Following the trend 2023

Registrations that tie in with current trends, such as football, celebrity names or new car models, are also popular. The DVLA has a specialist team that comes up with such registrations to auction. 

For example, a recent spate of Bitcoin-related combinations were sought after by cryptocurrency fans and fetched tens of thousands of pounds. In February, the DVLA sold 'BTC 1M' for £10,000 while 'BTC 500X' went for £51,010 in May 2021.

Eye-catching combinations can command huge prices. The number plate 'DEV 1L' was sold by the DVLA for £308,253 in 2021. This is the registration that appeared on Cruella De Vil's iconic car in the films 101 Dalmatians from 2016 and its sequel 102 Dalmatians. The plate was just a prop for the film but was subsequently issued.

The owner of registration 'I BNK' made a whopping 743 per cent return – £66,100 profit – in just seven years. They bought it for £8,900 in 2014 and sold it on for £75,000 in 2021, according to sales company Regtransfers.co.uk.

Mr Johnson, 49, who has personally invested in thousands of registrations, has made a tenfold profit on some thanks to his keen eye. He bought '49 P' for his company in 2004 for £8,000, and sold it a couple of weeks ago for £85,000. He bought the number plate 'FLA 55H' – spelling 'flash' – a couple of years ago for £10,000. It is for sale at £25,000. His favourite 'O45', which he has on his car, is on sale for a staggering £110,000 – more than double what he paid in 2020. The plate, first issued in Birmingham, is more than 120 years old.

Cheeky number

The DVLA bans number plates it deems too cheeky for Britain's roads, but many issued decades ago before strict rules were put in place are still in circulation and are passed from owner to owner.

Angela Bahn, of Regtransfers.co.uk, says there are several of these legacy plates up for sale on the website, including 'ORG 45M', going for £112,500. Another, 'BOT 7OM', is on the market for £18,746.

However, these plates do not make the best investments because many people consider them too embarrassing to put on their car.

£65,000...on a plate!

Lee Hill, 39, from Surrey, has bought hundreds of private number plates over the years and made profits of up to £65,000 on each one. 'They just don't seem to go down in value and I hate having money sitting in the bank. The plates are tangible,' he says.

A recent sale bagged him £65,000 in profit for a plate that he owned for just two weeks and had just one letter and one number.

Lee, who owns a company that ships super cars, currently has 20 plates, but there are four or five that he says he would never sell because he uses them on his cars and they have sentimental value. 'I have 'HII LEE', which spells my full name. Both '84 LEE' and 'LEE 84' feature my year of birth,' he says.