Texas, Thy Name Is Vanity (Plates)

​It's been only three months since a private company began offering a wide range of high-priced vanity plates for Texans, and let's just say the company knew what it was doing.

Almost $1.2 million has been spent on the plates in those three months.

That's a lot of vanity.

"It's surpassed our estimate," Kim Miller Drummond of myplates.com tells Hair Balls. "It's odd, because you hear of the economic crisis, of the consumer recession, but we've gotten remarkable results."

Yes, never underestimate the ability of UT Exes to glorify themselves.

The UT plates -- which are indeed hot sellers -- are not the most popular plate, Drummond says. (Figures for A&M plates aren't available, by the way, because they're sold through a third party.)
That honor goes to the simple black-with-whit old-style plate.

"I don't know if it's the simplicity, or because black loos good on everything, or that it's kind of retro," Drummond says.

In all, more than 5,300 plates have been sold in the first three months, at an average price of $225. Prices can go as high as $595, which gets you the plate for 10 years.

So far, Drummond  says, $410,000 has been contributed to Texas General Revenue Fund and    $130,000 to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles