"I'm astonished, to be honest. But in a good way."
This was the reaction from the group general manager at AllBids in Fyshwick after a single-letter number plate reached an ACT record of $147,200 at auction this week.
Ben Hastings had expected the bidding on the single letter 'X' plate to top out around the $40,000-$50,000 mark but as the auction closing time beckoned, the online bidding war escalated and the price kept racing upwards.
The winning bidder was a plate collector from Victoria.
"In the end, it came down to a bidding war between Victorian collectors who I suspect see a price like this for a plate of this type as a bargain," he said.
"Down in Victoria, you would pay much, much more for a rare plate like this."
In May this year, a number 14 Victorian plate topped at at more than $1.7 million. Two years ago in South Australia, the letter 1 sold for $700,000.
In NSW in late 2017 the NSW plate '4' sold for $2.45 million at auction.
Mr Hastings said some strong bids came in early which jumped the price on the ACT plate in $10,000 increments but it wasn't until toward the stipulated close of the auction that the competition began to get very active.
After the price hit $100,000, it then jumped quickly in $500 increments toward the closing.
"We were watching it, thinking 'wow, this is going nuts'," he said.
He said the extraordinary result has now stimulated interest among other ACT owners of these types of plates.
"I've been in contact with a few people who have single-digit ACT plates like this who are now thinking about selling," he said.
"But until I see the contract [for auction], I can't definitively say what I have to offer."
The X plate was part of an original ACT custom plate auction in 1993 and had been in the hands of one Canberra owner since then.
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