Number plate auction hopes to top 8 million baht

PHUKET CITY: A total of 301 numbers will go on the block at Phuket’s second two-day auction of car license plates, starting at 8:30 am on October 15 and 16 at The Metropole Hotel Phuket.

Theerayuth Prasertphol, Chief Technical Officer of the Phuket Provincial Transportation Office (PPTO), told the Gazette today that there will be a variety of categories of numbers up for sale, all starting with the letters ก (“gor-gai”) ฉ (“chor-ching”) followed by digits. The background image on the license plate is the same as last year’s – the view of Laem Promthep.

Some of the categories are: single digits from 1 to 9; pairs (11, 22, etc); three-of-a-kind (111, 222, etc); four-of-a-kind (1111, 2222, etc); thousands (1000, 2000, etc); runs of three (such as 123), double pairs (1122, 5588, etc); palindromic numbers (1221, 3443, etc); and repeating pairs (1212, 5353, etc).

“In the first auction, in 2003, the number that got the highest bid was 9999 at 1.2 million baht, followed by 111 at 800,000 baht. But because of Phuket’s recent economic slump,” K. Theerayuth said, “people are not expected to make very high bids this time.”

The starting bid for repeating pairs is 500 baht and for double pairs and thousands it is 3,000 baht.

The auction will be open to all-comers, including those who want to replace the existing number on their cars – and even people who do not have a car at all. Bidders must bring along their ID card, passport or letter of proxy in the case of a representative bidder.

Income from the first auction of vehicle registration numbers was donated to the Road Safety Fund to help victims of road accidents and to support traffic safety education in schools.

“The fund received about 8.5 million baht from the first auction. This year we hope for no less than 8 million,” K. Theerayuth said.

For more information, call the PPTO at Tel: 076-214930, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday.