$410K for a License Plate? 'It's a Delaware Thing'

Low-numbered Delaware license plates are in demand. Someone paid $410,000 for the plate bearing the number 20 when it went up for auction Sunday at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, the AP reports. Bidding started "low" at $210,000, with the price rising by $5,000 to $10,000 every half-minute of the six and a half minute auction, the Delmarva Daily Times reports.

John Wakefield, of Delaware Tag Traders, tells the Delaware News Journal the price exceeded expectations. He says it surpassed $325,000 spent on a number 14 license plate three years ago. Wakefield says a number like 20 "generates quite a stir and a buzz." Wakefield likens the license plate auction to baseball cards. He says "it's a Delaware thing." Speaking to the Daily Times, Wakefield says there is a plate with the number 4 on a Lexus in the Wilmington area valued at more than $1 million. "Nobody gets it unless you’re in Delaware," he says. "It's always been in our history."

(More auction stories.)