Shanghai’s Cheapest Car License Plate Bid: $13,000!

This month Shanghai’s monthly license plate bidding system distributed 12,200 plates to private car owners at an average price of 89,900 yuan ($13,000), the Shanghai Daily reports.

The average bid was 2% higher than in March. The newspaper says 252,300 people signed up for this month’s auction, making the success rate less than 5%.

Shanghai has been capping the number of license plates it issues per month for more than five years in a bid to control traffic congestion in the Chinese megacity.