Frequently Asked Questions - Where can I sell my private plates?

Who are Plate-Trader.com?
What do you do?
How are you unique to the other number plate websites I've seen?
So do I buy the plate I want from you, or direct from the seller?
Can I contact you?
What is a private / personalised / cherished number plate?
Can I buy a number plate to make my car look newer?
I want to buy a number plate, where should I look?
I'm not sure what I'm looking for, I just want a plate to look like something specific, but the number plate formats seem quite rigid?
Can't you help me find a plate?
I want to sell my number plate, how do I go about it?
So why shouldn't I sell my plate through a number plate dealer?
And why shouldn't I sell my plate on eBay?
Ok, so where should I sell my number plate then?
So how do I sell my cherished number plate through Plate-Trader?
How long will you advertise my plate for?
How do I find out what my number plate is worth?

We are a numberplate classifieds website offering a new way to buy and sell your personalised, private or cherished vehicle registration plates online. Whether you are looking to buy a registration number plate, or to sell one, our aim is to get you the best deal possible!
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We offer a unique service, a meeting point for buyers and sellers of number plates
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Our site is unique because all of the plates on our website are advertised directly by their sellers. At Plate-Trader buyers and sellers can get in contact with each other and deal directly, cutting out the middlemen, such as dealers or auction websites, and their fees and commission. This means, as a seller, you get 100% of your plates value and don't have to give a percentage away in fees or commission, and as a buyer, you only pay the asking price the seller wants for their plate and not an over-inflated price that incorporates dealers commission!
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All plates advertised on our website are private sales, meaning you are buying from someone who owns the plate. You won't find these plates available for sale on any conventional personalised plate websites.
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Yes, our Contact Us page provides full details of how you can contact us. However, we cannot deal with number plate sales through our email address, as we do not own the plates and we DO NOT buy plates for stock.
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A private, personalised or cherished number plate is unique car registration plate, chosen by the owner. Every vehicle licenced to travel on the road has to be allocated with a registration mark, and so are issued randomly at the time of a vehicles registration. However, some drivers prefer to use their number plate to exercise their freedom of choice, and so purchase 'personalised' number plates to indicate their name, initials, hobbies/interests or even occupations. There are a wide range of number plates available to suit all budgets and their are many factors which can influence the value of a number plate.
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No. Any private number plate chosen, can not make a car look newer than it's original registration date. For example, if a car you own, has a registration date of 1999 (T123 ABC) you cannot assign any plate which is more recent than the original 1999 (T) registration as this would make the car appear newer than it actually is. You can only make your car look older, or the same age.
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We always recommend starting with the DVLA Personalised Registrations website, as this is the official website of the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency and they currently have over 31 million registrations available, that have never previously been purchased or registered to any vehicle. However, if you are unable to find a suitable registration, chances are that it could already have been purchased, if this is the case, we recommend searching via ourselves, as if the owner was looking to sell the plate, the chances are they would have found our website. You could also consider placing a Wanted Advert, which costs just £2.99 and allows you to specify the type of plate, or even the exact plate, that you are looking for, and allows you to sit back and let the sellers to contact you directly with their plates.
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That's true, unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, you can't just choose your word, and substitute a few letters for numbers. All number plates have to be in certain formats, and there are commonly 4 in use at the moment, Current (e.g AA09 AAA) Prefix (e.g A123 AAA) Suffix (e.g AAA 321A) and Dateless or Irish plates which can take various formats.
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Yes, we offer a comprehensive Plate Finder Service and for just £9.99, we will search the WHOLE number plate market (thats millions of plates!) to find a suitable plate for you, whether it be for your name, initials, occupation, football team or anything, we guarantee to find you at least 3 suitable plates, or your money back!
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There are a few options, you can go through a number plate dealer, who will advertise the plate for sale on a commission basis, or sell it privately, either using an auction site like eBay, or a dedicated numberplate classifieds website like Plate-Trader.
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Although number plate dealers will advertise your number plate for free, they will take a percentage of the sale price as commission. This commission is typically between 25% and 30%, meaning that they take a cut of £25 to £30 from every £100 of your money.
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We have a whole page dedicated to eBay fees but in a nutshell, you pay an initial listing fee to advertise your plate on eBay, whether it sells or not, if it doesn't sell, you have to pay again to relist it. When your plate eventually does sell, eBay will also charge you roughly another 10% of the final selling price as a 'Final Value Fee', so thats £10 out of every £100.
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Here, at Plate-Trader.com as we are the cheapest and most cost-effective place on the web to sell your private number plate. You pay a one of £14.99 to list your plate with us, and that's it, no relising, no commission, we advertise the plate UNTIL it sells and you keep 100% of the sale price. We also have the advantage of being a dedicated number plate website, offering lots of features to help your plate get seen by the right people, such as advanced keyword search technology.
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It's easy, once you've created an account, you can advertise your plate on our website, choosing as many keywords as you want to help buyers find it. As soon as you have completed your listing it will be featured on our website and visible immediately. As soon as someone visits out site who is interested in your plate, they can contact you directly via email or telephone (whichever you prefer).
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For as long as it takes. Once you've created an advert, we won't take it down until you ask us to.
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Generally speaking, the less you have to think about what a number plate reads, or the shorter the plate, the better, although this is not always strictly true. There are many considerations when putting a monetary value on a particular plate, such as its age, its rarity or exclusivity and what it represents. Number plates are a very specialised product, and valuing them can be difficult, that's why we offer a comprehensive Number Plate Valuations service. For just £9.99 you can have your plate independently valued by people with years of experience in the number plate market, and have a certificate to prove the plates value!
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