Prodigal Plates

Hong Kong's first vanity plate auction for charity raised more than $11 million.

Winning bids (HK$7.8 to US$1) included the following:

$95,000: HEHEHAHA

$110,000: GUNDAM

$130,000: HANDS0ME

$300,000: K1NG

$370,000: BEATLES

$450,000: C00L

$460,000: CCUE

$700,000: P0RSCHE

$800,000: TVB

$1,400,000: 1 L0VE U

None of the bids matched the all-time high of $13 million shelled out for a plate bearing the single digit "9", which in Cantonese is a loose homonym for longevity.

The rationale behind some of the bids:

Representatives from television station TVB lost out in the race for the plate "TVB" to restaurateur Mr Yeung ... when the bidding reached HK$800,000, the second highest of the day. Mr Yeung explained that he had grown up watching TVB.

I grew up watching the Flintstones, but I wouldn't shell out more than US$102,500 for a plate reading "BEDR0CK".

The boss of the Golden Delight Seafood Restaurant ... tried two years ago to get the plate "23", but gave up when bidding exceeded HK$3 million. In his return to the fray ... he also secured "P0RSCHE" with HK$700,000 ... "It's a good price. I'm giving it to my son, after I've used it," said Mr Yeung, who added that he would now be buying a Porsche.

He has little choice; the plate would look stupid on his Mercedes.

... CCUE ... sounds like the Cantonese see see yu yee, meaning "everything goes according to one's will".

It looks more like the acronym for the Council for College and University English, but that's me.

Canto-pop star Aaron Kwok Fu-shing added some celebrity to the day when he joined the auction remotely. A spokeswoman from Kwok's management ... confirmed that licence plate "AAR0N" was Kwok's and he secured the plate with HK$250,000 through an anonymous bidder.

Now car thieves will know at a glance which one to steal.

The smartest bidder of the day paid the least:

Jeweller Kent Chung Kwai-hoi, 41, walked away with his own creation, CGART1ME, for which he paid only the HK$5,000 reserve price.

"CGAR means private [in Cantonese]. I want private time. But 'C-GAR' can also be read as cigar. I'm a huge fan of cigars," he said.

It would all be a fabulous waste of money were it not that the proceeds were for charity.

If I had a car, I wouldn't bother getting a vanity plate reading "BWG".

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