Are You Vain Enough For A Vanity Plate
Vanity plates are a big revenue-producer for some states. At a recent auction in Dallas, one man paid $7500 for “PORSCHE” and another $3000 for “AMERICA” – it would be ironic if he drove a Honda. The same man tried bidding on “FERRARI” but backed down after the plate reached $15,000.
“People like to express themselves, especially in Texas,” says a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. This year, at the nation’s first such auction, Texas sold 33 plates for $139,400.
So, who has the most vanity plates per capita? Virginia comes in at No. 1, with 16% of all vehicles tagged with specialized plates. New Hampshire, the “Live Free Or Die” state was second, followed by Illinois.
Other countries have already cashed in on this, with big results. “A businessman in Abu Dhabi bought a license plate with “1″ at an auction for $14.3 million in 2008. Last year, in England, a retired businessman bought “1 RH”—his initials—for about $400,000. Hong Kong sold a plate that read “STORAGE” for $12,000.”
What kind of people like vanity plates? A paper published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that drivers with vanity plates, stickers and other “territory markers” were more likely to use their vehicles in an aggressive way—by honking, tailgating and other short-tempered behavior.
“We were surprised that something as simple as a vanity plate or having some personal identity attached to a car relates to a willingness to cut someone else off,” says Jake Benfield, assistant professor at Penn State University.
Source: Wall Street Journal
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