Who needs wallpaper, anyway? One of the (questionable) elements of home décor that makes my place unique is a showcase of license plates in the laundry room. For over three decades, I’ve been collecting all sorts of automobilia. Back when eBay got its start in the 1990s, I was buying and selling car brochures, diecast model cars, and other promotional items.
I also had an early affinity for license plates, but my passion for plate collecting wasn’t nearly as deep as it could have been. Founded in New Hampshire in 1954, the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (ALPCA) is the world’s largest organization for license plate enthusiasts. The group has about 3,000 members from all 50 U.S. states – as well as 18 other countries around the globe.
As the ALPCA website says, the organization is “dedicated to the promotion of license plate collecting, research, the exchange of information and plates, and the benefits of sharing a common interest with people all over the world.”
This summer, ALPCA will host its 71st convention from July 15 through 18 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In addition, the group has regional events happening around the country throughout the year. One of the fun initiatives each year is voting on the “Best Plate of the Year” to recognize outstanding new license plate designs. The most recent award (announced in 2025) went to Rhode Island for its “lighthouse” license plate.
In my own personal collection of over 100 plates, my oldest is a 1950-issue from Utah.
Some of the more recent plates are from cars that I’ve owned and since sold, while others have been given to me by friends. As a way to remember the story behind each one, I’ll usually write a name and a date on the back with a Sharpie. My most prized license plate is a generic “7631 AM” from Utah from the late 1980s. It was the license plate worn by my late grandfather’s black GMC Sierra at the time of his passing in September 1989. Somewhat fittingly, the registration tab expired a month later, in October of that year.
Do you have a collection of license plates? If so, you might want to join the ALPCA. Dues are $46 per year in the United States. Members receive the bi-monthly “PLATES” magazine, access to a discussion board and a searchable encyclopedia of license plates, and more.
