Pursuing a passion
Grotte Collection totals over 2,000 license plates
BY HUNTER L. ANDES
A man who lives off the beaten path north of Plaza works by day and collects pieces of North Dakota history by night. His name is Raymond Grotte, and he has a license plate display to be proud of — and it just keeps growing.
Grotte not only has an eye for license plates, he could likely be considered a specialist — especially when it comes North Dakota’s license plates. He can rattle off the history behind each year, why they are colored the way they are, which years only had one plate, as well as any other detail a person could think of asking him.
“Collecting plates can get to be kind of addicting,” Grotte said with a laugh. “I watch eBay like a hawk because the quality plates that are affordable usually get snagged up right away.”
He said there are a couple other websites he checks in on here and there that have quality license plates, but usually they are on the pricy side.
“Surprisingly, the best luck I’ve had with getting plates is when I put ads in the local newspapers,” Grotte said. “I’ve tried Swap Shop on KCJB, but I never have any success there. It’s weird because you would think that more people would listen to the radio than read the newspaper, but that’s not at all the case.”
Grotte started collecting the stamped pieces of metal around a decade ago.
