Buyers quick off mark as Hong Kong car plates ‘S’ and ‘88’ go for millions

Two car number plates, one bearing the single letter “S” and the other the digits “88”, have each fetched more than HK$11 million (US$1.4 million) at auction in Hong Kong, beating market expectations.

The plates were among 49 up for grabs at an annual Lunar New Year auction held by the Transport Department on Sunday.

The “S” plate, a rare single-letter registration mark, fetched HK$14.2 million, the highest price among all plates sold. The plate had an opening price of just HK$5,000 but a prospective buyer offered HK$8 million as soon as bidding started.

Meanwhile, the “88” plate went for HK$11.4 million, the second-highest price of the day, with bidding lasting about 13 minutes. The number 8 is associated with the word “fortune” in Chinese.

According to Hong Kong-based insurance broker Automate Wealth Management (AWM), the “S” plate had been expected to fetch at least HK$10 million ahead of the auction.

Single-letter number plates were regarded as a sign of status and “S” was closely associated with the Superman logo, the firm said.