The Plate Ledger: The $1.75 Million Week

Some weeks are quiet. This was not one of them. Fifty-four plates changed hands across Collecting Cars and Trading Garage for a combined $1,746,225 all-in — the biggest single week the Plate Ledger has recorded, spanning six states and every format from entry signatures to seven-figure-adjacent heritage.

As always, every figure below is the all-in price: hammer plus the auction house's buyer's premium. That's what the winning bidder actually paid, and it's the only number that matters when you're tracking plates as assets.

 

The headline: NSW heritage leads the nation

New South Wales dominated the top of the board, confirming its status as the deepest heritage market in the country.

'439' at $233,100 all-in was the week's top lot — a three-digit NSW heritage plate, the length bracket where scarcity really bites. Right behind it, the mirrored four-digit '8338' at $224,220 shows the pattern premium at full force. And in a striking coincidence, the consecutive Queensland heritage plates 'Q103' and 'Q102' sold for exactly the same all-in figure — $183,150 each — a neat illustration of how tightly the market prices comparable combinations.

 

Queensland: a deep Q-plate run

Beyond the two headline Q-plates, Queensland had one of its strongest showings in the Ledger, with a full spread of Q-prefix heritage:

Add the QLD custom two-letter 'FF' at $54,265.68 all-in — a genuinely strong result for a clean two-character combination — and Queensland accounted for a substantial slice of the week's total. The low-number Q-plates (Q1589, Q1032, Q1029) clustering around $31,000–$33,000 all-in gives a useful reference point for four-digit Q-prefix heritage.

 

NSW mid-tier and the six-figure club

Below the headline lots, NSW kept producing:

Four NSW plates cleared six figures all-in this week alone — '439', '8338', '8990', '4613', '10151' and 'N90' all landing at or above $106,000. That concentration of high-value results in a single week underlines why NSW is regarded as the benchmark heritage market.

 

Victoria: volume across the board

Victoria brought the depth, with lots at every tier across both houses.

Heritage and numeric (Trading Garage led the value):

Signatures clustered in their familiar band: 'V·007' at $3,350, 'P91' at $3,500, 'Z·92' and 'HU1' at $3,150 each, '67·I' at $3,050, 'V·007' and the rest landing between roughly $1,800 and $3,500 all-in — a textbook demonstration of where the Victorian signature market sits. Entry customs like 'XXT', 'J88J' and 'GGG0' filled the accessible end from around $1,400 to $2,150 all-in.

 

South Australia, ACT and Tasmania

South Australia brought a tidy run of two-character signatures — 'PZ', 'R4', 'U4', '3R' and '4R' — all landing between $4,250 and $4,950 all-in, a consistent band that mirrors what SA two-character plates have done in previous recaps.

ACT offered a spread of heritage from '12222' at $1,550 up to '5585' at $5,550 all-in, with the four-digit combinations ('6388', '8839', '1758', '1785') clustering around $2,100–$3,050.

Tasmania's '18181' — a fully patterned five-digit — sold for $5,550 all-in, exactly the kind of alternating combination that outperforms its length.

 

Week snapshot

• Lots sold: 54 (Collecting Cars 50, Trading Garage 4)
• Total hammer: $1,564,106
• Total all-in: $1,746,225.06
• Top lot: NSW '439' — $233,100 all-in
• Six-figure lots: six (all NSW and QLD heritage)
• States represented: NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, ACT, TAS
• Story of the week: the Ledger's biggest week on record, led by NSW heritage

 

How we calculate all-in pricing

The Plate Ledger always reports the full purchase cost, not the headline hammer.

Collecting Cars: buyer's premium of 10% plus GST — an effective 11% including GST — with a minimum of A$550 including GST.

Trading Garage: buyer's premium of 8.8%, with a minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $16,000 per lot.

 

Protecting the asset

When six plates clear six figures in a single week and the top lot lands at $233,100, the point makes itself: these are serious assets, and the hardware presenting them should reflect that. Whether it's a $233,000 NSW three-digit or an entry signature, a plate holds its value when it's mounted and protected properly.

Browse our NSW numeric mounts, Victorian heritage collection and Queensland Q-plate brackets — precision-cut in Melbourne, fitted using your car's existing factory mounting points and supplied with anti-theft security screws as standard. Wondering what your own plate might be worth? See our guide to how Australian number plate values work.

The Plate Ledger is FLX's weekly record of Australian number plate auction results. All prices include buyer's premium. Results compiled from publicly listed auction outcomes; figures may be rounded by the auction houses.