As well as a current collection of about 220, most of which are for sale, Neal has plates representing his first and second names, as well GL05 for Gloucestershire, the county where he was born.
He says in the distant past the DVLA had seen personalised plates as an inconvenience, but in the 1990s changed its mind and chose to engage with the trade, making its vast pool of unused registrations available to the public.
The DVLA figures show transactions peaking in 2021, which Neal puts down to the lifestyle changes brought about by Covid.
“Presumably it was due to many people having time on their hands and spare money that they weren’t spending on commuting, socialising and holidays,” he says.
“The momentum continued throughout the Covid period and even today, interest has only eased off a little.”
But, despite private plates’ popularity, Neal warns it isn’t always easy to make money from them.
“Plenty of people dabble,” he says.
“I would urge anyone to go in with a little bit of caution, because I’ve seen many examples of people thinking ‘gosh, this is easy’ and then buy a hoard of plates and maybe they’re not all saleable.”
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