The 'personalised plate' monopoly

Forums › Off topic › The 'personalised plate' monopoly - thoughts?

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#495296 19-Jul-2011 14:46

Historically I bought 3 personalised plates, first around 1999.

I missed out on a 4th set where I sent the cheque in, meanwhile someone sniped me with their credit card while cheque was in the mail.

Their price increases over the years is what has stopped me buying any more plates, even though the ideas I have are still available. Also I have often wanted to upgrade plates to red colour lettering, but at $300, no thanks!

nickb800

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#495327 19-Jul-2011 15:53

Sure they give a large chunk of profits to the RST, but PPL is owned by private shareholders (Jeremy & Marylin Lubeck), and Im sure they still cream it. Having said that, I would assume there is a rigorous arrangement in place, and that such a monopoly isnt given away on hugely favorable terms

mattwnz

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#495329 19-Jul-2011 16:06

I will retype part of what I typed earlier, but for some reason it didn't get posted under the quote.

I think it is similar to .NZ domain names, where you used to have one company doing all the domain registrations in NZ and domains were quite expensive. Sure you had some resellers, but they just resold Domainz domains. Then when it was opened up to competition, prices fell a lot.

NonprayingMantis

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#495332 19-Jul-2011 16:07

why would anyone pay $400+ just so they can look like a douchebag?

billgates

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#495334 19-Jul-2011 16:09

NonprayingMantis: why would anyone pay $400+ just so they can look like a douchebag?

so having a personalised plate makes you look like a douche?

Do whatever you want to do man.

mattwnz

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#495338 19-Jul-2011 16:14

Sometimes, depending on the car and what it says :)

However sometimes they are witty, and some companies use them too for advertising. They haven't really become all that popular in NZ, like they are in the UK.

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blakamin

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#495368 19-Jul-2011 17:41

If they had brains they'd drop the price to $300 and sell 5 times as many...
I bought one for my old car years ago (sold with it).
At current prices there's no way in hell I'd buy another.

If they really wanted to make the roads safer, they could send a cop out with me one day... He'd be able to book the people that do stupid stuff on main highways (like the old person today that decided to pull over and let traffic pass... ON A 2 LANE BRIDGE! In front of a fully loaded semi. That was just one of many morons(I love my job))

nate

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#495378 19-Jul-2011 18:06

NonprayingMantis: why would anyone pay $400+ just so they can look like a douchebag?

Company branding purposes.

nickb800

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#495385 19-Jul-2011 18:40

blakamin: If they had brains they'd drop the price to $300 and sell 5 times as many...
I bought one for my old car years ago (sold with it).
At current prices there's no way in hell I'd buy another.

Id assume they're not dumb, and have figured out demand. If demand is relatively price inelastic (companies looking for advertising on their fleet arent too bothered paying $800 for a plate), then they can make more profit by selling a lower quantity of plates (ie. not to you and other people unwilling to buy at $800) with a massive margin, compared to high quantity of plates with a lower margin (at say $300 a plate)

mattwnz

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#495392 19-Jul-2011 18:56

You can buy second hand ones on trademe from $300, so they aren't exactly the best investment either, unless you get one of the good ones.

cisconz

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#495499 19-Jul-2011 22:54

My understanding was that the pricing model that was origionally agreed on between plates and LTSA was based on the avarage price of a mens dinner suit as they are classed as a fashion accessory.

Hmmmm

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stevenz

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#495514 19-Jul-2011 23:48

muppet: This is a combination of two simple things:

1) Plates have the monopoly
2) There's a sucker born every minute (and they love customised plates.)

3) Demand has gone way down as anything good is long gone so they need to ramp the price up to make up for the ones that REALLY need their try-hard plate.

@KnightNZ

networkn

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#495519 19-Jul-2011 23:54

Plenty of good plates left, the ones that left will need to be more clever is all.

fab

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#496177 21-Jul-2011 11:30

Agree with previous posts on this one - would love to know the actual percentage of net profits given to the trust...call me cynical, but I don't expect it to be much. PPL please prove me wrong!

networkn

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#496202 21-Jul-2011 12:26

NonprayingMantis: why would anyone pay $400+ just so they can look like a douchebag?

Are you calling my grandmother who was given a plate by her work for 10 years of service a douche?

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