This is the list from the other side of the table: what a professional buyer actually verifies before money moves. It is published here because a seller who knows the list arrives ready, and a seller who arrives ready gets an answer in hours instead of days.
The three that gate everything else
Fail any of these and the rest is not examined. They are binary.
1. Can you log in right now?
Control is the first question, not age. An account you cannot access is not an asset you can sell — it is a description of an asset. If the password is lost, recover it through whatever email or phone you still hold before approaching a buyer, and do it gently: a recovery attempt is itself a security event, and one from an unfamiliar device can put the account behind a checkpoint.
2. Do you control the email on the account?
Access to the profile is not enough. If the bound address belongs to an employer you left, or to a provider that closed your mailbox for inactivity, the account cannot be cleanly transferred: the recovery path stays with somebody else, permanently. This is the single most common reason an otherwise good account cannot be bought.
3. Is the account clear right now?
Not behind a verification challenge, not restricted, not in an appeal. A buyer will look at the account in a live session before agreeing a price, and an account showing a challenge on that first look is a conversation that ends there.
The seven that set the price
Once the gates are passed, these are what move the number.
4. Registration date, evidenced
Not estimated from the earliest job on the profile — evidenced, from the account's own data export. Age is the dominant price input, so it is the one thing nobody takes on trust. Requesting your export before you start the conversation removes the longest delay in the process.
5. Connection count and the shape of the graph
The count sets the band; the shape sets the confidence. Connections accumulated steadily over years, across employers, with endorsements and a few recommendations, read as an organic network. Nine hundred connections on a profile with no endorsements, no posts and no recommendations reads as a network assembled by bulk requests — which is a different risk and a different price.
6. Restriction history
Asked directly, and the honest answer is the valuable one. A restriction from four years ago that was lifted and never recurred is a footnote. The same restriction discovered after payment is a dispute, because it means the buyer priced a risk they did not have the facts on.
7. Verification status
Whether the profile carries LinkedIn's own identity verification. A verified profile clears more checks and presents as more established, which is why verified accounts occupy their own band.
8. Activity trail
Recent, ordinary use — a few reactions, a comment, a post — means the account can go back to work immediately. No trail means a warm-up period first. Neither is a problem; they are different amounts of work and they price differently. See the dormant-account article for the full picture.
9. Profile completeness
Photograph, headline, summary, employment history, education, skills. A complete profile transfers as a working identity. A skeleton profile transfers as a registration date with a name attached, and is priced accordingly.
10. Geography consistency
Where the account was created, where it has habitually logged in, and what is stated on the profile. Consistency across the three matters because the buyer has to continue the pattern; an account whose history is spread over four unrelated countries is harder to operate safely, which is why single-geography accounts are graded separately.
What ends a conversation
In rough order of how often each comes up:
- The account was bought from somebody else. A second transfer compounds every risk in the first and the history can no longer be established.
- The profile is not a real person. A generated identity fails LinkedIn's identity requirement permanently and is worth nothing here, at any age.
- The seller cannot produce the data export. No evidence of age means no premium for age, which usually means no deal.
- The account is bound to a current employer. Work email, company SSO, or an active employment relationship that makes the profile a company asset.
- The story changes. Age stated one way, then another; a restriction that appears only when asked twice. Inconsistency is treated as information, because that is what it is.
How to arrive ready
Four things, none of which require touching the profile:
- Confirm you can log in, from your usual device, once.
- Confirm you control the bound email, and if you do not, sort that out first.
- Request your LinkedIn data export. It takes up to 24 hours to arrive and it settles the age question by itself.
- Write down the honest answers to: how old, how many connections, which country, any restrictions ever, dormant or active.
Those five facts are exactly what the offer form asks for, and an offer against them is usually back the same day. If you would rather see where the account lands before making contact, the valuation page does it against the published tiers without asking for your details, and the handover procedure shows what happens after you accept.