Bidders taking part in an online auction run by the Interior Ministry for fancy car numbers have pledged more than QR8m ($2.2m) on 24 number plates.

The highest single bid was for QR950,000 ($261,000) for unique licence plate 377773, for which the minimum bidding amount was QR160,000. For other numbers, bidding amounts ranged from QR250,000 ($68,653) to QR750,000 ($206,000).

The traffic department which ran the online auction through interior ministry’s mobile service Metrash2 for three days and which ended at 10pm yesterday, has asked the highest bidders to pay up the sums they have bid by tomorrow, failing which they would lose their deposits (of QR20,000 each) and their right to buy the fancy number plates to the next highest bidder.

The traffic department had begun the bidding with QR100,000 for 23 unique number plates.

People in Qatar, which has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, are crazy about fancy car number plates and mobile phone numbers.

There is also a thriving local market for these numbers and their sale and purchase go on almost round-the-year as is evidenced from advertisements appearing in local Arabic newspapers.

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QNE

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