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On this page you can learn a little more about me, and especially my license plate-related interests and activities. Latest noteworthy updates to this page
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 Rick Kretschmer (2010 photo) |
Hi, I'm Rick Kretschmer. First, let me help you with my last name. It's really not as hard as it looks. "Kretsch" rhymes with "fetch", and "mer" rhymes with "her". The emphasis goes on the first syllable. It's a German name, but I'm 100 percent American.
Ever since I was a very young boy, I've been interested in cars and geography, and I've always been a keen observer of license plates in use. I was born in Maryland in 1959, and lived there, in various suburbs of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., through 1992. Therefore, I'm very familiar with license plates from the early 1960s forward from Maryland, and also from Pennsylvania, where my parents are from. After leaving Maryland, I lived first in northern California, and since 2001 in North Carolina. I discovered the hobby of license plate collecting in 2003, and I began documenting license plate history on this web site in 2004. More about that below.
In the non-license plate part of my life, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was 13 years old, and I've been a committed Christian ever since. I've been happily married to my lovely wife Debbie since 1985, and we have two adult children. We currently reside in Clayton, North Carolina, which is outside of Raleigh. I make a living as a software developler, or as we were once called, a computer programmer. I've spend nearly my entire career supporting enterprise applications running on mainframe computers. In other words, 1970s technology still used by large corporations and government agencies.
You might not have ever heard of anyone collecting license plates. But really, when you think about it, it's no different than collecting stamps or coins or baseball cards, and those are universally recognized hobbies. License plates just take up a bit more space.
Actually, collecting is just one of several aspects of my license plate hobby. I'll address each one in turn below.
First and foremost, I'm a license plate spotter. I always have been, and I always will be. A plate spotter is someone who intentionally and consistently notices license plates in everyday use, on parked vehicles as well as in traffic. I've always learned a lot about license plates just by paying attention to them, discerning patterns and trends and changes, even subtle ones. Just as one example, it was by observing current North Carolina passenger car plates in daily use upon moving here that I soon realized that the second letter in the xxx-0000 serial format was limited to the range N through Z. Most North Carolina motorists were completely unaware of this, although it was the case between 1985 and December 2010.
我一直一盘监视人一生, since my early childhood. My parents tell me that as a pre-schooler I practiced my letters and numbers by reading license plates, and my high school buddies used to be surprised that I had all of their license plate numbers committed to memory. (Some of them, I still do.) I've always paid close attention to minute details about license plates, and knew which plates went on what types of vehicles, when minor changes were made to the plates, approximately what the highest issued plate numbers were, and so on.
In recent years, I've taken plate spotting to the next level. I now often take my camera with me when I go out, and if I come across an interesting license plate, I'll try to get a photograph of it. I do try to be discreet when I do this, because I realize that it could appear to be rather suspicious behavior. Really, though, I'm just an overgrown little boy when it comes to license plates, and although I have in a few instances been confronted by someone demanding to know my intentions, so far I've been able to convince them that I'm harmless.
 My first license plate, from my own first car |
In Maryland in the 1960s, my dad received new license plates annually, and being into license plates even back then as a child, I would ask to keep the old ones. Unfortunately, he saw no value in them and didn't let me keep them, but as an adult, I saved the plates from my own cars and hung them in my garage (at least I did in California, where I actually had a garage). This small accumulation of plates is as far as my collection ever got until 2003.
In July of that year, I came across an article about the history of North Carolina license plates in a really obscure local magazine that somehow ended up on my coffee table. Obviously, license plate history is not a regular subject for general interest magazines, and of course it piqued my interest. I read every word several times. At the end of the article, it mentioned and included the web address for ALPCA, the Automobile License Plate Collectors' Association. I checked outALPCA's web site以及许多的个人网站members, which, at the time, were listed on the ALPCA links page.
Well, as a child and a teenager I had collected various things – Matchbox cars, plastic model cars that I had assembled and painted, and Boy Scout council patches, to name a few, but eventually I lost interest in each of these. I had kind of been wanting to find a new, more adult hobby, but I hadn't yet come across any that really suited me. (Coins? Stamps? Too boring! Real antique or classic cars? Too expensive! Model railroading? Takes too much space!) I had seen a few license plate collections displayed on people's garage walls and in restaurants, but I had never even thought of it in terms of being a hobby before.
I was amazed to discover that license plate collecting is such an organized, legitimate hobby. License plate collectors have clubs and publications, and they correspond with and meet each other individually to trade license plates and admire each others' collections. They hold swap meets all around the U.S. (and the world), and ALPCA even holds an international convention every summer. I was intrigued.
 The plate my wife bought for me to start my collection |
I mentioned to Debbie, my wife, that I was thinking about taking up license plate collecting, and to my surprise, she was very supportive of the idea. I had been under quite a bit of stress at my job for some time at that point; perhaps she realized that my having a pleasurable diversion would help offset the stress. In any event, Debbie had recently discovered and started buying things on eBay, and so she looked there to see whether any license plates could be found. We were both blown away by the many thousands of oldlicense plates listed on eBay. I asked her to see if she could find a 1959 Maryland plate, since that is when and where I was born. Sure enough, there happened to be one listed. She asked if I wanted her to bid on it; I said no, I only wanted to see what one looked like. Well, later on without my knowledge, she bid on and won that 1959 Maryland plate for me. That plate was the first one in my collection that had not come from one of my own cars, and was the start of my 1959 birth year set.
By August 2003, I had joinedALPCA, gotten my own eBay account, and began in earnest to develop my collection.
 Editing a plate photo for my web site, circa 2004 (Not the most flattering angle!) |
As my collection began to grow, I soon realized that I wanted to be able to display my plates, for my own enjoyment as well as that of others. However, at the time, I had no suitable place to physically display my collection, and even if I did, I knew that very few people would ever see it. Also, although I had thoroughly enjoyed the many license plate sites I had found on the web, none really presented much in the way of a history of Maryland or Pennsylvania plates. As I've mentioned, I had a lot of knowledge about plates from these two states in my head, and was also making good progress building a nice collection of plates from both states.
So, I decided I wanted to create my own plate web site, with pictures of and lots of detailed information about license plates both old and new. I began teaching myself HTML and building my web site in March 2004; by April of that year I had gotten a few pages in good enough shape to let the world see them, and so my license plate web site was born. I've been steadily adding to and improving this web site ever since.
I've discovered that I really enjoy creating and maintaining web sites, and I'd like to think that I've gotten to be pretty good at it, too. Someday, I may try to start a part-time web site development business, so that I can actually make some money at it. Perhaps when I retire from my full-time job, as I just don't have the time with everything going on in my life.
You can read more about the history of this web site on myAbout This Web Sitepage.
Unlike a lot of other license plate collectors with web sites, I've never been content with just displaying photos of the plates in my trade box, or even the plates in my collection. I have this desire to know, and share with the world, whatever information I can about my own plates as well as other license plates that I'm interested in. Therefore, most of the pages on my web site include quite a bit of detailed information about the license plates covered on that page.
As I've mentioned, I already knew much about the history of Maryland and Pennsylvania license plates from the early 1960s forward, simply as a result of careful, direct observation of plates in actual use. From this, I was able to write much of the history web pages for those states off the top of my head. Of course, there's no way anyone can know everything, so where there were gaps in my knowledge, or there was any room for doubt about any particular point, I've sought to track down other credible sources of information in order to fill in the blanks or verify my own understanding.
As I've continued to write additional license plate history pages, covering plates that I'm less familiar with, I've had to do more actual research to obtain the information I've needed. Of course, this is far easier to do nowadays than it would have been before the advent of the internet. Anyway, when such information is not available, or is ambiguous or contradictory, then that's when it really gets interesting. I enjoy tracking down mysteries and piecing together various clues in order to uncover otherwise unknown or undocumented information about old license plates from decades past.
Sometimes, despite my efforts, the best I can do is to form an educated guess or opinion. When that's the case, I've tried to make a point of qualifying any statements I've made as being based on conjecture rather than verifiable facts. Sometimes, I just have to frankly admit that I don't know something. And sometimes –gasp!– I've been shown to actually be wrong about some point. However, writing an incomplete and imperfect history is better than having none at all – doing so at least blazes a trail for other people to follow who have or can uncover additional information. Of course I want to be as accurate and complete as possible, and so I'm more than happy to revise what I've written if new sources of information become available.
During the first few months I was actively collecting, I was using money from the household budget to buy plates. I'm by no means wealthy, and I soon realized that I couldn't afford to do this on an ongoing basis. I decided that I needed to keep a plate fund separate from the rest of my money, and find other ways to pay for my hobby. Having the discipline to stick with this has kept me from getting carried away, buying plates that I can't afford.
 I bought this plate at an antique car show in North Carolina |
 Just one of many plates that co-workers have given me |
I acquire license plates in a variety of ways. As I mentioned, I've kept them from my own cars when they have expired or I've moved to another state. During the first few years I collected plates, I bought a lot of them on eBay. I don't buy that much on eBay anymore, because it can be hard to get a bargain on the more valuable plates when every collector in the world is also bidding, and with the inexpensive, common plates the shipping costs really add up fast. I also obtain plates by attending license plate swap meets, going to antique car shows that have vendors selling old plates, by trading with or buying from other collectors I've found on the web, or who have found me, and by answering ads in the ALPCAPlatesmagazine.
我努力确保每个人都知道或满足aware that I collect license plates. I've gotten some strange looks and even snickers when I've told people this. But it's well worth it – friends, relatives, acquaintences, and sometimes even complete strangers who have somehow heard about me give me free license plates, which I add to either my collection or my trade box. Plates I get that I don't need for my collection go into my trade box, and I then use them to trade for other plates that I do want for my collection. When I sell a plate, the money goes into my plate fund, which I use toward buying more plates for my collection, or toward defraying other collecting expenses.
Debbie continues to be very supportive of me having this hobby. She even made me a license plate shirt, which I'm wearing in some of the photos further down on this page. Of course, I stopped using grocery money to buy plates, without her having to say anything, and I knew better than to even ask if I can display license plates on the living room wall!
I address my actual license plate collection in greater detail in theAbout my collection, article, below on this page.
My license plate hobby is also a lot of fun because of the many people I've both met and corresponded with via e-mail, and the friendships that I've made.
Thanks in large part to this web site, I regularly hear from fellow plate collectors and others with an interest in license plates, from here in my own city, throughout the U.S., and from all corners of the globe. I never know what I'm going to find in my e-mail inbox, and I mean that in a good way. I also participate on theYahoo! PLATES group, which is a rather large and active online license plate discussion group, on various Facebook groups related to license plates, and elsewhere online.
Plate collectors tend to try to visit each other when they travel, even if they've never met before. Having the common bond of an interest in license plates makes for ready conversation, and checking out each other's collections and displays, and doing some trading, are always on the agenda as well. Of course, one of you has to know the other exists to be able to arrange a visit. That's one reason why it's a good idea to be a member of ALPCA, an online discussion group, or something similar.
Besides all the great license plates, plate meets and conventions are also very enjoyable because of the people who are there. These are great opportunities to connect faces with names, and to develop friendships with people with similar interests. Although plate collectors tend to be a close-knit group, they readily welcome new collectors, too. I know I was made to feel very welcome when I attended my first plate meet. I think maybe it's because we just enjoy being in the company of people who don't think of us as strange, at least not because of our hobby, anyway.
For the first five or so years I was collecting, I was only able to get to maybe two or three regional plate meets per year due to other things going on in my life, and that just wasn't enough. In 2007, I was able to attend my first ALPCA convention, held that year in Huntsville, Alabama. The annual ALPCA convention is the mother of all plate meets, spanning four days with typically 500 or more attendees, and held in a 50,000+ square feet convention hall filled with literally millions of license plates. Then, in 2009, my schedule became significantly freed up, and since then I've attended the ALPCA convention in most years, and have been able to get to plate meets sometimes as often as monthly. Also in 2009, I hosted my first plate meet on August 8 in Sykesville, Md.Read about it and see photos here.
They're not the best photos, but here are a few pictures of me at license plate collectors' events.
 Setting up my table at the Huntsville ALPCA convention (photo courtesy of Justin Mattes) |
 At the Huntsville ALPCA convention with Justin Mattes |
 Receiving the "Best Display" award from Richard Baucom at an ALPCA regional plate meet in Charlotte |
As I mentioned above, I joined the Automobile License Plate Collectors' Association, or ALPCA, almost as soon as I knew it existed in 2003. As a resident of North Carolina, I also soon joined the Carolina Collectors' Club (CCC), which is the ALPCA regional chapter for North and South Carolina. I've been an active member of both organizations ever since.
However, the members of the CCC are mostly into North and South Carolina license plates, and there's plenty of plates from these states available at CCC meets, but these don't interest me. There wasn't a functioning regional chapter covering Maryland, my home state and my primary collecting interest, or Virginia. There had been a number of independent plate meets held in Virginia, which I attended regularly, but none in Maryland since I started collecting in 2003. Therefore, I hosted my own independent meet in Sykesville, Md. in August 2009, to attract Maryland collectors who would bring plates that I was actually interested in. It was a big success, and I made the arrangements to do it again in August 2010.
However, I still wasn't content just hosting an independent meet in Maryland. It kept nagging at me that we didn't have a functioning ALPCA region. Then, in February 2010, the Sykesville meeting hall burned down, and I was left without a place to hold the upcomimg meet. As I searched for an alternate site, I was finding that I would be more successful securing a suitable facility as a representative of a non-profit organization than I could as an individual.
And so, at the independent meet in Annandale, Va. on March 6, I passed around a petition to re-activate the ALPCA Chesapeake Region, which had been dormant since 1999, as the regional chapter for Maryland, Virginia, D.C., and Delaware. I obtained 32 signatures from ALPCA members who where present at this meet, and submitted it to and received approval from the ALPCA Board of Directors by the end of March. So, the ALPCA Chesapeake Region held its first regional meet in Mount Airy, Md. on August 14, 2010, at which I was elected region president.
Check out the ALPCA Chesapeake Region'sweb sitefor the information about upcoming plate meets in the mid-Atlantic area.
I now have well over a thousand license plates in my collection. Most of these are on display on this web site. This number doesn't include the plates I have in my trade box. The number of trade plates I have varies, but typically it's somewhere between 50 to 150 plates. Anyway, this may seem like an impressive collection to a non-collector, but to some collectors I'm probably still considered a newbie just barely getting started. Many serious collectors have accumulatedmany tens of thousandsof license plates – no exaggeration. (That many plates isn't a collection, it's a hoard!) Myself, I have no intention of ever having anywhere near that many plates. I'm much more interested in quality than quantity.
I'm pretty focused in the kinds of plates I try to collect. There are just way too many different types and ages of plates from too many places to collect them all, and accumulating a hodgepodge of random plates doesn't appeal to me, either. So, I only go after specific categories of plates. Right now, these are, in approximate order of priority, the major categories of plates I collect:
 My favorite plate |
 My oldest Maryland plate |
 My oldest Pennsylvania plate |
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There are a few other kinds of plates that I casually acquire, but only have one or two or a few of so far. These include vanity plates with my name "Rick" on them (such asthis one), plates with my initials "RK" in the serial number (such asthis one), and plates with my ALPCA membership number "9652" in the serial number (such asthis one). Without actually trying to collect them, I've also hung onto any Illinois non-passenger plates I've managed to acquire, and have a over a dozen of various types. I'm not yet sure what I'm going to do with these. Some time in the future, I anticipate possibly wanting to collect license plates from Washington, D.C., and vanity plates with Judeo-Christian messages and Bible verse references.
You might have noticed that I didn't mention collecting California or North Carolina license plates, despite my having lived in each of these states for a good number of years. I do have a few plates from these states, for example, as part of my 50 state sets from 1959 and 1977, or when they've met some other criteria for plates that I collect. I can't explain why, but I've just never become sentimentally attached to the license plates from either state, and so I haven't had any interest in collecting them for their own sake.
Related pages on this site |
Elsewhere on the web |
感谢那些直接导致the information on this page: Justin Mattes.
Justin Mattes photo is presumed to be copyrighted and is used with permission.
This page is W3C valid |
