After raising the bar during previous auctions of vanity registration numbers, the 0001 number of the CH-01-AY series went down to Rs 5.75 lakh at the registering and licensing authority (RLA) office in Sector 17 on Saturday.
The CH-01-AY series could not hold the hype and fetched the lowest amount since the auction of CH-01-AK-0001 series which had fetched Rs 3.1 lakh in October 2011.
The auction of 0001 numbers of CH-01-AX and CH-01-AW series was competitive at Rs 7 lakh each.
The total bid amount for the first 100 numbers of CH-01-AY series also came down with the RLA fetching Rs 57.68 lakh as compared to Rs 69.92 lakh fetched in the auction of CH-01-AX series.
This time only five bidders, compared to seven last time, made bids for 0001. As the auction began, the fight came down between two bidders and in the end, Rajan Kapoor, an employee of Modern Pesticides, Chandigarh, bagged 0001 for Rs 5.75 lakh. Owners of the company, Kanwaljit Singh Joson and his son Karan Joson, were too present on the spot.
Kanwaljit Singh, a resident of Sector 9, said he had bought the number for his son’s new Mercedes-Benz GLS costing above Rs 75 lakh.
{{/usCountry}}Kanwaljit Singh, a resident of Sector 9, said he had bought the number for his son’s new Mercedes-Benz GLS costing above Rs 75 lakh.
{{/usCountry}}DOWNTURN IN OTHER TOP NUMBERS TOO
After 0001, the second highest number bid was for CH-01-AY 0002 which went for Rs 2.35 lakh, whereas the second highest bid for CH-01-AX series was Rs 4.01 lakh.
CH-01-AY 0009 fetched the third highest bid for Rs 2.25 lakh, while fourth highest was for Rs 2.15 lakh for 0007. The numbers 0003, 0005 and 0008 fetched Rs 1.7 lakh each.
City-based Acme builders’ Jogesh Kohli said he had bought 0005 number for his new Audi Q7. “I already have luxury cars bearing 0009, 0004 and 0002 numbers.”
Other numbers in top 10 — 0004, 0006 and 0010 fetched Rs 1.6 lakh, Rs 1.3 lakh and Rs 1.05 lakh, respectively. Surprisingly, 0022, 0045 and 0100 fetched 1.25 lakh, 1.07 lakh and Rs 80,000, respectively. The remaining numbers of CH-01-AY series from 0101 onwards will go under the hammer on the second day of the open auction on Sunday.
A RLA official said the department was expecting overall revenue to reach the figure fetched in the last series’ auction, which was Rs 98 lakh.