Author: Jonathan Upton

With the postal work stoppage over, we’ve been very busy filling orders over our final two weeks as a guaranteed YOM supplier. Just in the past few days alone, we’ve sold out of 1932, 1948 and 1949. We still have some consistently fast-selling years available like 1931, 1940, and 1954. We have one item left best-selling years including 1958, 1959, 1965 and 1966.

Our final 10-day countdown has started on our Facebook page. We will stop selling plates backed with our 6-month guarantee as of party-time on December 31. Those guarantees will be intact and will expire no later than June 30, 2025. After that, —poof— we’re fully retired as a YOM supplier, as planned.

What about the unsold pairs as of January 1? Those will sell on an as-is basis with no YOM guarantee, and no help for YOM-destined clients beyond what we’ll leave posted in our FAQ. We may liquidate them in bulk if the offer works for us; we have been approached by several people looking to buy stacks of pairs. Those plates will disappear from our stock lineup, as opposed to being visibly marked “sold.”

All that to say: If you’ve been eyeing our lone remaining 1966 pair in the hope that it’ll be cheaper in January— You won’t have any guarantees, and you could miss it entirely. The time to buy it is right now.

There are about 12 weeks left to purchase plates that are covered by our 6-month guarantee of YOM eligibility.

On January 1, 2025, we will switch to liquidation mode and no longer offer this guarantee. Those customers who purchased plates prior to then will still have their 6-month guarantees intact, and they will expire no later than June 30, 2025.

If you have been waiting to buy a pair of plates that is guaranteed to be registrable in Ontario to a same-year classic vehicle, get on it now. After January 1, our prices will drop and we will liquidate our remaining stock at our discretion with no guarantees or customer support regarding YOM registration.

Ontplates.com reached a major milestone last month: We posted our very last restored pair of plates (1935). Our paint shop is now quiet, and we’re finding homes for all the surplus plates that were never restored, as well as surplus paint supplies that we won’t be using.

Our list of “sold-out” years is growing, with 1930, 1933, 1950, 1956 and 1961 now permanently out-of-stock. Folks, this isn’t a bait-n-switch ploy where we’ll change our tack and start offering more YOM-guaranteed pairs. We have several irreversible actions well underway that will culminate in the closure of our business next June. So if you’ve been considering a set of plates to register under the YOM program, now is the time to act. We’ve already had a few people who waited too long and missed their chance.

We will continue to sell plates with our six-month guarantee of YOM eligibility until the end of 2024. It is very important for all clients to take the necessary actions to register their plates; instructions have been included with each pair. We can’t extend our guarantee out of goodwill, especially when we’re gearing down for closure of the business.

Further updates will be made through the fall; check the “News” space for those. Happy motoring!

Things are on-track for our retirement in 2025. We will discontinue selling pairs with our 6-month guarantee as of December 31, and then liquidate, and remain in business until June 30, 2025, to offer support on those guarantees from late 2024 that are still valid.

Although our high restoration quality is unchanged (in fact, our paint shop is churning our some of our best-ever work right now), no durability guarantees will extend beyond June 30, 2025. That’s because we’ll no longer be in business as of July 1, 2025.

Sales have been brisk. Our paint shop continues to operate to finish as many in-process plates as possible. We’re not starting any new restorations, so once certain years sell out, that’ll be it— Gone forever. Anything that is permanently out of stock will have an orange label on it saying “permanently out of stock.” There’s no use asking if there’s one more coming; there won’t be. As of now, that includes 1919, 1920, 1922, 1923, 1939, 1951, 1955, 1957, and 1967. We’re down to our last item on a few other years, which are tagged with a light blue label.

If you see a year where they all seem to be sold out, but just have the regular “sold” tag in the corner, this means that there are more coming from the paint shop through the summer. Don’t ask when; there’s no schedule. Don’t ask about the numbers; we can’t honour special requests. We’re also not holding plates for people; we’ve had too many instances of people ignoring our messages while we sit waiting. If we email you because a year you previously asked about is ready, act quickly. We’ll be selling to the first buyer who inquires after they’re posted. We’re also promoting all of our new arrivals on our Facebook page, which is why all three of our final 1951 pairs were snapped up in less than two days.

Sales have been brisk enough that it may not be necessary for us to bring our stock to the October licence plate swap meet in Grimsby. If you have been considering a pair of plates, act while they’re still in stock!