The Department of Land Transport’s (DLT) promotion of this December’s auction included words about the “most beautiful licence plate of the century”. The fight for this artifact – plate number “9 Gor Gor 9999” – became the highlight of the first day of the event, held at DLT headquarters in Bangkok on Dec 10.
Over 200 bids were made for “9 Gor Gor 9999” sending the price to the skies and beyond. The final bid of B45.09 million came from Titan Capital Group Holding, reports Bangkok Post.
According to media reports, the investment firm then said that “the price was slightly over its budget”, the newspaper adds.
A total of 64 licence plates were up for auction on Dec 10 and another 237 are on offer on Dec 11. The bidders include people who attended the live auction in the department’s conference room and those who make phone or online bids.
The previous national record was set in October 2020 when a bidder offered and paid B28.1mn for “8 Gor 8888” in Bangkok.
Similar auctions in Phuket usually bring around B25mn in total with the most expensive single sets of plates being sold for not more than B1-1.5mn.
In August this year the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO) raised some B25mn for road safety initiatives through the lucky plates auction. The auction was of Phuket-issued licence plates featuring the Thai letters “Khor Ngor”, the highest winning bid was B930,000 for licence plate “Khor Ngor 9999”. In 2021 the highest winning bid was B1.42mn.
Funds raised by the licence plate auctions go towards road-safety projects carried out by the national Road Safety Fund.
In 2021 the auctions nationwide raised more than B325mn for the fund.