As you would be. You are selling the right to use that number (provided to you by the DVLA). You sell the right to use it to them, who sells that right to someone else. So you making money by selling something you don't own as a private individual which is fine, but they as a legitimate plate buyer and seller can't?
Right.... lets get this straight. I was slightly miffed at the £125 offer for my plate, when they'd been advertising it for £275. Seems a bit hefty on the profit for them, but there you go.
What I really objected to is that they list, on their database, all the numbers not currently issued by the DVLA. These are the same numbers being 'sold' by all the other plate companies, and also on the DVLA website. Only, for the plate I'm interested in buying, they want £240 plus VAT plus transfer fee. Go to the DVLA and it's £250 incl. of VAT and transfer. And it's for this reason I can't be arsed / won't do any business with them, as they're profiteering from people who don't realise that most plates on their site are just un-issued DVLA stock which is much cheaper to buy direct.
But it is the same as if you buy "product X" from a convenient=20 highstreet shop, or find the maker of "product X" and buy it direct from=20 the makers or their importer if they will deal direct.
I bet if you contact one of the oil companies direct and told them about=20 your Alfa collection, given their usual consumption rate, they would=20 sell direct and be cheaper, but instead you buy it from a profiteering=20 dealer or profiteering autofactor.
It's all the same. The end supplier is always better placed to deal with=20 the public than the main supplier, and will be more expensive, yes the=20 DVLA do advertise, but not as regularly as the end sales people with=20 multipage adds every week in autotrader and the sunday paper, and=20 monthly in the motoring press.
As it happens I've seen the price difference too T16CJR was =A3100 cheaper= =20 at the DVLA than with several of the Cherished places.
I also spotted A5 AAB which would have worked nicely on mine, First time=20 I looked it was priced at =A3600, then later (about 15mins) it had=20 suddenly become "reserved for Auction, estimate =A31200". Like it was=20 looking through the database for paterns people search for, and the=20 juicy ones get shunted away if they aren't ordered immediatley.
--=20 The poster formerly known as Skodapilot.
Well I got a couple of quotes for the private plate that came on the Carlton (the last one I got rid of!), which was A18 EAS. I thought of ebaying it with the point of view that it could suit someone called Beatrice, known to her friends as "Bea", as it could be made to read similar to A1 BEA'S, or the 1 close to the 8 for similar effect. Not that I'd recommend the legality of it of course. Anyway, I never bothered, but did get a couple of quotes - one was £400, the other was £450, both conditional on the sale, and I had to sign something to give them exclusive rights to sell it. One even wrote back to me (by snail mail) asking if I'd been offered more, and that they'd consider matching it.
In the end the sceptic in me took over and I thought "can't be bothered, who'd want that anyway", so didn't bother, though in hindsight I wouldn't have had anything to lose.
Eventually I sold the car on ebay, and a while later I got a call from the bloke that bought it asking if I'd sent off the log book, as he had someone interested in the plate!
Peter
The DVLA plates thing is a real piss-take - the DVLA also have a much clearer pricing policy - the £250 or whatever you pay is what you actually pay, and includes everything, unlike the listed prices all the others display, which then including charges A, B and C.
Peter
I think that's exactly Steve's point - plenty of people are stupid enough. Fair enough if they had genuinely good products to offer, but most of the plates are utter s**te - same goes for most of the plates on eBay (they're all laughable - "this could look like this, but it really doesn't if you've got even as much as a tenth of a brain").
Peter
Might be worth trying something like that, just to prove a point. Get someone you know who wants a private plate available from the DVLA, get them to buy it over the phone, and then seconds later order it through one of these other mobs.
True, the thing with your plate is fair enough though really - they spend money in advertising it (albeit in very small print) in national papers and such like, and they get a cut if it sells. Probably less than 1% of the plates in their big listings actually sell. Well, dunno, would be interesting to find out.
Peter
Here Here Steve well said.
OiOi stranger, where you been hiding ? ;)
Sitting low me old fruit cake.
Working on gaining some credibility on the way? (c:
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