Trade a Lexus for a prestigious phone number? In Iraq, the best digits cost a fortune

In Iraq, owning this special item can grease the skids in business, get a politician to stand at attention and even inspire affection in a sweetheart.

This key that opens so many doors is a cellphone SIM card.

But not just any SIM card. It must be “distinguished,” associated with a phone number considered prestigious because it has a distinctive or beautiful series of digits. Say, for instance, a string of sevens or zeros, or a repeating pattern of numerals.

The marketplace for these modest pieces of plastic inside phones, which connect them to a network, can rival that of gold and precious stones – with trades in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars.

And while this market emerged about a decade ago, a new-found optimism in Iraq’s future after the recent defeat of Islamic State in Iraq has increased demand for the special SIMs among aspiring business executives, political neophytes and young people looking to treat themselves.

They’ve become so popular that Iraq’s largest telecom companies are formalising the trade, introducing offers for tiered SIM cards from “Silver” to “Diamond Plus.” A regular SIM card runs about US$3, while a Silver card carrying a number with some combination of consecutive pairs, such as 4455, costs about US$30. A Diamond Plus card – which features a number whose last five digits are the same – will set a seeker back US$1,300 to US$1,500.