Where Can I Sell My Number Plate Fast/Instantly?

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If you’re looking to sell your number plate fast and for instant cash then you’re in the right place. In this post we’re going to go over the options if you want to sell your private reg now, and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Before we get into the options, we wanted to firstly clear up a relatively common misconception – unfortunately it is not possible to sell your number plate back to the DVLA . The DVLA sell personalised registrations that have never been issued to a vehicle before, but have no interest in buying them back.

So if you want a quick sale, what are your options?

Option 1 – Approach a dealer and ask if they’ll buy it for their stock

Some dealers do buy private plates for their own stock, which they will then look to sell on for a profit. Obviously if a dealer purchases a plate they are tying up some of their capital in stock, which is much more risky for them than selling on a commission basis, so some may be reluctant.

Any that do offer you cash for your plate, will offer you significantly less than the plate is worth, which is understandable as they’re taking all the risk and of course they have to make a living!

It’s worth contacting as many as possible, and we would initially suggest doing this by sending an email. If you’re not sure what to say, you can use our word for word script for free below.

Hi there,

I am looking for a quick sale on my registration plate, A123 ABC , and wondered if you may be interested in purchasing it for your own stock?

I believe it is worth around £XXXX , however I would be willing to accept less than this for an immediate sale as I realise that you will then want to re-sell it and make a profit.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in purchasing the registration. I can be contacted on:

Email address:
Telephone number:

Many thanks
Your name

You could always then follow this up with another email or even a telephone call, but the chances are that if a dealer is interested then they won’t need much chasing and will be in touch.

You can find a list of dealers to contact on the DVLA website, here .

We’d suggest going through this list and contacting each dealer first, before then searching on Google to find any other dealers that you have missed.

In recent months, we’ve even noticed some new companies who claim to buy any registration. In a similar way to We Buy Any Car, companies have sprung up with names like We Buy Any Number Plate and claim to be offering an instant cash price for your number plate.

Option 2 – Advertise with as many dealers as possible

Even if dealers don’t want to buy your plate for stock, they’ll still be happy to promote it for you for free and sell it on a commission basis.

If you want a lot of exposure, we’d recommend registering your number plate for sale with as many dealers as possible. This will get your plate in front of lots of people who are actively looking to buy a number plate.

It also won’t cost you anything upfront as dealers make their money by acting as middlemen and adding a markup (commission) to the price. This varies from dealer to dealer but is usually around the 30% mark.

Whilst it’s painful to know that someone has paid a dealer 30% more than you’re actually getting for the plate, if you’re after a quick sale then it might be worth taking the hit.

Again you can find a list of number plate dealers on the DVLA website linked to above, or just by Google searching for number plates and going through them manually.

Option 3 – List it on eBay with a really low start price

Another option is to list your plate on eBay with a really low starting price (some sellers even list their plates for 99p)!

This is a risky strategy but can get you a quick sale if you really want to sell the plate quickly and don’t mind if you don’t sell it for what it’s really worth.

Do be careful though if you go down the 99p starting price route, as it’s not uncommon for private reg plates to sell for tragically low prices as you can see from  these completed eBay auctions .

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If you do go down this route, it’s highly likely that you’ll get less for the plate than it’s actually worth. Depending on how popular the plate is though, there’s always an outside chance that buyers could get into a bidding war and you could end up getting a fair price for it.

Another point to bear in mind though is that even though you get to deal directly with buyers, you’ll have to give away 10% of your plates selling price as a ‘Final Value Fee’ when your plate sells!

Option 4 – List it on as many free websites as possible

There are tons of websites where you can advertise things for free nowadays. Most towns and cities even have buy/sell/swap Facebook groups too.

The only downside to these sites though, is because they’re not dedicated to number plates, the audience is probably not going to be very targeted so the chances of finding a buyer are slim.

It’s still worth a shot though, after all, it will only cost you your time! Below are a number of sites that we’d suggest:

Gumtree
Preloved
Vivastreet
Free Ads
Loot
Pistonheads
Friday Ad
Sell Things Free

Option 5 – Use a classifieds site

We saved the best ’til last (in our totally unbiased opinion of course)! Selling on a number plate classifieds site like ours gives you the best of both worlds.

As we’re a dedicated number plate site, you’ll get your plate in front of a targeted audience of thousands of people looking to buy number plates just like you would when advertising with a dealer.

Unlike using a dealer though, there’s no middleman, so you get to deal directly with buyers and keep 100% of your selling price (minus a small monthly/annual listing fee).

In addition to the thousands of potential buyers that visit our site every week, we also have a huge following on social media, which has helped to generate lots of sales too.

We post all the Premium Adverts that are placed on our website to our network of over 50,000 Facebook fans, and Instagram & Twitter followers.

These people have liked or followed us because they have an interest in private number plates, and some of them are even number plate traders and collectors so they’re the perfect audience for your plate to go out to.

If you list at a bargain price, then you may well get immediate interest in the plate. If not, you can remove your advert at any time!

In conclusion

Hopefully, this guide has given you some ideas of how to sell your number plate now!

We hope you found it useful. If you’d like to read more content like this, click here to download our free guide to selling your number plate!

And if you’re interested in seeing how we can help you to sell your plate fast, click here .

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