19-year-old Thai student bids car license number for Bt25 million

[binjalin]

although it sounds like some silly little rich brat showing off (and almost certainly is) the money goes to road accident victims (hopefully - that's what they say anyway)

[jimmybkk]

When I first moved to Thailand a guy I worked with landed a nice commission cheque from a deal he was working on and splashed out on a sports car. He offered to give me a lift one day and I accepted with a little trepidation, half expecting to see pedestrians giving us the w*nker sign as we drove by and to hear the occasional shout of "T*sser!", which is what would happen in the UK. When I asked my colleague about it he explained that they don't do that here, and you're more likely to get people giving you the thumbs up and admiring your car than you are to receive abuse. I thought it was a refreshing change - after all, if you've got the means to do so why should you not be able to drive a nice car without having to worry about getting spat at by the local haters?

Reading this thread reminded me of being in the UK again...

[culicine]

When I first moved to Thailand a guy I worked with landed a nice commission cheque from a deal he was working on and splashed out on a sports car. He offered to give me a lift one day and I accepted with a little trepidation, half expecting to see pedestrians giving us the w*nker sign as we drove by and to hear the occasional shout of "T*sser!", which is what would happen in the UK. When I asked my colleague about it he explained that they don't do that here, and you're more likely to get people giving you the thumbs up and admiring your car than you are to receive abuse. I thought it was a refreshing change - after all, if you've got the means to do so why should you not be able to drive a nice car without having to worry about getting spat at by the local haters?

Reading this thread reminded me of being in the UK again...

But this guy is driving a nissan almera...with a 25M number plate.....a ferrari I can understand...but an ecocar????

Edited September 30, 2014 by culicine

[Thai at Heart]

When this is news, this absolutely sums up everything that is wrong with the world today.

[richard_smith237]

This guy has already been offered in excess of 30 MB for the plate - thus potentially turning a large and very fast profit...

I'm wondering who the smart ones are... ThaiVisa members who are ridiculing this guy, or this guy who's potentially made millions of baht in mere moments...

That said: It's been reported that he rejected the 30MB+ offer... perhaps holding out for a better offer...

[Torrens54]

Bet his daddy would be very proud of him.....

Maybe Daddy will fall in love with the plate and take it off the kid.

[JohnThailandJohn]

When this is news, this absolutely sums up everything that is wrong with the world today.

Sadly the goal of the news these days is not to inform but rather to achieve ratings and/or promote certain views but with that said, this is still newsworthy but should fall under the section of Weird News.

Edited September 30, 2014 by JohnThailandJohn

[Neeranam]

This is old news - I saw it 6 months ago. Breaking news

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKUH_6ShYuY

Edited September 30, 2014 by Neeranam

[jimmybkk]

When I first moved to Thailand a guy I worked with landed a nice commission cheque from a deal he was working on and splashed out on a sports car. He offered to give me a lift one day and I accepted with a little trepidation, half expecting to see pedestrians giving us the w*nker sign as we drove by and to hear the occasional shout of "T*sser!", which is what would happen in the UK. When I asked my colleague about it he explained that they don't do that here, and you're more likely to get people giving you the thumbs up and admiring your car than you are to receive abuse. I thought it was a refreshing change - after all, if you've got the means to do so why should you not be able to drive a nice car without having to worry about getting spat at by the local haters?

Reading this thread reminded me of being in the UK again...

But this guy is driving a nissan almera...with a 25M number plate.....a ferrari I can understand...but an ecocar????

Point taken, it does seem a strange place to hang a 25m plate, but my point is that he should be able to spend his money on whatever he wants to without being the target of all the bitterness and hatred on display here?

I would guess that a lot of the bitter comments on this thread are coming from Brits, and it's this type of attitude that I despise and was so glad to say goodbye to when i left the UK. Aspiring to be wealthy is akin to a crime in the UK and the whole system is so Orwellian it's almost too strange to believe. For years we have been fed soap operas which, unlike some of the more popular (older) soaps in the US which would give the viewer a lifestyle to aspire to (Dallas, Knots Landing, Beverley Hills 90210 etc.), the UK soaps would portray doom and gloom and lifestyles that we should be thankful that we don't have (Eastenders, Coronation Street, Brookside etc.), and yet the whole nation is hooked on (and aspires to winning) the National Lottery, and winning the lottery has become the magical doorway to escape the drudgery. But then (and this is where it gets fun), Maureen (who is 58 years old with 5 kids and has worked in a fish & chip shop for the past 35 years) wins GBP 10 million on the lottery and becomes a national treasure because she vows that the money won't change her and she will keep on working in the fish and chip shop.... Maureen??? Why were you even buying a ticket???

And so when I read the replies of the bitter old duffers on this thread (who no doubt fully support Maureen's actions), it just makes me applaud more loudly the frivolous actions of this 19 year old spunking 25 mil on a bling plate. Good on you son! It's your cash. Who cares how you got it - spend it as you see fit.

Edited September 30, 2014 by jimmybkk

[elektrified]

Hope there is a special level in hell for this 1% piece of #$#%. In a country with this much poverty, this is obscene to the extreme. But I am sure he thinks hes the cat's ass.

I think there's more poverty in places like America than here.

What gives you the right to judge other people?

[gerry1011]

Great news

Very nice plate too

Love it.

It is also great that he got the plate for only half the budget he put aside to buy it. Super

The best is of course the reactions of the jealous bitter thaivisa Thai bashers. Very entertaining

[JohnThailandJohn]

Curious if anyone here has bought or sold a used car here ... does the plate go with the vehicle when you sell it or is there some easy way for him to sell this plate?

[gerry1011]

Curious if anyone here has bought or sold a used car here ... does the plate go with the vehicle when you sell it or is there some easy way for him to sell this plate?

The plate is not sold with the car.

After you win the auction you own the plate and keep it. It can be sold to someone else.

Many car dealers buy such plates to re-sell to customers who buy a new car (with a profit, of course).

[englishoak]

LOL so funny to see some here think others are jealous of someone prepared to part with 25m for a numberplate. .... Mmmkay

Shows theres other idiots out there who would if they could afford it too...

[webfact]

Car plate sells for record Bt25m
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- Car licence plate number 1 Kor Kor 1111 was yesterday passed to a 19-year-old student, who bid Bt25 million for it, making it the most expensive number sold at an auction organised by the Department of Land Transport since 2003.

At Bt25 million, the plate has a value 52 times the price of the Nissan Almera to which it is to be attached. A Nissan Almera E CVT costs Bt480,000.

As the winning bidder, Thanapat Tuntisevekul, a law student at Assumption University, was allowed to create his own design for the licence plate. The graphic design chosen by Thanapat for his Bt25-million plate is named "Eight Horses on the River of Nine Gems", which is believed to give luck, prosperity and safety to the driver of the car.

The right to this 1 Kor Kor 1111 number is transferable through sale or inheritance. Thanapat said an offer was made to buy it for Bt33 million but he turned it down. He said the price was "inexpensive", as Bt50 million had been prepared by his family for this bid.

Thanapat, also know as James, said his family operated a real-estate business in Chon Buri, and they had obtained a few licence-plate numbers before.

He said he and his family were glad that the money raised by the auction was for a good cause - a fund to promote road safety.

The bid was completed on March 15, but the ceremony to hand over the number not held until yesterday.

Land Transport Department chief Asdsathai Rattanadilok Na Phuket said the money from the auction would be given to the Road Safety Fund, which aims to cut accidents and raising awareness on safe driving. The fund has accumulated more than Bt320 million in the 11 years these auctions have been held.

A previous bid record was for number Yor Ying Yor Ying 9999, which fetched Bt11 million, he said.

The department's projects sponsored by the Road Safety Fund include, for example, establishing a safe public-transport driver database and 1584 hotline for complaints about public transport.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Car-plate-sells-for-record-Bt25m-30244517.html


-- The Nation 2014-10-01

[Mango Bob]

The plates are worth more than the car. I would have taken the money and got a new car. But then again I am not the rich elite of Thailand who can spend money like that while other suffer in poverty.

[LuckyLew]

After spending so much on a license plate it makes me wonder how much this family gives back to the community?

[Mosha]

More money than sense.

[ezzra]

And we keep asking our selves why Thai students education is failing miserably...

ladies and gents... here is your answer....

[AyG]

The family certainly isn't short of money. Here's a photo of other family members.

It's a Lamborghini AventadorRoadster LP 700-4.

[monk213]

Stop blaming the kid.

Blame the stupid father that gave him the money and allowed him to bid.

At least he is actually studying and not just living off of his parents doing jack shit and running people over

Edited October 1, 2014 by monk213

[jacko45k]

More money than sense.

Much much more, both before and after the purchase.

[AyG]

The most prominent member of the family, Sumet, has held numerous senior civil service positions and been President of the Council of Thammasat university.

He also had a very good education growing up, including a Masters in Political Science at Montpelier University and some sort of certificate in Economic Development from the World Bank, which suggests to me that the family was already wealthy.

See http://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/สุเมธ_ตันติเวชกุล for more info (in Thai).

[Mango Bob]

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Stop blaming the kid.

Blame the stupid father that gave him the money and allowed him to bid.

At least he is actually studying and not just living off of his parents doing jack shit and running people over

He most likely paying someone to do is homework and reports. He's going to college just like many American kids. Just to party.

[stevehaigh]

<deleted>?! A 25 million baht plate on a 500k car? He could have bought a Ferrari or something! I don't understand rich people sometimes.

he must be an economics student (based on my observation of Thai economics)

[northernboy]

So he pays taxes in a different way. Some sort of petty jealousy here or what? yes I may not agree with it but better than a loser complaining he has money to burn as he or his father wants, Spread the wealth.

Note: Westerners who think all Thais have small dicks shows the working girls they hire are good actresses.

[Bob12345]

When I first moved to Thailand a guy I worked with landed a nice commission cheque from a deal he was working on and splashed out on a sports car. He offered to give me a lift one day and I accepted with a little trepidation, half expecting to see pedestrians giving us the w*nker sign as we drove by and to hear the occasional shout of "T*sser!", which is what would happen in the UK. When I asked my colleague about it he explained that they don't do that here, and you're more likely to get people giving you the thumbs up and admiring your car than you are to receive abuse. I thought it was a refreshing change - after all, if you've got the means to do so why should you not be able to drive a nice car without having to worry about getting spat at by the local haters?

Reading this thread reminded me of being in the UK again...

But this guy is driving a nissan almera...with a 25M number plate.....a ferrari I can understand...but an ecocar????

From what I understood from my friend who also trades in number plates is that you cannot own a range of number plates without cars (maybe 1 is allowed, not sure about that).

So if you want to build up an inventory of plates to sell you also need to have an inventory of cars to which the plates belong.

What most people do is that they have a few cars they actually drive (really expensive cars) and they hold a range of cheap Hyundais and Nissans just so they can hold on to the number plates. They normally don't actually drive those cars (and sometimes the cars only exist on paper).

[Neeranam]

The most prominent member of the family, Sumet, has held numerous senior civil service positions and been President of the Council of Thammasat university.

He also had a very good education growing up, including a Masters in Political Science at Montpelier University and some sort of certificate in Economic Development from the World Bank, which suggests to me that the family was already wealthy.

See http://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/สุเมธ_ตันติเวชกุล for more info (in Thai).

His father's nickname given by the king, "tung ngern" or "moneybags"

[submaniac]

Someone should have told him, 25 or 50 million, his penis will still be the same size!!

penis size vs. a whole shitload of money.

Which do you think will be a more successful tool in pulling in birds?

[lucjoker]

Find out who gave him the money ,

let him prove in what honest way he made it .

If he can ...OK

If he can't .....confiscate the money and put him behind bars.

Same in europe .