Here's a Fun Headline...

Abu Dhabi trounces Delaware in license-plate auction

Saeed Abdel Ghaffar Khouri bought Abu Dhabi license plate number 1 for 52.2 million dirhams ($14 million) at a charity auction this week. That beats the $675,000 paid recently for Delaware's Number 6.

"We wanted to be No. 1," Khouri's brother Hamdan Khouri told reporters after the sale. "Who doesn't like to be the best in the world?"

Indeed. (Right you are, Ken)

I like the implication that Delaware is a natural competitor for Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emerites.

Update (2/21/08): The car-focused AutoBlog has taken notice of the recent series of high-price/low-number license tag sales. They have a post up today about Delaware's sale of number 6. They also point to a sale, for $870,000, of the "F1" plate in Great Britain, and have a post about the car-chic in the UAE. In all three cases, the car-conscious readers at AutoBog are mostly critical of this form of investment.