In our role as the Mortician of Motoring Memories, there is no limit to the effort to which we will go to acquire interesting and collectible license plates for our friends and customers! For example, while scanning ads for ‘in person only’ auctions (our favorites because they’re usually small, in remote locations, and in this crazy Covid time, easy to socially distance, we came across one to be held in Orley, PA, about an hour northwest of Philadelphia, on a Thursday, no less! So we booked a red-eye flight to Philly, rented a car, and drove to Orley…just after they had had a two foot snow fall on that Monday…as we said, no limit! Thankfully they had just opened our favorite restaurant in the big O, as you can see in the picture. While no inside dining was allowed, we were able to sit in their parking lot for a couple of hours before ‘show time’, catching up on our emails and other license plate business! We then proceeded to the Orley Auction House to preview the eight tables of license plates up for bids. About 20 die-hard collectors were present, with no one being swept away with the accommodations, but yet eager to tag some tin! The plates were bought by the auctioneer in an estate sale, and clearly the previous owner was a global collector. When the final gavel hammered, we had won plates from Nepal, Monaco, Suriname, Ryukyu Islands, Australia, and Guam, as well as some from Alaska and Florida. Check them out on the GAP website! We had just enough room to get them all into our rollaboard, through TSA with a couple of laughs, and home by 1:30 am. My wife is no longer concerned about my physical health, but she sure is concerned about my mental well-being. Ah well, roll on….
