I am not saying these sales are necessarily legitimate.
But they do occur.
And at one time they did create a scandal when some of the nobility sold them. I believe reading that Lord Lichfield was one.
(In fact, the USA comic Doonesbury spoofed this, with a major character winning the lottery and using it to buy a title. He became Viscount St. Austell-in-the-Moor-Biggleswade-Brixham).
And I think it was Lord Bradford who campaigned to outlaw sales of fraudulent titles, when his own son's courtesy title was up for sale.
But all of this was some time ago.
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