Perhaps I'm odd, but I find the novelty of this to be amusing:
IPv4 Market Group Announces the Availability of a Significant Portfolio of
IPv4 Addresses for Purchase in the RIPE Region:
IPv4 Market Group, a global leader in IPv4 sales, has just announced the
availability of up to 2.6 million top quality IPv4 addresses for purchase
in the RIPE region. The firm’s Executive Vice President for Business
Development, Jeff Mehlenbacher, said that the IPv4 blocks are being offered
in multiples of /16, with up to 7 contiguous /16’s and 40 /16’s in total
IPs.
...and I gather that perhaps - although it's currently being marketed as a
bunch of /16s - they might also entertain the possibility of selling it as
an entire /8 for a reasonable price.
I'm wondering: have we passed the point of peak IPv4 scarcity? Is selling
an entire /8 still a viable proposition? Apparently UK Gov may have more
than one...
What with their CTO declaring no need for IPv6 last June I do wonder if
the Government is in the driving seat of its network policy.
It'll be a'rolling in the aisles when HMG wakes up to find they've
flogged their v4 and can't deploy v6 and are to be stuck behind a nice
vendor's CGNAT policies for the duration.
One may find that these dark /8s have been co-opted by large networks for
private use. That said, these dark /8s and their sub-blocks may have long
lasting reach-ability issues that the purchaser may not enjoy.
Not saying anything is right or wrong, just saying .... like 1.1.1.0/24,
there may reach-ability issues deep in 3rd party networks with these
"bottom of the barrel" legacy ipv4 blocks that have been seen as "fair game
for squatting on", in some circles, for many years.
Colour me surprised that so many people are talking about the marketing
schtick (or: "woe betide the seller for unspecified reasons") - and not the
opportunity... but so be it.
...which suggests that it's 51.0.0.0/8 that is up for grabs. I remember a
few years ago there being a bunch of "countdown to doomsday"-type blogposts
and articles re: the underadoption of IPv6 and the expected fatal pressure
on the declining resource of IPv4; now I'm seeing a lot of 6 in mobile,
loads of NAT, and folk seem far less petrified of the future?