Souvenir Rally Plates, The long road to the best option Options

[VegasRacer]

Soon after Portland was chosen as the site for the 2006 WCC, I volunteered to handle the Souvenir Rally Plates. I figured the task would be a slam - dunk since my number 2 addiction is collecting Rally Plates. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/sad.gif) I was wrong.

My plan was the get Kroma to make Rally Plates for us. They are the company that makes the plates for the Rally Monte Carlo and many other European rallys events. I contacted both the corporate office and the sales division. Neither produced any results. I tracked down their phone number and called. They said they would fax some information. Nothing was sent. I even had a friend in France contact them. After limited communications they stopped replying after he gave them the details. I don't know if Kroma does not like Porsche's in general, 914's in particular or just does not want to deal with Americans. Either way my message to them is (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/flipa.gif) .

I then broke out my list of International Rally Plate contacts and asked if any of them had any suggestions for an alternate source to make our plates. It turns out that Kroma is the only company who has produced any metal rally plates in recent years. Several other options are available to make plastic ones, similar to what we used the first year. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/unsure.gif) But this is not what I wanted.

My next step was to try to find an American company to do the job. None were willing or able to make the die cut shape I wanted in a limited qantity. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/headbang.gif) Failure again.

My last resort was the person I should have contacted first. I know a guy who's business is making license plates. His company did the official D.C. Presidential Inagural plates, Utah Olympic plates and all of the plates for the Virgin Islands and several other small countries. He also works for many different states Motor Vehicle Departments to help with special projects. He checked with all of the sources but was not able to find anyone who could do the large scale, die cut metal rally plate style I had in mind.

Now the good news -What he is able to do for us is to make top quality, standard size (6x12) metal plates. Not the thin metal 'booster plates' like we had last year. These plates will be fully reflectorized, just like the ones that are issued by every DMV. We can get them screen printed or embossed with anything we want.

At the bottom of this post is my proposed design. Please excuse my poor graphic skills. I think you get the idea. It is kind of like a 50 foot - 50 mph paint job. It looks better if you close one eye and squint with the other.

I think embossed number look better than screen printed. We can get what anything we want, but more than 2 digits would interfere with the design. Since we will probably have less than 100 cars at the WCC we could get them numbered 1 to 99. If we want to get more than 100 plates (to sell as souvenirs to those who want an extra or can not make the event) we could have all the others the same with 06 or 00, or what ever.

If we sell the space on the right side to sponsors, the plates will more than pay for themselves. The first year we did this all three spots were claimed in a matter of minutes.

I do not yet have an exact quote for the plates.
It should be about $12 each if we get 150 plates.
We still have plenty of time to work out the details.

[VegasRacer]

When we do souvenir plates for the License Plate Collector Club Conventions, some of the most desirable plate numbers are set aside and sold at auction. Do we want to try this idea as a way to generate extra revenue also? If so, which numbers? If not, will the plates be assigned in the order registrations are received or will people be able to pick the number they want on a first come / first served basis? If they do not have a special choice we could assign them the next lowest number available. One other option would be to pass them out in random order.

My vote is to have a few of the prime numbers as auction items and to let people pick any of the remaining ones as their registration number. I think we should give the people attending the event first choice (limit 1 per customer) and then make the extras available for purchase by Club members not at the WCC or anybody who wants more than one souvenir plate. Another question is how much should the price be for the extras? $5.? $10.? $15.? $20.? I think $10 would be fine.

My suggestion for the plates to auction would be: All of the single digit low #'s - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. At the License Plate Clubs we also do the repeating number plates: (11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88 and 99.) but I don't know if we will have enough interest to add these. A few more we could add to the auction would be 100, 111 and 123. In our case plates number 14 and 149 would also be a good ones to auction.

I have indicated a total of 14 special plates in bold to put in the auction. Is that to many? Not enough? Does anybody else care about the numbers except me? This still gives the members who register early a crack at some of the desirable ones: repeating numbers as mentioned above, 69, all the teener years - 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75 and 76, engine sizes - 17, 18, 20, 24, 27, 30 and 36, palindromes 101, 121, 131 and 141, number 146 is also a good one, last but not least the highest available number 150. I am sure there are others, but you get the idea.

We are getting close (I hope - I hope) to being ready to open up registration. This is something that should be decided before the request start rolling in. I will be happy to handle the paperwork / tracking / assignment, if you want me to.

JEPINPRIMENUMBERS