Picture: Daily News

 

Thai netizens were having great fun after an online auction of registration plates by the Department of Land Transport looked like it might smash all records. 

 

The number was "ฮฮ 9999" and it would go on a Bangkok van.

 

Someone had bid 101,000,000 for the plate prompting a wave of 5555s (Thai laughs or ha ha's) and ooohs and aaahs online.

 

Many said that ฮฮ (hor hor in Thai standing for the letter hor-nokhook) really meant "heng heng" words that mean luck or even double the luck in Thai. 

 

9999 remains very popular after the last monarch who was Rama 9. 

 

Many didn't believe it so Daily News went to the DLT for confirmation and it proved to be wrong.

 

The bidder had meant to put in 10,100,000 but had inadvertently added an extra zero. 

 

He made a frantic call to the DLT who scrubbed it and started the auction again from the previous bidder. 

 

The DLT said this ten million baht bid was not a record for a number plate though Daily News did not say what the record actually was. 

 

ASEAN Now notes that the cherished number plate business started to take off in Thailand in the 1990s well after the west.

 

Car magazines started listing ads from dealers selling some plates for well in excess of the value of the cars they were fitted to. 

 

Numbers like 8888, popular with the Chinese, were particularly sought after. 

 

As were the initials สส that equates to a house representative or MP. 

 

Others like letters that spell a word were also much sought after like พร that reads PORN - the Thai word for blessing. 

 

After the private market went ballistic the DLT jumped on the bandwagon raising money nationwide with well advertised auctions for popular new plates. 

 

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More money than brains, and what the hell is a supposed auspicious luck plate going to do, oh wait its like all the amulets and buddha statues and white circle prints put inside the car by a revered Monk......Craziness, where people believe that no matter how bad, or how drunk they are when they drive they will be protected.  

“Others like letters that spell a word were also much sought after like พร that reads PORN - the Thai word for blessing”

 

Did not know that, live and learn, live and learn…seems there are many reasons why porn is sought after. 

“Car magazines started listing ads from dealers selling some plates for well in excess of the value of the cars they were fitted to.”

 

As good a definition of insanity as I’ve seen in a while.

Something seriously wrong when 26 individuals have a greater combined wealth than 50% of the world's poorest..........

That would look good on a Ferrari.

Must be an outrageous laugh for the 5 million or a lot more on less tha $5 a day !

I assume that the money accumulated by the DLT with these plates is used to 100% for feeding the hungry queueing for food and water these days. 

Whoever thinks something else, is badly spirited! 

Buys a lot of vaccines.

 

If it takes some silly number plates to elicit some compassion from the hi-sos for the rest of their people, so be it.

4 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

More money than brains, and what the hell is a supposed auspicious luck plate going to do, oh wait its like all the amulets and buddha statues and white circle prints put inside the car by a revered Monk......Craziness, where people believe that no matter how bad, or how drunk they are when they drive they will be protected.  

More zero's than brains...

Thais online have fun as cherished number auction sees "ฮฮ 9999" pass 100 MILLION baht! 

 

They must be pretty Daft to believe that those numbers Mean anything. 

And pretty stupid to waste that amount of money on a plate that may cost more than the car.  ????

Confirming once again that all the money in the world can't fix stupid. 

5 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

More money than brains, and what the hell is a supposed auspicious luck plate going to do, oh wait its like all the amulets and buddha statues and white circle prints put inside the car by a revered Monk......Craziness, where people believe that no matter how bad, or how drunk they are when they drive they will be protected.  

Ah, the beauty of the nonsense passing as Buddhism in Thailand, money, money, money... 

1 hour ago, digger70 said:

Thais online have fun as cherished number auction sees "ฮฮ 9999" pass 100 MILLION baht! 

 

They must be pretty Daft to believe that those numbers Mean anything. 

And pretty stupid to waste that amount of money on a plate that may cost more than the car.  ????

Hang on, say you buy it for 10 million then sell it on next week for 15 million. Is that stupid in your book?

2 minutes ago, BostonRob2 said:

Hang on, say you buy it for 10 million then sell it on next week for 15 million. Is that stupid in your book?

yes if can only sell it for 5 million the next week, but wait you intend to buy for 15 million?

1 hour ago, digger70 said:

Thais online have fun as cherished number auction sees "ฮฮ 9999" pass 100 MILLION baht! 

 

They must be pretty Daft to believe that those numbers Mean anything. 

And pretty stupid to waste that amount of money on a plate that may cost more than the car.  ????

Interestingly, if the car that was on overturned and the plate was upside down, then it is 6666 Wally in Burmese.

The World Health Organisation estimates that there's something like 5 million plus people in Thailand living on less than $5 a day and some cretin (how stupid do you have to be not to have something better to do with your money) spends 10 million baht on a number plate.

 

This is the stuff that revolutions are made of. 

10 minutes ago, retsdon said:

The World Health Organisation estimates that there's something like 5 million plus people in Thailand living on less than $5 a day and some cretin (how stupid do you have to be not to have something better to do with your money) spends 10 million baht on a number plate.

 

This is the stuff that revolutions are made of. 

it sure makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Make a check of where this money came from, that might be interesting. 

6 hours ago, Artisi said:

Ah, the beauty of the nonsense passing as Buddhism in Thailand, money, money, money... 

 

Buddhism- Thais and their version of the cosmic cash machine!

Whoever wins that obscene bid should be dragged out of their car, stripped naked, tarred and feathered and then beaten down a long, long gauntlet of people who aren't able to buy enough food or have lost their meager income due to the Covid crisis.

It wasn't sold for 100 million. 

 

A lot of Thai bashers clicked the bait. 

 

This happens in the UK. My brother paid 30k for a personalized number plate, and his pal paid 100k, bought from his pal, Rod Stewart. 

 

The record is 25 million -  '1 กก 111' 

 

 

23 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

More money than brains, and what the hell is a supposed auspicious luck plate going to do, oh wait its like all the amulets and buddha statues and white circle prints put inside the car by a revered Monk......Craziness, where people believe that no matter how bad, or how drunk they are when they drive they will be protected.  

Reminds me of Paul Newman in that famous movie. My parents have a St Christopher in their car, my parents-in-law have a Buddha, no difference. 

 

 

23 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

“Others like letters that spell a word were also much sought after like พร that reads PORN - the Thai word for blessing”

 

Did not know that, live and learn, live and learn…seems there are many reasons why porn is sought after. 

It doesn't read "porn" at all.  It is "Pon". 

20 hours ago, CrunchWrapSupreme said:

Buys a lot of vaccines.

 

If it takes some silly number plates to elicit some compassion from the hi-sos for the rest of their people, so be it.

While the Billionaires in the West race to space with a lot more than this. 

5 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

While the Billionaires in the West race to space with a lot more than this. 

Aren't those buiness ventures and they hope to turn a profit eventually ?

6 minutes ago, Mac Mickmanus said:

Aren't those buiness ventures and they hope to turn a profit eventually ?

Maybe, encouraging millionaires to waste millions on space flights.

26 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

It doesn't read "porn" at all.  It is "Pon". 

Perhaps you should inform the poster of the OP about that rather than me...

On 7/16/2021 at 12:25 PM, Bluespunk said:

“Car magazines started listing ads from dealers selling some plates for well in excess of the value of the cars they were fitted to.”

 

As good a definition of insanity as I’ve seen in a while.

It happens in UK, and other countries I guess.

2 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Perhaps you should inform the poster of the OP about that rather than me...though my rusty Thai reading skills would suggest por rather than pon.

Oh, sorry, never saw it there. I thought it was you. 

 

btw, there a 'raw reua' at the end becomes an 'n'. 

1 minute ago, Neeranam said:

Oh, sorry, never saw it there. I thought it was you. 

 

btw, there a 'raw reua' at the end becomes an 'n'. 

Yeah being trying to remember if that was the case-my bad.