Every so often we get asked about motor vehicle plates being on the site so we thought we'd get the word out how we see things:

General Purpose Plates

General purpose plates are the property of the New Zealand Government, however when vehicles are de-registered, vehicle owners may retain plates in certain circumstances.

Trade Me allows the sale of plates where they are older than the current generation of general purpose plates made of aluminium with black embossed characters that generally feature 6 digits.

This means ordinary plates issued since 1986 cannot be listed.

Older plates issued between 1964 and 1986 such as the classic black plates with silver characters may be sold on Trade Me.

Older historical plates may be listed as well.

Plates for motorcycles, trailers and tractors are treated the same as ordinary plates.

Personalised registration plates

Personalised plates approved by the NZ Transport Agency and overseas plates are able to be sold.

Obviously only NZTA approved plates may be used in NZ.

Trade plates

Trade plates (pictured above) are used for businesses involved in the sale, manufacturing, repair and maintenance of vehicles.

They are often used to move vehicles when they are unregistered.

Only registered persons may use trade plates and members of the public should have no interest in purchasing them.

Accordingly, trade plates may not be listed to help reduce the chance of their misuse.

International plates

Any plates from overseas may be sold.

Vehicle identities

Vehicle identities such as VIN numbers may not be sold on Trade Me as this is an illegal practice.

What kind of licence plates can be listed on Trade Me?