Delaware tag No. 14 brings $325,000 at Rehoboth Beach auction

Donna White won't quickly forget Valentine's Day, 2016.  That is the day her husband, Ray, bought her Delaware tag No. 14 - in honor of Valentine's Day - for $325,000.

"My wife wanted it and I thought it would be a nice Valentine's Day gift," said Ray, after outlasting at least three other bidders who also had their eye on the tag. Some nodded their bids from the crowd, others via surrogates on telephones.

"I actually thought it was going to go for more," said White.

Standing at the back of the seated crowd as auctioneer Herbie Kenton worked the crowd, White cut a stoic figure in his brown fedora hat and matching camel-hair overcoat.  He kept his bidding number - 236, black letters on yellow - waist high and visible throughout the bidding as he nodded the numbers higher. He kept his gaze steady, never wavering, until he knew the tag was his.

Butch Emmert, chief auctioneer, paused Kenton after his friend and associate took White's bid of $325,000 to second call. "Folks," said Butch, "This is a chance to buy a piece of Delaware history - for a bag of shells!  It's all relative."

The crowd of a few hundred laughed as Butch grinned, and Herbie took back over.

"Third and final call at $325,000," he said. Then he slammed the gavel down, as he pointed at White: "Sold your way for $325,000!"  The crowd applauded and Ray and Donna both smiled.

Both lifelong residents of Delaware with a home in Rehoboth Beach, they agreed they had made a good investment.  "You put it in the bank and the government takes half of it," said Ray. "I think this is better."

Donna said the tag will probably be displayed on a BMW.

Ray said he is in the plastics business. Donna said they manufacture a teflon base that is purchased by other companies to make a variety of products. Their facility is just over the Maryland line, on the western edge of Sussex County.

Emmert said the tag was put up for auction by a New Castle County family.  Two other three digit tags also came from New Castle County. No. 774 fetched a high bid of $30,000 and No. 457 brought a high bid of $32,000.

Tag No. 1785, from a Kent County family, brought a winning bid of $8,000.

Emmert said tag No. 14 was the lowest digit tag he had sold in about nine years. In his preface to Sunday's bidding for No. 14, he said in 2008 he sold No. 6 for a record Delaware tag bid of $670,000. Several years prior to that he sold No. 9 at an auction in Rehoboth for "about $520,000.

"Those lowest 200 to 300 tags in Delaware, they're recession-proof," said Emmert.  "It's just a matter of supply and demand. The future for two and three digit tags looks rosy."

The tags were sold as part of a special two-day Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day weekend auction staged by Emmert at Rehoboth Beach Fire Hall.  The hall is filling in for Rehoboth Beach Convention Center where construction - next door to the fire hall - has it closed down for at least one year.