Reselling SIM cards with memorable numbers

I've been curious about this for YEARS. Is reselling SIM cards with memorable phone numbers a thing in your country? it is in Africa. A regular joe wouldn't care if his phone number is 117777123 for example, but apparently businesses do. So some people made a business out of this and some got very very successful by getting their hands on a very large number of them, buying them from those who are going out of business or leaving the country. Then resell them for hundreds of dollars a pop. I know of at least 2 people who became wealthy doing just that.

The catch? The legal aspect of it; You have to get a lawyer to finalize the transfer of ownership and the costs add up pretty quickly, so you need a good starting capital.

So? are we weird or is this a thing elsewhere?