IPv4 Seller Beware

There are a lot of reasons to perform due diligence on an IPv4 Broker.  There are the normal business reasons, like ensuring the broker is insured, can handle the currencies involved, and can deliver on the sale.

However, there are some subtleties that you, as a seller should be aware of.  Some brokers just don’t know IPv4 markets and will give you bad advice.

We just ran into an unfortunate seller, and we have seen this twice now, who had its /17 block chopped up by an uninformed broker.  As a result, they lost a sale on the remainder of their block.

Sometimes, breaking a block like a /17 into pieces to realize higher returns could be a good idea.  In this case it was not.  When selecting a broker to represent you, ask the broker if they have any rules of thumb as to where a small block, say a /22 or /23 should be subdivided from the larger block.  Then call or email me and ask me what the right answer is.  I don't provide the right answer here, because I know that the other brokers read my blogs to get answers to the IPv4 market questions.  And you need to be able to know whether your prospective broker has any idea of what he or she is doing.