Greg Bradt, 30, has a license plate from every state and every Canadian province, although he’s only been to about 20.
His room is adorned with everything from a homemade quilt with license plates on it to tissue holders and maps dedicated to his collection.
The Delmar native started collecting when he was 9 or 10 years old and said he takes a great deal of pride in the comprehensive collection of license plates he’s amassed.
“I just like collecting stuff,” he said. “They have different shows throughout the Northeast. They also have meets all over the country.”
Bradt subscribes to a number of magazines and participates in collector’s guilds, including License Collections of the America and Automobile License Plate Collection Association.
Every so often, Bradt updates and modernizes his collection.
“States are always changing their license plates,” he said.
Bradt said he followed closely New York’s proposal to change to a yellow and blue license plate, but ultimately that proposal failed, eliminating the need to update his Empire State collection.
Most of his plates range from 1980 to the present and came from his parents, who got him started collecting, and from shows in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
“I like them all. There’s not one plate that I don’t like,” Bradt said.
Bradt said that a plate could run from $20 to $1,000, depending on how rare it is and what condition it is in.
He is looking to expand his collection, he said, and recently got plates from the Bahamas and Cancun, and is also looking to branch out into motorcycle plates too.
Bradt’s father, Jim, also grew up in Delmar and graduated from Bethlehem Central High School in 1964. An avid collector himself, Jim helped put a down payment on his house by selling his extensive baseball card collection.
He said he admires his son’s dedication and is always looking improve on his collection.
“If he finds a nicer plate, he gets a nicer plate,” he said.
