RUSHing for Plates

Plate collecting can be hot and cold. I’ve had months go by without a single trade with anyone, let alone a purchase (last winter was really boring). And then, without warning, people call. I used to hear from more people regarding plates to sell when Ontplates.com operated as a YOM business, but now that I’m not paying big bucks for the search engine optimization, I don’t get as much traffic. I expected that when I closed the shop. But the brand recognition is helping, and I’m glad to say that people are still finding me.

At the end of July, I was contacted by two different families with plates to disperse, as was Eric Vettoretti, so we agreed to split anything once we had a chance to evaluate them. Both collections were within the Golden Horseshoe that surrounds the western end of Lake Ontario. Eric was committed to a family vacation, but the timing was great for me, because I was already making a solo trip to Toronto to watch the third of four RUSH homecoming concerts. It just meant that I had to leave Ottawa before sunrise to see both plate lots in time to get back to downtown Toronto for the concert. No sweat.

I left the house at the crack of dawn and made my way along the 401 through the brightening morning. Traffic was light overall and I made it past Toronto to my first stop a bit after ten. The first lot had belonged to a man who had recently passed away. My understanding from the family was that he was a casual collector who acquired plates from family, friends and occasionally, flea markets, or opportunistically while on vacation. There were about a hundred in all. Nothing terribly rare, aside from one old out-island Bahamian truck plate, which was hand-painted and heavily used. The ALPCA Archives confirmed that the format was consistent with what was used up to the 1970s, although they don’t feature a truck plate from that era. I made a note to send a picture to the Archives. While I don’t collect international plates per se, I do hold on to plates that “speak” to me, as this one does. The remainder of the collection was comprised of fairly common plates, so the price overall was low and quite manageable, and I took them on.

My next stop was further west and up the escarpment. I didn’t know what to expect. The family was busy emptying a house and were unable to send pictures more specific than just boxes full of plates with few or no faces showing. I had no way to know the era, place of issue, or vehicle type. For all I knew, I was running into a yellowed scotchlit wasteland of 1970s Illinois or Minnesota trailers. I knew I would have to take time to flip through them.

The family was eager to get the plates out of the basement in one shot, because they were listing the house for sale that very day. It was largely empty otherwise. I was partly right about what I predicted I’d find: There were quite a few boxes of common US plates from the 70s and 80s that largely pre-date the graphic era. But I dug deeper and found some more contemporary graphic optionals that would make great traders. I kept looking, because my first mission is always to find keepers for my collection.

I found a box with some older Ontario plates. Nothing was older than about 1924, and unfortunately, some of them had been touched up with paint unnecessarily, or had been repainted entirely with an amateur hand. As I moved up through the decades, I eventually reached the “sweet spot” of plates that had stable paint, but were old enough to be interesting. The 1970s portion revealed a few goodies, such as historic vehicle plates and natural passenger pairs. There were a couple of Canadian Forces plates. A BC prototype. A couple of diplomatic and consular plates. Some of them would be possible upgraders for my or Eric’s collection. Then I found the plate that made the lot: A red reflective Ontario plate, bearing the word SAMPLE.

After I picked my jaw up from the floor, I considered what it might be. A test plate? Or maybe a diplomatic / consular sample? The plate did have the white-and-blue “SAMPLE ONLY” decal in the corner that all other samples have. So that’s my guess: A sample that’s provided to law enforcement agencies, but not available for the public to purchase.

I offered the family about double what they were expecting, which wasn’t a lot to begin with. I knew I could make a lower offer and win, but there were some outstanding traders in this collection, and I was over the moon about the red sample plate.

I had a little extra time, so I found a school nearby and parked under a tree. I wouldn’t be able to go through all the boxes comprehensively, so I laid out some of the highlights that I had already found. The 1911 Ontario is an obvious reproduction; made of sheet metal that was easily bowed.

It was time to head back to Toronto so I could get ready for my concert. I sprung for valet parking at the hotel to keep the car underground and the plates safe. I always carry a couple of blankets for good measure, just to keep prying eyes away. The concert was amazing, and the drive home

the next day was relaxing.

I headed straight to Eric’s house so that we could divide the spoils using our “round robin” method while we had a chance. He was just back from a vacation, and I was heading out on one in a couple of days. We managed to get it all finished the same day. I’m happy to say that there turned out to be a few extras going into my collection that I didn’t notice at first. It was a lot of driving and a lot of work, but finally landing a couple of collections felt like a drought-ending rain. That’s an apt simile, because no sooner had I left Eric’s house to go home than a torrential rainstorm began, flooding the streets and knocking down trees in my neighbourhood. But my plates stayed warm and dry.