sales Swetha’s Sales – The Truth May Shock You!

[Digital Nomad]

Here is a nice article posted on NameBio.com by Michael Sumner the CEO of NameBio.com. He asked for Swetha's aka @DNGear username and password to log into her Afternic account to confirm the sales once and for all, read it all below or go to https://namebio.com/blog/swethas-sales-the-truth-may-shock-you/

Swetha’s Sales – The Truth May Shock You!​

Yesterday there was quite the stir on Twitter after Swetha reported another batch of jaw-dropping .xyz sales. User @jackdomainer did some research and found that an overwhelming majority of her sales were still not developed, which he thought was suspicious given the price tags. Theories started flying around, and even the Castello Brothers and Rick Schwartz chimed in with vague statements alluding to some grand conspiracy.

Grab some popcorn and read it for yourself here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1596296988966154241

The low rate of development was the only “proof” provided so far. But why report fake sales? Well isn’t it obvious? To boost the value of her own assets so she can dump them on unsuspecting wholesalers, hoping to reproduce her incredible success, for inflated prices.


But ask yourself this… how many times have you seen Swetha wholesaling premium .xyz domains? I may have missed it, but I don’t recall seeing that.


For years I’ve been in the awkward position of publishing these sales reports. All I can go on is a screenshot, which she graciously provided for every single sale report since the day she started sharing. But screenshots can be faked relatively easily.


I could ask her to share her screen with me while she logs in to a marketplace, but even that could be faked with browser extensions that modify the page live. It’s more difficult than faking a screenshot, but not impossible. Not good enough.


To get a definitive answer, I reached out to Swetha and asked for the unthinkable. I asked if she would give me her username and password to her Afternic account, so I could log in myself and verify all the sales she has ever reported at this marketplace.





I felt bad even asking. Here she is sharing her valuable sales data with the community, all while being given endless grief about it. And now some stranger is asking to log in to her Afternic account. A lesser person would have just said “fuck it”, stopped reporting sales, and told me to go away. But you know what… she agreed! It was at this moment I knew it was all true and factual, but still, I’m going to “due diligence” the heck out of this.


So I quickly logged in to her Afternic account and visited this URL to get a dump of all the raw sales data. Then I started taking screenshots of her sales summary page. I logged out and let her know I was done so she could change her password. Then I started diving in.


One by one I checked the sales against what we have in our database. Every single one of them was perfect. Except I discovered something shocking. Quite a few of the sales were never reported. However good you think she’s doing based on what she has reported, she’s actually doing even better. That’s insane!


Now remember, Swetha has been reporting sales for quite a while now. All this time, she had no idea I would ever ask her to log in to any of her accounts, or which one(s) I would ask for. So if she was going to fabricate sales, she would have no way of knowing to always keep Afternic clean, as opposed to DAN or Escrow.com or whatever. Thus I now feel 100% confident in all her reports, not just the Afternic ones.


I also now feel confident in saying that Swetha is probably in the Top 100 of all domain investors who have ever lived, and she is probably in the Top 5 of all investors who aren’t part of the “old guard”. Maybe even #1 of the new generation.


But more than that, she is a kindhearted individual who is generously sharing what is working for her even though it makes new acquisitions more expensive for her. And even when the haters show up in droves, she stays the course. Thank you Swetha.


Is it possible that she’s a shill for the registry, and they’re creating hundreds of accounts across multiple marketplaces to buy the domains from her? I mean anything is possible. But it seems highly improbable that they would lock up funds and trust that she would always give them back, just to create the appearance of demand. They don’t benefit from the wholesale aftermarket, so it would just be for the sake of hand regs.


And then how do you explain the ones that are developed? And how do you explain other people getting large XYZ sales? Believe what you want, and skepticism is generally a healthy thing, but this theory seems so out there and lacking in any evidence that I have to think anyone who believes it is jealous (or loves conspiracy theories more than Rob Monster).


Here is the full screenshot I took of her sales summary page, with unreported sales blacked out for her privacy. Again, I took this screenshot myself while personally logged in to her Afternic account, it was not shared with me. I saw it with my own eyes.

Check out the screenshot of Swetha's sales at: https://namebio.com/assets/swetha-sales.jpg

Source: https://namebio.com/blog/swethas-sales-the-truth-may-shock-you/

 

[-EM-]

S/he doesn't want publicity and yet s/he advertises his/her sales. Wouldn't it be easier to not declare the sales at all?

 

[phaethon]

I think Mike is right and the guys from Domain Sherpa said something similar on their latest show.

 

[Kingslayer]

There is one thing guaranteed in life and that is that is the old always make way for the new (people and technology) and generational divide from some of these investors (Rick especially) stands out a lot to me at times.

I don’t believe in .xyz’s long term future and I personally only invest in .com, but I have an open mind about things, I believe Swethas sales are legit and due to these sales, Swetha (multiple 6 figures under her belt) is that new generation of investor that the old lions have took notice of and deem as a threat to them and what they have preached as gospel for the last 30 years (only invest in .com, everything else is worthless), i was reading some of Mike's tweets on this the other day, some of the lows he's going to is disgusting, it's borderline racism/sexism.

 

[marijuanadomain]

Maybe s/he likes all the attention s/he is getting
Is s/he cares about about the domain industry, then s/he can promote her/himself in conferences/get together parties...
other than that- it is all just a fantasy

 

[HotKey]

I don’t believe in .xyz’s long term future

Y not? Personal dislike for the actual extension, or some other more, technical issue that prevents it from being a domain name for entities to build and invest in?

For me, at first dot-xyz discrimination stemmed solely from a dislike of the extension. I mean, dot-xyz... really?? But it has kinda grown on me over the years, and I don't see any rhyme nor reason for it having a solid future.

 

[hawkeye]

'crack'! and another one over the fence by Swetha!

Conduit.xyz sells for $69,888​

https://tldinvestors.com/2022/12/conduit-xyz-sells-for-69888.html

 

[Vivere]

i was reading some of Mike's tweets on this the other day, some of the lows he's going to is disgusting, it's borderline racism/sexism.

This part. Thank you for saying this.

I own some xyz domains, but I’ve always been (and will always be) cautious about swallowing some of the shiny details that float around—as I am (and always will be) with details related to ALL other extensions. So, healthy skepticism isn’t the issue for me.

The issue is the vile way some have chosen to express and pursue this. Under the pretext of “exposing the truth’’ and “protecting domainers”, they’ve taken things to extreme lows:

• They’ve thuggishly and persistently harassed the domainer in question, with one character even going as far as making derisive memes with the domainer’s name and photos “just for entertainment purposes”.
• They’ve thrown around quite a few offensive statements that have undertones and overtones of sexism, racism, and classism. From nonsense like “using the face of a woman for sympathy”, to garbage like “Bollywood Domaining”, to incredibly uneducated BS like “an Indian woman would not write like …, they would write in broken English”, “how was an Indian woman able to buy 20k domains”, etc.
• They’ve lumped any and all domainers that invest in .xyz, try to raise counterpoints, or ask them for hard proof as part of an “xyz cult”, while hypocritically missing their own increasingly cult-like traits.
• They’ve styled themselves as sole arbiters of truth and authenticity that the domainer, and others, must now present themselves to.
• They’ve doxed the domainer in a spiteful and reckless way, with little to no consideration for the potential dangers they could be exposing them to.
• And, so far, they’ve done all this on the strength of sensationalized conjecture, innuendo, speculation, and forced correlations.

WTAF? This is just not okay.

It’s totally different from objective investigations where facts and “innocent until proven guilty” are cornerstones. It’s a malicious, self-serving attack that’s primarily driven by envy, frustration, hate, and fear. And it won’t stop here—even if they get the results they want.

Today it’s Swetha. Tomorrow it’ll surely be someone else.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

Swetha could be real but she is not alone, that is for sure.
There is a group of people working behind the scenes, she is only what we see on front end but not on the backend.

And even if she had some salespeople/brokers working for her, nobody knows for how long.
So the goalposts will keep shifting to things like:
- rich uncle/daddy/granny/twin sister etc
- friends with Daniel N
- special privileges when buying premium xyz names early etc
- targets crypto buyers with more money than sense (basically a churlish way of saying she's good at what she does)

Yadda yadda, Twitterstorm yadda...

 

[karmaco]

This part. Thank you for saying this.

I own some xyz domains, but I’ve always been (and will always be) cautious about swallowing some of the shiny details that float around—as I am (and always will be) with details related to ALL other extensions. So, healthy skepticism isn’t the issue for me.

The issue is the vile way some have chosen to express and pursue this. Under the pretext of “exposing the truth’’ and “protecting domainers”, they’ve taken things to extreme lows:

• They’ve thuggishly and persistently harassed the domainer in question, with one character even going as far as making derisive memes with the domainer’s name and photos “just for entertainment purposes”.
• They’ve thrown around quite a few offensive statements that have undertones and overtones of sexism, racism, and classism. From nonsense like “using the face of a woman for sympathy”, to garbage like “Bollywood Domaining”, to incredibly uneducated BS like “an Indian woman would not write like …, they would write in broken English”, “how was an Indian woman able to buy 20k domains”, etc.
• They’ve lumped any and all domainers that invest in .xyz, try to raise counterpoints, or ask them for hard proof as part of an “xyz cult”, while hypocritically missing their own increasingly cult-like traits.
• They’ve styled themselves as sole arbiters of truth and authenticity that the domainer, and others, must now present themselves to.
• They’ve doxed the domainer in a spiteful and reckless way, with little to no consideration for the potential dangers they could be exposing them to.
• And, so far, they’ve done all this on the strength of sensationalized conjecture, innuendo, speculation, and forced correlations.

WTAF? This is just not okay.

It’s totally different from objective investigations where facts and “innocent until proven guilty” are cornerstones. It’s a malicious, self-serving attack that’s primarily driven by envy, frustration, hate, and fear. And it won’t stop here—even if they get the results they want.

Today it’s Swetha. Tomorrow it’ll surely be someone else.

There is even worse/just as bad things going around behind the scenes including someone claiming they reverse looked up a photo of said domainer and found nudes on adult website and was texting others the supposed photo, people on CH mocking mercilessly including making a fake audio of the domainer trying to sell xyz domains and playing it into rooms.

It doesn’t matter who believes what the sales have been verified, many developed, even Kate Buckley mentioned acquiring a few from her for customers this year and no one has produced one shred of proof to the contrary about the sales or about her. Just conspiracies and complaints about Negari.

Said domainer didn’t want to get on a Zoom call with Mann same guy that spent the previous 36 hours disparaging her on Twitter with the bitter old guard who think they have a right to attack without proof. I wouldn’t talk to him after that either.

 

[jiy k]

Ugly, Malicious trolling is going on and increasing every hour. Looks like the Fellows whom we adore are stooping to the newest low every hour. They think they are law unto themselves. If anyone don't respond to their call, bow before them, don't match their Criteria/Parameters of a successful domainer.....then they will join hands and start slamming, maligning, insulting, intruding and tagging photos, with no holds barred. In the name of skepticism they are ravaging the person.
They are trying to push her in a corner and when she protests, they will say see, she is guilty thats why she is protesting or else she would have come out clean. Who are you to tell or ask anyone to prove their credibility. Self-Proclaimed Domaining Judges? Seniors in domaining community should ask these guys to hold their horses and to Live and Let Live.
Empires have come and gone over centuries.
Karma strikes back subtly

 

[jhm]

All I want for Christmas is you @DNGear

Wanted to say something nice, the level of troll is strong

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Said domainer didn’t want to get on a Zoom call with Mann same guy that spent the previous 36 hours disparaging her on Twitter with the bitter old guard who think they have a right to attack without proof.

Yet when .com scandals have taken place, shill bidding, chinese domain pump n dump, etc most of the old guard stayed silent, looked the other way, or discussed the matters in private domain boardroom discussions, so not to fuel .com investing fud; as domainers sharing reported high value .com sales reports without fully verifying sales helped .com sales comparables.

Similarly xyz investors are doing the same thing now to attempt to justify .xyz enduser and wholesale value. Though xyz sales comparables are seemingly giving mobi flashbacks to some, and now suddenly xyz sales reports are to be scrutenized more than .com sales... .com sales which of note have arguably continued to raise in value year over year, and in certain instances .com sales remain at all time highs.

I personally think .xyz is in some sort of a bubble, but because of my blindness to .com greatness, I'm oblivious to the thought that .com investing could also see a bubble. Maybe I'm mistaken about .com value, but for how many years, can the value of .com continually grow year over year? Is is possible for .com to continue growing as the internet expands? And if so, with an expanding internet, is it unrealistic to see growth in other extensions?

I mean, I understand the skepticism, I just wish we had 100 more @Michael's in the industry. We'd be doomed as an industry if we didn't have folks attempting to be neutral referree's for the better of the sport for all teams.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

Ugly, Malicious trolling is going on and increasing every hour. Looks like the Fellows whom we adore are stooping to the newest low every hour. They think they are law unto themselves. If anyone don't respond to their call, bow before them, don't match their Criteria/Parameters of a successful domainer.....then they will join hands and start slamming, maligning, insulting, intruding and tagging photos, with no holds barred. In the name of skepticism they are ravaging the person.
They are trying to push her in a corner and when she protests, they will say see, she is guilty thats why she is protesting or else she would have come out clean. Who are you to tell or ask anyone to prove their credibility. Self-Proclaimed Domaining Judges? Seniors in domaining community should ask these guys to hold their horses and to Live and Let Live.
Empires have come and gone over centuries.
Karma strikes back subtly

Unfortunately all this infighting paints the domain community in a negative light, putting off any new entrants.

 

[HotKey]

But it has kinda grown on me over the years, and I don't see any rhyme nor reason for it having a solid future.

* don't see any rhyme nor reason for it not having a solid future

I mean, I understand the skepticism, I just wish we had 100 more @Michael's in the industry. We'd be doomed as an industry if we didn't have folks attempting to be neutral referree's for the better if the sport for all teams.

+1.

Skepticism though, I think this is different. For example, you're a skeptic Chris. It is in your nature and the digging you do in much reflects that. These others, have they shown scrutiny in past DN investors/sales as this?

Neigh, tis' rage. A witch hunt. Pure, unadulterated jealousy and fear. A pox upon that which threatens the status quo in the domain industry.

 

[3sixty]

That Sex.xyz sale via Sedo is a shocker. Or is it a reflection of the true .xyz market?

 

[karmaco]

That Sex.xyz sale via Sedo is a shocker. Or is it a reflection of the true .xyz market?

Whats so shocking? It has a very high renewal cost.

 

[Reddstagg]

Whats so shocking? It has a very high renewal cost.

I think that it is in the region of $13,000 every year. They must have some awesome plans ahead that will make it pay for itself, which is surely the goal of every domain name that we own. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Rgrds,

Reddstagg

 

[Centauri]

The truth may shock you.

Well, you proofed that she sold (x) domains for (x) prices.
Correct.

What now?!

People.on.twitter arguing, that she ain't a real person.
But a pseudonym of Daniel negari.

Founder of .XYZ

What is so difficult to simply make a short video, and just say hello?!

That's not just something some people say -
many say that they would wish sich a video from swetha

(or a short Skype Interview).


Whatever, I don't give a damn anyway

 

[bmugford]

Yet when .com scandals have taken place, shill bidding, chinese domain pump n dump, etc most of the old guard stayed silent, looked the other way, or discussed the matters in private domain boardroom discussions, so not to fuel .com investing fud; as domainers sharing reported high value .com sales reports without fully verifying sales helped .com sales comparables.

Similarly xyz investors are doing the same thing now to attempt to justify .xyz enduser and wholesale value. Though xyz sales comparables are seemingly giving mobi flashbacks to some, and now suddenly xyz sales reports are to be scrutenized more than .com sales... .com sales which of note have arguably continued to raise in value year over year, and in certain instances .com sales remain at all time highs.

I personally think .xyz is in some sort of a bubble, but because of my blindness to .com greatness, I'm oblivious to the thought that .com investing could also see a bubble. Maybe I'm mistaken about .com value, but for how many years, can the value of .com continually grow year over year? Is is possible for .com to continue growing as the internet expands? And if so, with an expanding internet, is it unrealistic to see growth in other extensions?

I mean, I understand the skepticism, I just wish we had 100 more @Michael's in the industry. We'd be doomed as an industry if we didn't have folks attempting to be neutral referree's for the better of the sport for all teams.

There have been shenanigans with basically every extension from .COM to .MOBI and everything in between.
Several "sales" are reported that include some exotic agreement, payment plan, etc.

For instance $1M for Beauty.cc -
https://domainnamewire.com/2009/07/26/live-cc-domain-nae-posts-10000-bid-at-sedo/

Or, how about the $16,500,000 sale of Philadelphia.finance.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/16-500-000-sale-of-philadelphia-finance.1268107/

.COM though, having the largest market share by far, has plenty of this as well. The CHIP thing is a good example. There was really no legitimate reason to explain the rise of some crappy LLLL.com from $100 - $150 to $2500+ almost overnight.

There have always been some people questioning these things.

Mike Mann has frequently had his sales questioned, when he posts some very marginal domain sold for $30K or whatever.

At the time people like me pointed out it is simply a numbers game. If you have 300,000 .COM domains with high prices, you are going to sell one here or there.

If you are willing to have a low enough STR, you can make a few high sales.

A lot of this is grounded in the fact that @DNGear is consistently selling .XYZ domains for high prices, when it seems like others with similar quality domains are not. However, this is a bit of a numbers game as well.

Even if others have similar quality domains they might have 5,10,100, but probably not 20K.

I am all for healthy skepticism, but the level of attacks have gone beyond the pale at this point. Much of the stuff I have seen on Twitter (and other places) is toxic, derogatory, and straight up racist.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

Whats so shocking? It has a very high renewal cost.

Yes, premium renewals are toxic when it comes to investment, and even as an end user it is often an undue burden.

It makes otherwise attractive domains become far less attractive.

That is one thing Swetha has going for her. Most, if not all, of her domains have standard renewals.

Here is a quick math lesson on why registry premium domains rarely make sense.

The average STR for domains is around 1%-2% a year. That STR is generally for extensions like .COM. Secondary extensions are usually lower.

If you have a $500/year fee that means on average you need to sell the domain for $25,000 (2% STR) to $50,000 (1% STR) just to break even.

So you basically need either a much higher STR or much higher sale price for the math to work.

It is why I am basically never interested in investing in domains with premium renewal fees.

Brad

 

[BRANDERX]

Such a nasty industry, & I think Musk's platform is making it a lot worse.

 

[Centauri]

The truth may shock you.

Well, you proofed that she sold (x) domains for (x) prices.
Correct.

What now?!

People.on.twitter arguing, that she ain't a real person.
But a pseudonym of Daniel negari.

Founder of .XYZ

What is so difficult to simply make a short video, and just say hello?!

That's not just something some people say -
many say that they would wish sich a video from swetha

(or a short Skype Interview).


Whatever, I don't give a damn anyway

Do me a favour and make your dislikes at least public.


And btw:
@domainnamegear , how can you explain masses of buyer's, that spend ~$50k on your names, and Then do not even develop them??


You truly think it's unnormal to ask for that?!


All these yay sayers and opportunists just make one


Are you grown up man, or what?!

Doesn't it make you look ridiculous, to act like teenagers?


.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

I think that it is in the region of $13,000 every year. They must have some awesome plans ahead that will make it pay for itself, which is surely the goal of every domain name that we own. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Rgrds,

Reddstagg

Hey Redd....a friend of mine owns Sex.link that's 10x better than sex.xyz imo. It's renewal is $110 annually, but he's asking a lot for it.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

This morning @Michael posted a little analysis of $10,000 + .xyz sales reported in NameBio. There were 143 sales across 18 venues/sellers, and 'just' 59% were Swetha. The continual claim that just one person reporting significant sales in the extension is becoming tiresome. Thanks Michael for compiling the stats.
-Bob

 

[bmugford]

This morning @Michael posted a little analysis of $10,000 + .xyz sales reported in NameBio. There were 143 sales across 18 venues/sellers, and 'just' 59% were Swetha. The continual claim that just one person reporting significant sales in the extension is becoming tiresome. Thanks Michael for compiling the stats.
-Bob
Show attachment 228790

So there are only (18) total venues/sellers of a $10K+ .XYZ sale.

(17) of those make up 41% or around 59 total sales.
(1) of those makes up 59% or around 84 total sales.

59% is a very high number. Can you show me any other extension with similar statistics?

With that said, it doesn't mean there is something nefarious going on, but the situation is clearly a unique statistical outlier.

Brad