DVLA auctions explained
The DVLA sells registrations at auction as well as at fixed prices. The auctions are timed and online, about 2,000 lots at a time, and anyone aged 18 or over who registers, with a UK address for the certificate, can bid. The winning bid is not the price: add 20 per cent VAT, a 3 per cent buyer’s premium with VAT on it, and the £80.00 assignment fee. A winning bid of £1,000.00 costs £1,316.00.
- Next auction
- Nov. 2026
- Bidding opens
- 18 Nov. 2026
- First lots close
- 24 Nov. 2026
- Lots
- 2,000
DVLA auction calculator: what you would really pay
The winning bid leaves out three charges: 20 per cent VAT on the bid, a 3 per cent buyer’s premium with VAT on it, and the £80.00 assignment fee. A winning bid of £1,000.00 costs £1,316.00 in all. Type the bid you have in mind to see what you would pay, or the most you want to pay in all to see the winning bid that matches it.
The fees for common bids and budgets, worked out, are on our DVLA auction calculator page.
What a winning bid really costs
These are the charges the DVLA’s auction site sets out. Work out your limit from the total, not from the bid.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Winning bid | £1,000.00 |
| VAT on the bid, 20 per cent | £200.00 |
| Buyer’s premium, 3 per cent | £30.00 |
| VAT on the premium, 20 per cent | £6.00 |
| DVLA assignment fee | £80.00 |
| Total | £1,316.00 |
Every lot has a starting price set by the DVLA. It is shown as the minimum bid and leaves out the VAT, the premium and the fee. Our DVLA auction calculator works out the final price of any bid, and the most to bid for any budget.
How bidding works
- Register. Sign up on the DVLA’s auction site. You can bid up to £1,000 straight away.
- Pay a deposit to bid higher. Above £1,000 the site asks for 10 per cent of the most you want to bid: £120 to bid £1,200. It comes off your bill if you win and is refunded within three working days if you do not.
- Set your limit and keep to it. A bid cannot be cancelled.
- Be there at the end. Each bid in the last 30 minutes moves the end of the lot to 30 minutes after that bid, so the end time can slide.
- Pay within five working days. Payment is due by 11.59pm on the fifth working day after the auction ends, by card or bank transfer. American Express, cash and cheques are not accepted, nor payment by phone or split across cards.
- Receive the certificate. Once payment clears, the DVLA sends a V750 Certificate of Entitlement within three weeks.
The name and address on your account go on the certificate and cannot be changed once you have paid, so check them first. To buy for somebody else, add them as a nominee at no extra cost. Lots that do not sell may come back at a later auction.
Every DVLA auction, month by month
Every DVLA auction since Jan. 2025 has its own page, the results once it has closed and a preview while its catalogue is out:
- Jan. 2027 (preview)
- Nov. 2026 (preview)
- Oct. 2026
- Sept. 2026
- July 2026
- June 2026
- May 2026
- March 2026
- Feb. 2026
- Jan. 2026
- Nov. 2025
- Oct. 2025
- Sept. 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- March 2025
- Feb. 2025
- Jan. 2025
Every result is also searchable in our DVLA auction results, and the 20 lots of the coming auction we expect to fetch the most are in our DVLA auction predictions.
Coming auctions
As published on the auction site on 18 Oct. 2026. Dates can move, so check the calendar before you plan around one.
| Auction | Bidding |
|---|---|
| Nov. 2026 | Opens 18 Nov., first lots close 24 Nov. |
| Jan. 2027 | 6 to 12 Jan. |
| Feb. 2027 | 10 to 16 Feb. |
| March 2027 | 17 to 23 March |
| April 2027 | 7 to 13 April |
| May 2027 | 12 to 18 May |
| June 2027 | 23 to 29 June |
Past results
The auction site publishes the prices achieved at every past auction. They are the best public evidence of what registrations sell for, and I would read them before bidding on anything. My report on the Sept. auction counts all 2,000 results. Compare registrations built the same way, not just the same letters. My guide to what a private plate is worth explains why.
DVLA auctions since Dec. 1989
I have kept a record of the DVLA’s auction results from Dec. 1989: 51,561 registrations sold up to July 2012, with none from March 2004 to July 2011. The DVLA’s own published results fill those years and run on to Nov. 2024, and the auction site gives every result since Jan. 2025, so the table below covers every year, 333,110 sales in all. Before Jan. 2025 the figures are the results as they were recorded and published, and every bid is in the pounds of its day.
| Year | Sold | Median | Highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 74 | £11,000.00 | 1 A £160,000.00 |
| 1990 | 1,972 | £3,200.00 | 1 S £80,000.00 |
| 1991 | 2,340 | £2,600.00 | 1 DM £65,000.00 |
| 1992 | 2,127 | £2,500.00 | CHR 1S £40,000.00 |
| 1993 | 3,649 | £2,600.00 | K1 NGS £185,000.00 |
| 1994 | 2,647 | £2,900.00 | 1 RR £85,000.00 |
| 1995 | 2,577 | £3,100.00 | N1 ALL £40,000.00 |
| 1996 | 3,246 | £2,700.00 | P1 LOT £66,000.00 |
| 1997 | 3,993 | £3,000.00 | 1 SJC £33,000.00 |
| 1998 | 3,540 | £3,200.00 | S1 NGH £86,000.00 |
| 1999 | 3,989 | £3,200.00 | COL 1N £61,000.00 |
| 2000 | 3,813 | £3,200.00 | A5 TON £61,000.00 |
| 2001 | 6,309 | £2,700.00 | S108 HAN £52,500.00 |
| 2002 | 3,463 | £3,800.00 | 1 MK £66,000.00 |
| 2003 | 3,973 | £3,200.00 | DAU 1D £33,500.00 |
| 2004 | 7,825 | £2,600.00 | DO54 NJH £50,000.00 |
| 2005 | 8,023 | £2,500.00 | SCR 4P £54,000.00 |
| 2006 | 7,793 | £2,800.00 | 51 NGH £201,000.00 |
| 2007 | 8,295 | £2,700.00 | WE57 HAM £45,000.00 |
| 2008 | 8,908 | £1,900.00 | 1 RH £196,000.00 |
| 2009 | 10,794 | £1,300.00 | 1 D £285,000.00 |
| 2010 | 10,589 | £1,300.00 | 9 O £74,500.00 |
| 2011 | 11,007 | £1,200.00 | 1 OO £60,500.00 |
| 2012 | 10,637 | £1,000.00 | DH11 LON £61,000.00 |
| 2013 | 11,182 | £1,100.00 | 18 O £50,000.00 |
| 2014 | 10,767 | £1,110.00 | 25 O £400,000.00 |
| 2015 | 12,297 | £1,100.00 | KR15 HNA £180,000.00 |
| 2016 | 11,698 | £1,100.00 | 60 O £95,000.00 |
| 2017 | 12,140 | £1,100.00 | JSK 1 £56,200.00 |
| 2018 | 13,384 | £1,110.00 | 33 O £57,000.00 |
| 2019 | 13,985 | £1,130.00 | 51 CK £68,000.00 |
| 2020 | 13,865 | £1,560.00 | 86 A £87,020.00 |
| 2021 | 17,281 | £1,610.00 | DEV 1L £240,010.00 |
| 2022 | 17,133 | £1,510.00 | PAT 3K £78,010.00 |
| 2023 | 17,223 | £1,510.00 | H1 NDU £112,010.00 |
| 2024 | 17,240 | £1,430.00 | L1 BYA £80,000.00 |
| 2025 | 17,736 | £1,510.00 | 52 O £102,010.00 |
| 2026 | 15,596 | £1,510.00 | 15 LAM £156,010.00 |
The highest price in the record is K1 NGS, £185,000.00 in Dec. 1993, still more than any registration has made at a DVLA auction since Jan. 2025. The highest of every result we hold is 25 O, a winning bid of £400,000.00 in Nov. 2014. Every result is in our DVLA auction results.
Each style then and now
The median winning bid of each style in the record, set against the auctions since Jan. 2025, with the number sold under each. The lots the DVLA offers have changed as well as the prices: in the early years the auctions were mostly dateless registrations, while today each auction has hundreds of prefix and suffix marks with low starting prices, so a lower median for a style says as much about what was offered as about what it is worth.
| Style | 1989 to 2012 | Since 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Dateless | £3,300.00 37,080 sold | £4,010.00 8,908 sold |
| Suffix | £2,100.00 7,097 sold | £1,290.00 12,639 sold |
| Prefix | £2,000.00 5,623 sold | £610.00 8,356 sold |
| Northern Irish | £500.00 1,741 sold | £1,120.00 1,796 sold |
| Current style | £3,600.00 19 sold | £1,300.00 1,618 sold |
Sold at auction twice
A handful of registrations in the record have come back to a DVLA auction since Jan. 2025 and sold again. Each is a rare like-for-like comparison across the years:
| Registration | Then | Since 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 9 LUX | £1,300.00 Oct. 1992 | £13,000.00 May 2026 |
| 5 LAX | £2,600.00 Sept. 1999 | £6,010.00 July 2026 |
| 4 JJY | £2,300.00 Oct. 1999 | £5,210.00 Oct. 2026 |
| 5 SNM | £1,700.00 April 1996 | £4,930.00 March 2025 |
| 88 GEO | £3,000.00 March 1990 | £4,060.00 March 2026 |
| 2222 KY | £1,100.00 June 1994 | £2,480.00 March 2026 |
| 100 RLN | £1,200.00 Oct. 1997 | £2,210.00 Sept. 2026 |
Every one of these results, and every other in the record, can be searched in our DVLA auction results, and each registration has its own page with its full auction history. The 100 highest prices for prefix registrations are set out, with what each reads as and fits, in our top 100 prefix private plates at DVLA auction.
Before you bid
- Check it fits. A registration with a year letter or identifier can only go on a vehicle at least that old. The number plate years chart gives every date.
- Check the spacing. The registration must be displayed with its legal spacing. If the reading you want only works with the characters moved, the number plates would be illegal. See our number plate rules.
- Compare the total. Add the charges before you compare an auction lot with a fixed price anywhere else. Our DVLA auction checker does it for every lot in the coming auction, every day until it closes.
After you win
The V750 certificate lets you assign the registration mark whenever you are ready, or keep it for ten years and renew it free. My guide to the V750 Certificate of Entitlement covers assigning, nominees and renewal.
Other ways to buy
GOV.UK lists three: from the DVLA at a fixed price, at a DVLA auction, or from a business or person who holds one. Every route ends with the same DVLA paperwork. You can search our private plates at fixed prices, every one with VAT and the £80.00 fee included, and our page is a private plate cheaper from the DVLA? answers the price question directly.
Questions
How much does a DVLA auction registration really cost?
The winning bid plus 20 per cent VAT, a 3 per cent buyer’s premium with VAT on it, and the £80.00 assignment fee. A winning bid of £1,000.00 costs £1,316.00 in all.
Do I need a deposit?
Not to bid up to £1,000. Above that, the auction site asks for a deposit of 10 per cent of the most you want to bid. It counts towards the bill if you win and is refunded within three working days if you do not.
Can I cancel a bid?
No. A bid placed cannot be withdrawn, so set your limit before you start.
Why did the end time move?
Each bid in the last 30 minutes moves the end of that lot to 30 minutes after the bid, and it keeps moving until the bidding stops. Plan to be there at the end.
Is an auction the cheapest way to buy?
Not always. The starting price excludes VAT, the premium and the fee, so the total is well above the figure on screen. Compare totals, never headline prices.
The charges and dates here are from the DVLA auction site’s help page, and GOV.UK’s buying a private number page sets out the official routes. See also how buying works.