Pennsylvanians LVE their vanity plates

PennDOT sold about $300,000 worth of the specialized plates last year. Despite a dismal economy, the state sold about 15,000 of them last year at $20 a pop.

Matt Rousu is an associate professor of economics at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. He says behavioral economists might chalk this up to the theory that it’s often easier to make a small purchase if it’s accompanied by a much larger one–like a $20 vanity plate tacked onto a $20,000 new car.

“I don’t know where the sales have come from, but I would suspect that most of them have come when most people are buying a vehicle anyway,” said Rousu. “I mean, $20 or $100–it’s almost a rounding error.”

Interested parties can look into getting a vanity plate by starting on the PennDOT website. The site allows people to check the availability of their preferred seven character combination.

That’s what I did.

REPRTR.  Reporter.

Wonder if I can expense it?