Dateless registrations

Apologies in advance, this is not at all LR related, but I didn’t know where to ask.

I’ve been looking for a personal registration with my initials, but there are hardly any for sale through traders, and the DVLA say they have no more to issue, which I take to mean that all combinations have already been released in the past.

When a vehicle is scrapped, as millions would have been in previous decades when dateless plates had no value, does the registration just simply disappear forever?

This would explain why there seems to be so few either for sale or on physical vehicles, with my initials.

Not important obviously, just interested to know the answer.

Early plates dont exist now on dvla site
I think B prefix is earliest you can get, I got B23OGG for my mate recently

Ahh... Vanity plates, a great way to demonstrate just how much money you have to waste. I love the way people call them 'private plates', there's no such thing as they're all issued by DVLA and predecessors. It amazes me that people still present cars for MoT with non-compliant registration plates, either font, spacing, background colour or misrepresented by addition of screw caps, tape etc. and then pi$$ & moan when they get a failure...
There are some dateless registrations available but all seem to be in NI format. https://dvlaregistrations.dvla.gov.uk/nifixed/

Graculus said:

Ahh... Vanity plates, a great way to demonstrate just how much money you have to waste. I love the way people call them 'private plates', there's no such thing as they're all issued by DVLA and predecessors. It amazes me that people still present cars for MoT with non-compliant registration plates, either font, spacing, background colour or misrepresented by addition of screw caps, tape etc. and then pi$$ & moan when they get a failure...
There are some dateless registrations available but all seem to be in NI format. https://dvlaregistrations.dvla.gov.uk/nifixed/

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Ahh…….the perennial problem with otherwise useful forums. Keyboard bores making unwanted comments such as “vanity plates….a great way to waste money”. I didn’t say they were useful or necessary.
Maybe my bank account is full and I need to get rid of some money to make room.
Anyway, if anyone does know what happens to old plates when cars are scrapped (ie, the actual question), all RELEVANT replies appreciated .

Agree, each to their own, what's the harm if for a few hundred quid you get a nice plate which brings a smile to your face. Some get season tickets, some snort coke, some drink booze, some do drugs.....

Graculus said:

Ahh... Vanity plates, a great way to demonstrate just how much money you have to waste. I love the way people call them 'private plates', there's no such thing as they're all issued by DVLA and predecessors. It amazes me that people still present cars for MoT with non-compliant registration plates, either font, spacing, background colour or misrepresented by addition of screw caps, tape etc. and then pi$$ & moan when they get a failure...
There are some dateless registrations available but all seem to be in NI format. https://dvlaregistrations.dvla.gov.uk/nifixed/

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Get out of bed the wrong side today or are you always this Victor Meldrew?

Jayo70 said:

Ahh…….the perennial problem with otherwise useful forums. Keyboard bores making unwanted comments such as “vanity plates….a great way to waste money”. I didn’t say they were useful or necessary.
Maybe my bank account is full and I need to get rid of some money to make room.
Anyway, if anyone does know what happens to old plates when cars are scrapped (ie, the actual question), all RELEVANT replies appreciated .

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I think more of the point being made was the mis spaced mot failure point.
Back in the day the plates had no value, maybe they just disappeared with the car?
I have a correctly spaced "private" plate, means nothing to me as it was already on there.
Forgot to mention he isn't a"keyboard warrior" and has excellent knowledge of newer Land Rovers, you might need his advice one day.

Graculus said:

Ahh... Vanity plates, a great way to demonstrate just how much money you have to waste. I love the way people call them 'private plates', there's no such thing as they're all issued by DVLA and predecessors. It amazes me that people still present cars for MoT with non-compliant registration plates, either font, spacing, background colour or misrepresented by addition of screw caps, tape etc. and then pi$$ & moan when they get a failure...
There are some dateless registrations available but all seem to be in NI format. https://dvlaregistrations.dvla.gov.uk/nifixed/

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Bit harsh to a new member !
If someone wants their own plate, why not?
A lot of us would’nt have a Landie if we were concerned with ‘wasting’ money

Vanity/Private/Dateless/Vintage, call it what you like.

We've got 4 private plates in the family, because we is speshul
All are legally spaced mind

Firebobby1 said:

We've got 4 private plates in the family, because we is speshul
All are legally spaced mind

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We have only one - birthday pressie for my wife.
It’s always legally spaced - at MOT.

I’d be very happy if all we had to worry about in the world was some spaces between some letters…

Firebobby1 said:

We've got 4 private plates in the family, because we is speshul
All are legally spaced mind

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We have one each, mines aint spaced properly but I just pay the 100 quid fine cause I can.

I contacted the DVLA once about a plate that I wanted to buy as it was on my sister's first car (E68 FLY), doesn't mean anything really but it was pretty cool and I thought that as a family we might buy it for her as a gift if it was reasonably priced etc. Anyway, I knew that the little scrote she sold the car to had trashed it doing handbrake turns and eventually scrapped it. The DVLA informed me that it wouldn't be released on general sale but I could make a request for it and it MAY be sold at one of their auctions. This was a long time ago mind you but they may still follow the same process if you found one you wanted to enquire about.

Blob said:

I contacted the DVLA once about a plate that I wanted to buy as it was on my sister's first car (E68 FLY), doesn't mean anything really but it was pretty cool and I thought that as a family we might buy it for her as a gift if it was reasonably priced etc. Anyway, I knew that the little scrote she sold the car to had trashed it doing handbrake turns and eventually scrapped it. The DVLA informed me that it wouldn't be released on general sale but I could make a request for it and it MAY be sold at one of their auctions. This was a long time ago mind you but they may still follow the same process if you found one you wanted to enquire about.

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Thank you, that’s very interesting. And surprising actually.
I had assumed that registrations are released one time only and then die with the car if it’s scrapped with the reg still assigned to it.
There must be a lot of money in it for DVLA if they released some of the early ones for a second time.
Thanks again

I just put my initials into this company's website:
It was very interesting!!!

Stanleysteamer said:

I just put my initials into this company's website:

Private number plates for sale | Regtransfers

Largest private number plate supplier with millions available. Est. 1982. FREE valuations. 0% finance. Lines open 9am - 9pm, 7 days a week

www.regtransfers.co.uk

It was very interesting!!!

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Ive used them loads over the years I do buy & sell reg numbers now n again. Surprized....thought not
Ive also got a few free with cars ive bought so pulled the plates off n sold em & you can get a decent return if your prepared
to wait.

kevstar said:

Ive used them loads over the years I do buy & sell reg numbers now n again. Surprized....thought not
Ive also got a few free with cars ive bought so pulled the plates off n sold em & you can get a decent return if your prepared
to wait.

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I may have told this story before, but when I had my souped up Mini Cooper lookalike it had an H reg then one day I saw a colleague had an H reg plate with my initials on the end. Couldn't believe it as my initials for some reason are rare. I fought like heck to buy it off her but her husband "couldn't be bothered with the paperwork" even though I said I'd do it all for them and even put the new plates on the car for them.
So I made her promise that when she came to sell it to offer me first refusal.
Then a while after I saw her in a new car.
"What happened to the Reanult 5?"
I asked. "Oh we traded it in, you wouldn't have wanted to pay what we got for it!"

For flips sake.

We fell out for a little while.

Stanleysteamer said:

I may have told this story before, but when I had my souped up Mini Cooper lookalike it had an H reg then one day I saw a colleague had an H reg plate with my initials on the end. Couldn't believe it as my initials for some reason are rare. I fought like heck to buy it off her but her husband "couldn't be bothered with the paperwork" even though I said I'd do it all for them and even put the new plates on the car for them.
So I made her promise that when she came to sell it to offer me first refusal.
Then a while after I saw her in a new car.
"What happened to the Reanult 5?"
I asked. "Oh we traded it in, you wouldn't have wanted to pay what we got for it!"

For flips sake.

We fell out for a little while.

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Have you checked the reg recently.

kevstar said:

Have you checked the reg recently.

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Car (Mini) sold years ago and I don't remember the reg of either the one I wanted to buy or the one on the car I sold. But the guy who bought it genuinely wanted to take it on and make it great.

All this happened a couple of years before I retired back in 2015.