[Chrysler300] Re:Chrysler 300s & California Black plates

["Wayne Graefen" <wgraefen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have a tidbit to add to the CA "black plate" mystique.  I lived out there something like 25 years.  Californians would love to continue the idea that "if it has black CA plates on it, then it was ALWAYS a California car".  That is baloney.  The CA Dept. of Motor Vehicles continually changes and tweaks their laws as if every resident of that state was an absolute criminal trying to take advantage.  Walk into any DMV and try to offer an honest, legitimate explanation of your registration needs or problem and it is like fresh meat to a pack of piranhas.  Oh, there is the extremely rare employee who is not like that, but the system most certainly treated me that way.  They have so many laws on the books covering so many circumstances that there are at least three ways to get the simplest of things done but the person on the other side of the counter may not know the law you are referencing.
But I've digressed from the black plate issue.  There have been periods of time as laws came and went during which it was either legal to put loose black plates onto a car that never had them or there were loop holes they had not closed that allowed it to happen.  So the continuous CA registration is a myth.  I personally got old black CA plates that had been on my shelf for 20 years or so put onto a car with much more recent but expired CA plates.  I took in another black pair and had them put on a car from Arizona.  And a DeSoto that had its original black plates in the box in the trunk but the car had resided in Arkansas for over 30 years was re-registered on those old CA black plates.
All this to say nothing of collector car dealers both in and out of California who can get another couple of thousand dollars for a "Calif. black plate car" just by hanging a swap meet pair of plates onto their inventory.
Are all those old plates valuable?  You betcha.  Whether they are CA plates or your home state.  I'm in Texas now and at a summer swap meet saw a pair of 1940 Texas plates in just restorable condition with a $1000 price tag.  Fortunately I had purchased a pair for my Ford a couple years earlier for $85.

Wayne  

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