He blames it on the brain erasers.
Former Queenstowner Shaun Robb is putting one of his most-prized possessions under the hammer this week — an item he bought about 30 years ago after returning home from a fairly hectic night out at former resort nightspot, Chico’s Bar & Grill.
Robb says he lived in Queenstown for about 16 years and was a regular at Chico’s, in The Mall, a Queenstown institution till it was sold by former owners Lisa and Grant ‘Spud’ Murphy in 2016.
After one particularly big night out, Robb says he got back to his Fernhill pad, flicked on the TV and they were advertising personalised plates — which had only been out for a few weeks at the time.
He thought he’d see if ‘QTOWN’ was available and, when he discovered it was, decided to buy it.
‘‘[But] I didn’t have a credit card, so I woke my girlfriend, at the time, up … and was like, ‘honey, I need your credit card’.’’
Robb, who now lives in Australia’s Byron Bay, reckons he paid about $230 for the plate, which is in mint condition and being held by the NZ Transport Agency.
He’s been approached with offers to buy it a few times over the years — one person offering a cool $20,000 — but has always declined.
He’s decided to put it up for auction with Webb’s now to help fund special schooling for one of his daughters.
It’ll go up at 2pm on Sunday in a ‘collectors’ cars, motorcyles and automobilia’ auction — Webb’s, specialist valuers and auctioneers, estimates it could fetch up to $30,000.
In the same Webb’s auction, the ‘007’ number plate is expected to go for between $25,000 and $50,000.
They’re reasonable prices compared to a couple of other personalised plates offered for sale online.
On Trade Me, for example, the plate ‘GT6AV9’ last week had a starting bid price of $2,999,999.
The listing for the since-expired auction said it stood for ‘Great Six Avery Nite’.
