I assume Amazon came to them and offered the money and they accepted. I don't see anything shady about that. How do you sell something "openly"? Via an auction website? Is that standard procedure for everything these people sell?

Standard Internet procedures for IP addresses is apply to your Regional Internet Registry for addresses, and the panel decides who will make best use of them (usually smaller/newer providers are prioritized). You only pay administrative/membership fees for the addresses because IP addresses are technical bits not property... everyone operates addresses but nobody owns them.

That people sell food and houses is disconcerting in the physical world and creates real problems for real people where some can't afford to eat or have a roof over their head despite a global abundance of resources. That people do the same in the virtual world, with literal numbers, is beyond the scope of comprehension: pure madness.

The fact that you find private property "disconcerting" is enough to know this conversation is not going to go anywhere.

IP addresses were distributed on an per need basis. Now it became a lucrative investment (people didn't originally pay millions for this block!)

Why should IP addresses be private property? Why not simply reclaim unused IP addresses instead, and re-distribute it using the usual mechanism?

Just because i don't hold your religious beliefs in regards to private property doesn't mean we can't have a conversation. Of course, if the entire conversation revolves around the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of private property, we'll wander away from the topic that big tech multinationals are eating away the Internet commons. Specifically from Amazon, i'm also referring to the .amazon TLD case.