Here in the US of A, many people are willing to plop down extra money for the thrill of having a special vanity license tag on their car. Selling these tags to people who have money burning holes in their pockets has brought in tons of moolah for the states that participate, and at least the money goes for good causes such as education, wildlife conservation, and bridges and highways.
Now, my dream has always been to have a vanity tag reading "VNITY TAG" because I am such a literalist, but if you really want to look rich, just get the tag "P7" on your dusty old Duster, because one like that, sold to someone in Dubai, is now the most expensive license tag in the world.
That white license plate sold at auction for 55 million dirhams - 15 million American clams. The identity of the lucky purchaser has not been revealed, probably because people would be lining up to sell him a light saber, a time machine, Chicago Cubs World Series tickets, or other things that will probably never exist.
In 2008, someone from the United Arab Emirates shelled out 52 million dirhams ($14 million) for the number "1" tag. That buyer was businessman Saeed Abdul Ghafour Khouri, and if anyone out there has his phone number, I would like to call him and ask how he came to have so many dirhams.
Dubai, a city with lots of oil money and no income tax, has lots of people with oil money to burn, so to speak. Lisa Fleisher and Low De Wei write in Bloomberg News that dropping large sums of money on vanity plates is a way for the “ultra-rich to show off their status and wealth.”
The most money any American was willing to pay for a tag is like $400,000 for someone in Delaware, and no, I checked, it does not read I M BIDEN.
And the good part of this shindig in Dubai was, it raised $27 million for the One Billion Meals Endowment, an initiative that fights food insecurity across the globe.
No comments:
Post a Comment