Its an utter piece of pi$$ (
says he who has three
).
You simply post off your docs (or nip into the nearest DVLA office) and complete the form to stick it on to a retention certificate for 1/2/3 years as you wish....each costs a bit more and includes a transfer fee of £80 for when the plate gets re-used, then you get back an age-related reg number for your car. Sometimes its the original number, sometimes not. I've had both happen.
Then you sell the plate for a given value plus the £80 transfer fee.
Or you can just apply to have it transferred to another car that you own.
But seriously easy.
Note of caution....they are correctly known as 'cherished' registrations because they ain't 'private', the DVLA owns them, so as Daved knows, if you abuse them say by having an incorrectly spaced plate or wrong font, after a couple of warnings they can and do take the reg away from you.
Or if you forget to renew the retention cert before it expires, ditto, kiss it goodbye forever.
