Victoria’s ‘luckiest’ number plate sells for huge price

One Australian driver has luck on his side after winning an auction with a massive bid to snare a custom plate that hadn’t changed hands in 30 years.

One Australian motorist is riding high after snaring Victoria’s “luckiest” number plate for a mega price.

The Victorian number plate “888-888” sold for $230,000 through Donington Auctions.

Donington Auctions spokesman Cameron Sabine says there is high demand for number plates with a sequence of 8s because it is considered lucky in Chinese culture.

Victorian "888-888" number plate sold for $230,000.

“Having an ‘8’ within a registration plate sequence has become the digit of choice among number plate collectors, both for its luck and in the case of this particular plate, its symmetrical format.

“So, we weren’t hugely surprised that it sold so well and were very pleased to have eclipsed the previous record by so much.”

The number plate sold fetched four times more than the luxurious V12-powered 2003 Mercedes-Benz CL600 that wore it.

Donington Auctions claim it was a record price paid for a custom number plate, beating the $53,000 paid for the “911-911” plates in 2022.

The 2003 Mercedes-Benz CL600 V12 that wore the "888-888" number plates sold for much less.

That price has nothing on century old heritage licence plates such as the “1” number plate in NSW that sold for more than $11.5 million earlier this year.

It is believed that plate originally belonged to NSW’s first police commissioner before being bought and sold by several private owners.

The NSW “1” plate was sold through Lloyds Auctions, which said it was unlikely to come up for sale again as rare heritage plates were often passed down through generations.

The “Q1” number plate in Queensland also sold recently for more than $5.6 million.

NSW 1 number plate is the most expensive sold in Australia.

There have been plenty of other big figure number plate sales in Australia in the past few years.

Shannons Auctions sold the number “14” for $2,270,500 in 2022, which was a record sum for a Victorian two-digit plate.

That plate was bought for $75,000 back in 1988.

The NSW “4” number plate sold for $2.45m back in 2017 and the NSW “1” motorcycle licence plate was up for grabs in 2018 for $1m.

Originally published as Victoria’s ‘luckiest’ number plate sells for huge price