THE LICENSE PLATE MAN

I met Jesse Perez at a car and motorcycle swap shop in Fort Worth 6 years ago. Among the hundreds of vendor booths, Jesse’s seemed to be the most popular. For one thing, Jesse is friendly and outgoing and has a personality that makes you want to be around him. Secondly, I found out there is a great demand for old license plates and Jesse is the man who has them.

I did a column on Jesse back then and for some reason readers thought I had the license plates. Hardly a month goes by that I don’t get a phone call or email from someone looking for a certain old license plate. I keep Jesse’s contact info handy and pass it along. He lives at 2214 St. Anthony in San Antonio. His phone number is 210 532-7456.

Jesse and I recently reconnected and I found out he is into the license plate business fulltime. He previously worked at a retail establishment for 18 years but lost his job when the business was downsizing. That was fine with Jesse. In the past he had been going to swap meets and car shows on weekends. Now he can go anytime he wants and can take care of customers who contact him.

Jesse has been collecting license plates since 1960. He has a lot of them. “I think I have more than 200,000 for sure,” says Jesse. “I buy collections of old plates all the time. I keep them in my garage and in portable buildings around my house.” He sells his plates to people all over the country and beyond. Residents of Germany love Texas plates. One man called, ordered some plates, and said he would come by and pick them up. “He drove all the way from New Hampshire to pick up some license plates.”

Jesse has plates from every state and Texas plates from every year since 1917. He gets several calls every day.

“The most expensive plate that I sold was $3,300 and the customer bought 2 of them the same day. It was a special plate for that particular customer who said he was tired of looking for this plate and heard that I might have it. He said he has a lot of money. When they say they have a lot of money you know they have a lot of money. They just want to know if you have the plate or can get it. I had another customer that told me he was looking for this particular plate and would pay me $10,000. I had that plate he was looking for. But I didn’t sell it. He passed away the following week.”

A lot of people want a plate from their vehicle’s model year. “This week a customer had a 1968 truck and he wanted a 68 plate but with the number 68 in it. Some people want a plate with their lucky number on it. Some might tell me their car has a 327 engine in it and they want the engine size in the number. I’m usually able to accommodate people looking for a certain plate. License plates go with everything. People just like license plates for all kinds of reasons.”

Jesse owns several vehicles including 6 Model As from 1928 to 1931. “Their license plates all have the year that goes with the vehicle.”