The car license plate “BMW-8888” yesterday sold for NT$890,000 (US$26,377) at an auction at the Taipei Motor Vehicles Office, the Directorate-General of Highways said.
However, the sale fell short of the agency’s expectations, as it had thought such a unique license plate would fetch at least NT$1 million.
The auction ended before noon yesterday after 71 rounds of online bidding which began on Tuesday morning.
With an abbreviation that is the same as the German luxury car brand and the No. 8888, which is considered a lucky number by many Taiwanese as the No. 8 in Mandarin sounds similar to the word for prosperity.
The highway authority also auctioned 14 other license plates containing “BMW” ranging from No. 0017 to No. 0031. No. 0024 was not auctioned, because the No. 4 sounds similar to death in Mandarin and is considered unlucky.
Last year, the agency held its first auction of license plates containing “BMW,” which ranged from No. 0001 to No. 0016 (No. 0004 was excluded). It also included the number BMW-9999, which was sold for the highest bid of NT$253,000.
Based on the bidding rules, the floor price of the plates having four identical numbers, such as 8888, was set at NT$6,000, whereas the floor price of the other license plates was set at NT$3,000.
The first auction generated NT$1.037 million for the Treasury, while this week’s auction reaped NT$1.125 million.
Agency records show that license plate “8888-88,” which was auctioned in 2011, attracted the highest ever bid of NT$3.589 million.
It was followed by the license plates “AAA-8888” in 2012 and “AKJ-8888” in 2014, which were sold for NT$2.001 million and NT$1.002 million respectively.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS