Imagine 80,000 License Plate Collection

You suppose in the last year and a couple months they decided what to do with the collection?

I keep collecting them by buying right, putting them in one tray, and then I end up selling them because they never come out of the swap meet stuff. Except for the matched pair of '32 plates, those I pulled out.

 

I would like to find a decent South Dakota plate from 1958...

 

You people are crazy ! But wait. After I put vinyl siding on our house and one side of my 40X32 garage in Illinois I got this brilliant idea to put license plates on the long side facing the dead end street beyond our cul-de-sac. After all, most are aluminum and they'd reflect on-coming car lights before they had to turn right. During our first years there were several who didn't turn and went through the chain link fence nearly hitting my garage. Hey it was beginning to make sense!
I already had a lot of plates I'd saved over the years. Illinois had a front and rear and they were new every year. I had this nasty habit of saving everything. I still have a few parts from my first Model A, Model T, and Mustang. Plus I bought several year of manufacture plates for my old cars. Yes, including 1931 Illinois tags.
I began hitting junk yards around home and on vacations for license plates. I created a game. I wasn't paying for any plates. This made it more difficult in junk yards but was turned down very few times after explaining why I wanted them. I got fancy and using red Michigan tags made large diamond patterns and cut plates to fit around windows
Even the neigbors and city big wigs liked my art work. Then luck was with me. Got a call from The Inquirer or one of those rag papers. A reporter came all the way from Decatur, Ala in mid winter to photograph me and my license plate wall and do a story. I was soon world famous. Sorta worried at first. People from all over the world began sending mostly new plates to the large CAT house where I worked.
I still wonder how many license plates never made it to my department. This free publicity made hunting tags easier. I just took a copy of the magazine story with me to the junk yards and back yards. I was constantly changing and updating my license plate wall. Since I drove semis for that large company I was saving the old tractor and trailer plates also. People on shipping docks at our other plants gave me boxes of license plates.
Then came retirement and selling the house. I debated about just putting vinyl siding over the license plates or removing them. I did remove them, planning on taking them with me to Florida, which I did. But here we live in the boonies and very few would see my plates. I put just enough on one side of the garage sorta like shutters, next to a window between the house and garage. I look out everyday at those special plates. Some from trucks I drove at work. Some from cars my kids had with vanity tags. And some the oldest boy brought back from Desert Storm and other places he was stationed in the Marines. Even plates friends brought from Aruba, Alaska, and other places.
I used scrap PVC pipe and small metal posts with wire strung to hang more tags around the curve of our driveway with wire ties. My wife's job is replacing the wire ties as they rot and break. Just this week we got compliments from the LP delivery man and my friend who checked out my computer tower. Kinda trashy and silly. But worth every minute.
I also have Florida year of manufacture tags for all of our old cars, from the 39 Ford to my 55 Chevy wagon. The old plates waiting to go on my projects are hanging or sitting around in the living room. Yes, I had to buy most of the older plates.
None of my plates stink as far as we can tell.

 

Started collecting plates a few years ago! Couldn't decide what to do with
them,so started making things with them, mostly tag purses. People and
friends starting wanting them. Started making a few, then sold some. I
have made signs, lamps, & clocks. However I do not use old plates for this
as I collect those. Recent discarded plates are still interesting to work with
and people notice and comment when my wife carries her purse out!!! Just having fun

 

Dredging this one back up.......Anyone have 1941 Florida plates? I am building a 41 Ford Tudor for a client down in Florida. His grandfather bought this car new, we are upgrading but keeping everything looking as stock as possible......from the outside.

 

Anyone know what color a 1923 license plate from N.C. would be, Thanks Dempsey

 

There seem to be two used in 1923:

expires June 30 1923 is white on green
expires June 30 1924 is maroon on gray

 

What ever happened to the plates in the original post of this thread?

 

Probably the folks found out that when you unload That many plates into a market that has That few players, the prices start heading downward quickly.

A friend found that out about stamps about ten-eleven years ago after his father died. Not to say he wasn't warned; other collectors did warn him. And they were right.

Cosmo

 

I'm with you there! I have several in the garage and with time, the smell seems to fade, but extras in a drawer smell like the old gym lockers in Jr. High!

Yuk.

 

I am looking for a few 1940 plates to round out my collection of all 48 states. I need Delaware, Washington DC, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, &North Carolina. I'd like to stay under $50-60 and any reasonable condition is OK as long its legible. I am going to paint a map of the US on a 4X8 sheet of plywood and put each plate in its proper spot. I have a 40 Ford 2dr sedan.

 

Maybe it's the smell of federal penitentiary.

 

Price of plates are funny, I was looking for 1952 KS plates and found them on CL and eBay from non collectors trying to get $50 for them. Ended up finding several collectors that sell plates, I think I gave one $35 for a matching pair and a single.

 

I'll have to ask, and see what he says. Supposedly there was some LP group that was going to handle the sale for the family.

 

I couldn't imagine 80,000 plates , hell there might be 800,000 plates , who the hells counting after 8,000 ! LOL ! I would lose count after 20 plates ! That's all the fingers and toes I have! 1234567891011121314151617 ah 12345678910 ah forget it !

 

Drop trou and count to 21.