About Me
I've been collecting license plates since I was 10 years old. My main interests are pre-1920s from all states, Utah runs of some types, and I'm trying to get one plate from every country on the planet. I'm not really in the selling business, but I have extra plates that are piling up, and I wanted to learn how to design a website, so this was my opportunity to learn. And, the best part, it was free - using Microsoft Office Live Basic.
Here's My License Plate Story
I started collecting license plates in the 1960s when I was 10 years old and my Uncle Glen gave me a pair of mint 1967 South Dakota license plates. I still have one of them. Not long after that I got some old Utah plates off an old barn roof that was using them as shingles, and then painted them to match the colors of my favorite NFL football teams. I’m sure most of you shutter at the idea. I’ll admit, I haven’t done anything quite like that since, although I’ve still got an old 1948 Utah, “This Is The Place” plate painted in the colors of the San Francisco 49ers.
Plates hung around my bedroom and Lionel train set for years. In 1993, when living in Alabama I started going to swap meets and flea markets. People were actually selling license plates. I couldn’t believe it. I got a little excited and started buying some plates – particularly 1959 birth year plates. I also had some time on weekends, and so I started visiting wrecking yards and trying to convince some skeptical owners that I was a legitimate license plate collector. And frequently, I was following a European collector that was trading a cool international plate for a ton of US plates. I had a hard time competing, but I kept at it.
When I moved back to Utah, I put an ad in my company newsletter offering to buy “old license plates”. This helped turn up a 1915 rusty Utah plate. It also let a colleague at work know that I collected license plates, and he put me in touch with another friend of his that was a “real” license plate collector. I visited Jeff Pierce at his autobody shop in Ogden, and he had a full run of Utah plates mounted on his wall, as well as a plate from nearly every country on earth. He gave me an arm full of duplicate plates, and an ALPCA magazine, and told me there were thousands of guys in a club that actually collected and traded plates. What a nice guy to actually give a guy plates to get him started in the hobby. And, I needed a magazine like this ALPCA Register to convince my wife that I wasn’t the only crazy guy around that liked license plates. I joined the club and have been buying more serious plates ever since.
I remember when I first started buying and trading plates from ALPCA members, I had a couple of interesting experiences. A very nice German collector was offering to trade European plates for US plates. Without e-mail, it took awhile to work out a deal, and I finally received several neat European plates in the mail. I had boxed up 80 or so US plates in trade and sent them surface mail. I never worried much about condition back then and I think I probably offended this very nice Germany collector with some of the junk I sent him. There were plenty of mint condition plates, but some junk as well. I can’t even remember who it was, but I apologize if it was you. Remember, I was about 2 months new to ALPCA at the time.
About this time the local ABC news station did a story on John Dodge and his massive and rare collection of Utah plates. Not long after that, I found John's name in the phone book, called him, and paid him a visit. I had already started my Utah run with $2 rusties from the 20s and 30s that I had bought at several local antique shops. I hadn't ever seen a Utah plate from the 1910s but John had some solid rusty ones that he sold me for a good deal. That was another novel way to get a guy hooked on collecting plates and build the ALPCA membership base (sell them your duplicates plates for a decent price.)
I decided early on that I was going to collect old plates. My first objective was to get one plate (didn't matter which state) from every year before 1930. This wasn’t too tough, and if you picked the right plate, you could get them fairly cheaply. One time in the ALPCA classifieds, someone was selling some New Hampshire plates. It was listed as 1905/11 and I thought this meant they were selling 7 different plates – a run from 1905, 1906, and down to 1911. And for only $40! I thought this was a bargain, as it would help me get one plate for every year rather quickly and for only $6 a plate. When “the” plate arrived, I wondered where the rest were. I had to learn things the hard way. But, this nice 1905/11 for $40 was still a bargain.
I bought an Arizona run from a fellow club friend, and decided to keep the pre-1920 plates and sell the rest. Again, I was still relatively new to the hobby and didn't realize how important condition was. This was back before e-mail and electronic pictures and all that, and I had advertized a 1931 Arizona plate in Excellent condition. It really was in excellent condition, except for the 3 or 4 very small nail holes. I didn't think nail holes were any big deal. Being new to the hobby, half of my plates had nail holes in them. I even had a very low price on the plate. I mailed the plate, and within 6 days it was back in my mailbox with a scathing letter demanding a refund. I learned a lesson. I also hope that we all have a little more patience with new collectors than this guy had with me. Another novel idea to keep people in the hobby.
When I joined ALPCA, I thought all plates were 12” x 6” and made of tin. I had never heard of porcelain plates, didn’t know what a “tag” was, had no idea why 1943 window stickers were so expensive, wondered why anyone would want a sample plate instead of a real plate, had no idea how "waffled" made it's way into the hobby, lost interest when someone started talking about DAVs or BF Goodrich’s, and thought soybean or cardboard plates were fakes. It’s been fun learning about the hobby and the unique things associated with it.
It was tough at first to find plates. I used to hear people talk about all the neat finds they had made and wondered how they did it. In the end, it just took creativity and perseverance. I started asking around at work. I talked to old farmers. I advertised in the Farm Bureau newspaper for old plates and within a few months I bought a lot of old Utah plates, including an original pair of 1915s in good condition. Believe it or not, several years later, I actually traded this nice pair of original Utah 1915s for some other rare repainted plates. Dumb as this might seem, it was through this trade that my pre-1920 interest in other states was born. And this isn’t the first time that I’ve traded “down”. I prefer restored plates and rough plates with character. And since I don’t have the nerve to paint plates with original paint already on them, I find myself looking for rusties, just begging to be restored someday.
I guess I can blame my father for this. When I was little, he used to buy old farm machinery and then fix it up to look like new. And then it didn’t just sit and get looked at. It got used on the farm. I remember spraying an old Sperry New Holland Combine with red paint and having to explain to my dad why my little brother was as red as the combine. But making a combine or tractor look new made me feel good. And doing the same thing to license plates makes me feel the same way.
I realize that a repaint is worth only a fraction of the price of an original. But, I guess I’m more interested in quantity than quality, believing that, for me at least, there’s more satisfaction in pondering the history of lots of old worn out plates, rather than a few mint condition ones. And when you’re primarily collecting pre-1920s plates, trying to find all of them in great condition, and being able to afford them as well, presents a bit of a challenge. So, lesser condition plates allow me to acquire more of these older rare plates. More than once I have thought, “if this plate could only talk.” I also like the idea that repainted or rougher condition plates can be handled without the fear of dropping it and reducing the value by 50%. Some people have arrogantly turned their nose on me because of my interest in old repainted plates. All I can say is that it's a good thing that we don't all have the same interests. We can all appreciate what someone else prefers to collect, and be supportive. Once again, this acceptance philosophy is another novel way to keep people hooked on plate collecting and in the club.
In 2000, we decided to add onto our home. I'm kind of a handy man, and had built our home 10 years earlier. I planned to do some of the work on the addition, but didn't plan to do it all. Half way through the project, I had an opportunity to purchase a 1913 Idaho. To fund this plate, I had to "work for plates" and lay the brick on my home addition rather than hire it done. I spent a few days learning, and then started bricking. I worked for 5 - 6 hours every night after I got home from my real job until it was done. It looks great, and only a professional bricklayer would scratch his head after looking at the job I did. It's still a subject of conversation in the neighborhood.
I've attended the Henderson meet several times, and have been to 6 national meets, including Denver 2000, Rhode Island 2004, Sioux Falls 2005, Ontario 2006, Huntsville 2007, and Erie 2009. I've taken my wife and our 7 kids to all of them except Ontario and Erie. We've used the National Convention as a way to decide where we take our family vacation each summer. I know that the club officers have never believed me when I've requested 9 name tags for my family. In fact, I think they changed the "free name tag" rule this past year, just because of me.
Plate collecting has helped bring history, geography, and transportation interests alive to me, with this very colorful, fun, and challenging hobby.
Old plates are, naturally, getting tougher and tougher to find. If I could ask one thing of you long time plate collectors, it is to sort through your plates, keeping those that are valuable or sentimental, and then put the other old rough and rusties up for sale for the rest of us collectors to enjoy. To expand the hobby, older plates of interest need to be available occasionally.
So, when you get a minute, go through your plates. And if there’s some old ones that you don’t need and up until now have thought, “I can’t imagine anyone wanting this” – think again and give me a call or list them in the next ALPCA magazine.