Buying a license plate

[ce929wax]

Hello all.  One of the things I collect are license plates.  I have Michigan and Tennessee, but would like to get all 50 states to hang on my wall.  Where would I go about obtaining or purchasing license plates?  Thanks in advance.

[oscar]

One thing you might try is contacting the American License Plate Collectors Association and/or reviewing its website. At least the annual national conventions have people bringing their license plate collections, with an eye to selling some of their inventory. That might happen also at the more frequent regional gatherings too. ALCPA might at least point you in the right direction.

That's not necessarily the best approach (I'm not a plate collector), others I don't know about might work better for you.

Some truck stops and other shops sell replica license plates from various jurisdictions.

[Brian556]

Ebay
Swap Meets

[formulanone]

Automobile dealerships, antique stores, asking relatives from all over the map. The former give them away, but depending on the state, they either have dozens or zero. The other is if I just can't find one from a rarely-visited state (Maryland) or hard-to-acquire (California), and the latter is how I have a Washington and a Massachusetts plate.

I'm also trying to collect all 50 states (and then some) and I'm not all that picky about vintage.

[DaBigE]

Depends on what you want on the plate. Some state DMVs may still offer sample plates.

[ipeters61]

Try and find yourself a low number Delaware plate. 

http://www.lowdigittags.com/27.html

But really though, I don't get why anyone would spend $70,000 on a license plate...

[ce929wax]

A sample plate would do just fine.  I don't care about number or type, I just want one from all 50 states eventually.

[formulanone]

Try and find yourself a low number Delaware plate. 

http://www.lowdigittags.com/27.html

But really though, I don't get why anyone would spend $70,000 on a license plate...

I didn't know any states had plate exchanges similar to Britain's Private Plate system.

[ipeters61]

Try and find yourself a low number Delaware plate. 

http://www.lowdigittags.com/27.html

But really though, I don't get why anyone would spend $70,000 on a license plate...

I didn't know any states had plate exchanges similar to Britain's Private Plate system.

My guess is that Delaware does it because we don't have a large enough population to have plates with weird combinations (most states have combinations of letters and numbers).  DE is mostly just numbers, some have PCxxxxxx, Cxxxxxx, or some other special designation.

I heard a long time ago that Rhode Island does something similar but I could be mistaken.

EDIT - I have seen Connecticut plate "1" but it was given to the first district US Congressman (I saw him at Starbucks once).  In Connecticut, I know plates with pure numbers are assigned to buses.  Lowest I've seen in Delaware are 299, PC23, and C2.

[roadfro]

A sample plate would do just fine.  I don't care about number or type, I just want one from all 50 states eventually.

If you've got $5, and can write a letter, it looks like you can get a sample Nevada license plate in the current Home Means Nevada standard design or the Circa 1982 Blue design. For $15, it looks like you can get a sample of many of the current specialty plates.

Or, for $15, you can get a personalized souvenir plate on the standard design (although it will be printed with red letters instead of black).

http://dmvnv.com/platessample.htm

[Alex]

Not sure if Mark O'Neil is still active with his website, but he used to have very reasonable prices on current passenger issues for most states. His site is http://www.platehut.com/

[texaskdog]

I've seen old plates in stores but I don't remember which stores.

[texaskdog]

Or maybe go to a pull-a-part junkyard and see what is there

[WillWeaverRVA]

Virginia's DMV sells souvenir plates. They're more or less identical to real plates.

[tckma]

I wish I'd seen this thread sooner.

I've been a member of the Automobile License Plate Collectors' Association (ALPCA) since 2001 -- member #9101.  You just missed our annual convention, which was July 11-14 in Valley Forge, PA.  I've never seen so many plates for sale under one roof.  The next annual convention is in Knoxville, TN, in late June 2019.

Membership is either $36 or $46 annually, depending on how quickly you want to get your copy of PLATES Magazine in the mail -- an issue comes out every two months.  The magazine (as well as the "members only" area of the website) will also list local plate meets in your area and around the country (smaller than the annual convention).

The website is http://www.alpca.org

eBay and antique stores are good places to buy license plates when you're starting out as a collector, but you run the risk of paying much more than the plate is actually worth on the collectors' market.  Then again, I got most of my 50-state run by buying a bulk lot on eBay, then updating the plates as I found ones in better condition. 

Local ALPCA meets are much better venues in which to buy license plates.  There's also the Facebook groups "License Plate Collectors," and "Auto Tag Auction" -- plates are sold in both.

One of the hardest things I've had to do is figure out what a good value for a plate is.

Cheers!

[tckma]

A sample plate would do just fine.  I don't care about number or type, I just want one from all 50 states eventually.

Many states offer sample plates for free.  DC and Arizona come to mind immediately, and I'd have to look for a list by state.  Some offer sample plates for sale -- New Hampshire sells them for $10 a piece (last I checked) and you can get one that says "VISIT" or one that says "AC000"  (the latter is a leftover from the 1940s to the 1970s when NH plates were a two letter county code followed by 3 digits).  Virginia sells them for $10 on their DMV website, and you can have it say whatever you want.  Maryland offers them for free -- limit 2 per request -- but it depends on who you talk to at our Motor Vehicle Administration.  They will either say the sample plate program has ended, or they will say "sure which type do you want?"  All of MD's sample plates say "SAMPLE."  I've heard (and I've never done this even though I live in Maryland) you will have better luck with this if you visit MVA HQ in Glen Burnie and look for the Special Plates Office and talk to someone in that office in person.