I have a California license plate- specialized one- that came off a car we "donated" '79 RX7 since it would no longer pass smog, and needed room for the Prius. Can I legally sell it - like on ebay?
I don't believe so. License plates, ownership documents, even your driver's license are ISSUED to you, for a fee, of course, but remain the property of the state. Illegal plates, mutilated plates, bogus and mutilated driver's licenses are routinely seized by police officers and returned to DMV. I'm sure some legal beagle will correct me if I'm wrong.
i believe this is true as well. when i moved to cali and got my plates here i had to sign a piece of paper saying i was going to mail my plates back to ohio DMV. when i was a kid we hung our old plates in the garage, call me sentimental. -drew
I recently call the Motor Vehicle folks in New Hampshire regarding turning in plates for my car that was totaled. Response - no credit and we don't want the plates back. Hold onto them until your new car arrives. Hurry Prius, your plates are waiting on the wall of my garage.
Selling plates on Ebay are as follows: The plate cannot be a "current" plate (i.e. the graphic varieties currently being circulated). The plate must be at least 5 years old, and not have a current sticker on it. Most states do not care what happens to the plate so long as it is not current in their system. One of my side "distrations" is plate collecting, and I have a wall in my shop full of them from all 50 states, and several Canadian provinces, as well as Guam and Germany. Selling the plate off of your old 79 RX7 will not be a problem.
Just a curious question from a non-American. Do I gather from this thread that plates are issued to the individual, not the car? And can be freely used on any car?
It depends on the state. States like California, Texas, and others issue the plate to the car, and normally they stay on the car and pass on to the new owner at sale. The exception to this practice is vanity plates. In Texas anyway, if you have a vanity plate, you need to have it re-resgistered with a standard plate prior to selling the car. In states like Colorado, the plate is issued to the owner, and they are required to remove the plate from the vehicle, when it is sold. Some states are very adimate about having the old plates returned to the DMV. New York comes to mind on this one, as does New Mexico. Texas likes this to happen, yet I've gotten plates directly from the DMV office for my collection.
A favorite thing to do among some people I know who own a valuable car and then their "extra car" is for when property tax time comes around, have the plates transferred to the extra (crap) car, pay your $40 in property taxes for the year, then pay the $20 to have them transferred back to the corvette or whatever car would have had a $1,000+ property tax.
[/quote]Some states are very adimate about having the old plates returned to the DMV. New York comes to mind on this one,
Wow - property tax on a car? The only thing we have in CA is the vehicle license fee, and I'm not sure transferring the plates back and forth would negate that.
