Leaving the Auction Venue Without Answering Questions After Winning the Bid
At a customized car license plate auction in Hong Kong, a license plate with only the uppercase letter 'R' was sold for 4.1 billion KRW. This is the second highest price ever recorded at a customized car license plate auction.
According to local media including Ming Pao on the 13th, at the New Year customized car license plate auction held by the Hong Kong Transport Department the day before, the 'R' license plate started at an opening bid of 5,000 HKD and was finally sold for 25.5 million HKD (approximately 4.15 billion KRW).
Before the auction, license plate dealers predicted that the 'R' plate, associated with racing cars and considered a lucky number in Chinese numerology, would sell for at least 10 million HKD, but the final bid far exceeded this expectation.
About ten people participated in the auction for the 'R' plate, and after the bid surpassed 10 million HKD, only two participants remained in competition. These two engaged in about 60 rounds of bidding battles, and a woman emerged as the final winner.
The winning bid of 25.5 million HKD is 5,099 times higher than the starting price. The winning woman left the auction venue without responding to reporters' questions.
The winning price of 'R' ranks as the second highest in the history of customized car license plate auctions. The highest price ever was for the 'W' plate, sold for 26 million HKD (approximately 4.23 billion KRW) in March 2021.
Numbers favored by Chinese people are '8·2·9'
A total of 49 license plates were offered at this auction, and 41 of them were sold. Most of the sold plates included the number 8, which is favored by Chinese people, such as '1388', 'UU 88', 'TT 88', and 'VV 8888'.
In China, the number 8 is known as a lucky number because its pronunciation is similar to 'fa' (發) in 'fa cai' (發財), which means to make money.
Also, the number 2 is preferred by Chinese people because its pronunciation in Cantonese is almost the same as 'yi' (易), meaning easy.
The pronunciation of the number 9 in Chinese, 'jiu' (九), is also liked because it sounds the same as 'jiu' (久), meaning long-lasting or longevity.
At this auction, the '292' license plate was sold for 850,000 HKD (approximately 140 million KRW), making it the second highest price after 'R'.
Hong Kong's customized car license plate auctions began in 1973. Ahead of this auction, on the 11th, the Hong Kong Transport Secretary revealed on a blog that since 2006, the Hong Kong government has earned about 600 million HKD (approximately 97.66 billion KRW) through customized car license plate auctions.
The revenue from license plate sales, after deducting various costs, is used for the government lottery fund, which serves charitable purposes.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
