a plate containing a single number.
Despite the costly price tag attached to the registration number, the scooter itself is a 50cc model which isn’t even in running order.
Shorter private number plates are hugely popular in the UK with some fetching well into six figures. The previous record at auction for a short registration number was £80,000 for “J19”.
By law, any registration number must be fixed to a motor vehicle when it is sold, in order to prevent any interested buyers from purely purchasing the registration number. The scooter which J68 was attached to costs £1500 when new, meaning that the buyer could have bought 62 scooters for the same price as the registration number.