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/

 

[Andreas B.]

If you are into dict. xyz names, you may could make a quick buck ...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1614638227650138113

 

[karmaco]

I am of course referring to taiko and bebop. They are by all accounts obscure words.

The point being that you're more likely to sell beef.com than you are beefily.com. Just cause it's a dictionary word doesn't mean it's a good dictionary word.

I also have made the case that the words that succeed in .XYZ appear to be obscure. Another reason that investing in .XYZ is harder because it doesn't follow the same patterns that one might expect in a decent extension.

Next fake argument

Mural.xyz developed

Mural. Com developed

Bebop.xyz developed

 

[Andreas B.]

Next fake argument

Mural.xyz developed

Mural. Com developed

Bebop.xyz developed

Who, please, said, that these domains -exactly- are not developed?!

You don't want to admit, that these names are quite out of the ordinary, and no sane domainer or person would have priced them at $40,000?!

Just like no one would have priced taiko .xyz, or happening .xyz at $40k?!


What are we talking about?!

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Next fake argument

Mural.xyz developed

Mural. Com developed

Bebop.xyz developed

I checked out bebop.xyz to find out about Jazz developed in the mid 1940s and I am left wanting.

Mural.xyz leads me to believe that they have deep pockets, very fancy website.

I still think they're crap names though. Sorry.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

Thanks for sharing some interesting research. The comparison to the other domain extensions would be far more compelling, though.


Now those sales really are puzzling to me. Why would each domain sell for exactly $39,888? Strange,indeed.

Each of these domains seem to go to legitimate websites and they're all technical in nature. Take mural.xyz for example....their site is very professional and their leadership team with technical degrees from the likes of Duke and Yale seem to check out as well. Just click on their Linkedin bios and you'll see what I mean.

As for why each of these domains sold for $38,888 each? Maybe a big money source, possibly a large tech company is behind all three of these names.

Finally, having been a big supporter of the gTLD .link, i see now where the extension .xyz is focused mostly on technical businesses......just an observation.

 

[Andreas B.]

Next fake argument

Mural.xyz developed

Mural. Com developed

Bebop.xyz developed

If you want to see not developed, but highly priced and sold .xyz domains:


bull.xyz sold for $199,888 - not developed or resolving

1.xyz for $181,796 - not developed or resolving

wrap.xyz for $110,000 - still has dan nameserver pointing on 'sold page' ... sold a year ago; not developed

profile.xyz for $104,000 - not developed or resolving

bolt.xyz for $78,888, not developed or resolving

plus the other 45 domains / out of top 100, that are either not developed or not resolving, but sold for high prices
($25k to $199k).


That makes that 50% out of the top 100 are not developed / or not resolving.

Additionally to this, sites that forward to abandoned twitter accounts, to other sites or just have a simple logo site, etc.


Forget your anonymous dislikes, better answer to it.

 

[DomainNature]

I am of course referring to taiko and bebop. They are by all accounts obscure words.

The point being that you're more likely to sell beef.com than you are beefily.com. Just cause it's a dictionary word doesn't mean it's a good dictionary word.

I also have made the case that the words that succeed in .XYZ appear to be obscure. Another reason that investing in .XYZ is harder because it doesn't follow the same patterns that one might expect in a decent extension.

I can tell you about bebop, this domain sold after sometime after i begin to concentrate on the turning off sound of my headphones from Styeelseries there is a similar sound when you turn them off only the words are separated by 2 sounds be-bop, second there was a sale of Stir.xyz sold for $39888 here on NP's, this sale happened after i did a slow mo video of how i stir my coffee, because I could see a 4 corners shape forming in it, like Nazi symbol which was taken from Hindu religion.
I have also evidence that Mark Zuckerberg is spying on me, i was waiting to dropcatch an important domain for more than a year, after I successfully dropcatch it some months ago, I went to Zuck page because of my 6th sense and a similar domain with similar word was registered for his new project the difference was only a couple of days, I have screenshot.
As mentioned in other topics this domains sell after some of my actions, someone is playing with me.
P.s. Aliexpress show me exact products of something which I see in my house but never searched or told by voice to anyone, i think they have some advanced tech in my head.

 

[Andreas B.]

Might you tell me why you are giving dislikes on the following posts, which contain clear

• facts
• evidence
• examples?!

Being biased is most likely just a weak word for this....

If you are into dict. xyz names, you may could make a quick buck ...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1614638227650138113

If you want to see not developed, but highly priced and sold .xyz domains:


bull.xyz sold for $199,888 - not developed or resolving

1.xyz for $181,796 - not developed or resolving

wrap.xyz for $110,000 - still has dan nameserver pointing on 'sold page' ... sold a year ago; not developed

profile.xyz for $104,000 - not developed or resolving

bolt.xyz for $78,888, not developed or resolving

plus the other 45 domains / out of top 100, that are either not developed or not resolving, but sold for high prices
($25k to $199k).


That makes that 50% out of the top 100 are not developed / or not resolving.

Additionally to this, sites that forward to abandoned twitter accounts, to other sites or just have a simple logo site, etc.


Forget your anonymous dislikes, better answer to it.

Why don't you first reg / or buy 100 - 200 .xyz domains, try to sell them for a year, and then come back and tell us from your experience?!


There are many domainers who tried exactly that, and are now fed up with it discounting their names and just trying to get rid off them...


I can only share that experience.

 

[karmaco]

Who, please, said, that these domains -exactly- are not developed?!

You don't want to admit, that these names are quite out of the ordinary, and no sane domainer or person would have priced them at $40,000?!

Just like no one would have priced taiko .xyz, or happening .xyz at $40k?!


What are we talking about?!

What you think or I think is irrelevant. Buyer was willing to pay.

 

[karmaco]

Who, please, said, that these domains -exactly- are not developed?!

You don't want to admit, that these names are quite out of the ordinary, and no sane domainer or person would have priced them at $40,000?!

Just like no one would have priced taiko .xyz, or happening .xyz at $40k?!


What are we talking about?!

You are talking gibberish now. People price domains of any extension however they chose without your input. You act like five figure sales are rare. Its the people who have balls to ask for it who sometimes get it.

As far as what you call obscure words you really need to upgrade your vocabulary or find better arguments for trashing xyz.

What you call obscure others call unique. They forked out the money and I can’t understand why that bothers you so much.

Argument resolved about taiko. Dictionary is our friend.

taiko

noun​

1. A traditional drum, beaten by yobidashi to announce the beginning of a tournament, and at the end of each day
2. A Japanese drum or a performance of several drummers in an ensemble (also called kumi-daiko).

 

[Andreas B.]

You are talking gibberish now. People price domains of any extension however they chose without your input. You act like five figure sales are rare. Its the people who have balls to ask for it who sometimes get it.

As far as what you call obscure words you really need to upgrade your vocabulary or find better arguments for trashing xyz.

What you call obscure others call unique. They forked out the money and I can’t understand why that bothers you so much.

Argument resolved about taiko. Dictionary is our friend.

taiko

noun​

1. A traditional drum, beaten by yobidashi to announce the beginning of a tournament, and at the end of each day
2. A Japanese drum or a performance of several drummers in an ensemble (also called kumi-daiko).

haha, this niche of a niche (of a niche) term shall be worth $40,000, in a less known domain extension
(less known for the average internet user).

Just like bebop (or however the hell you spell it), or mural.

Makes perfect sense to me!


Well, of course not.
I don't think that happening .xyz is worth $40k either, buy hey...

When was your last high 5 digit sale, for a niche term in a niche extension??

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Some talk of name mural. Isn't it a great brand for a NFT web3 startup? I would think so.

If you want mural as your name (e.g. think of a startup that features collections of linked NFTs or that will do public installation murals along with blockchain registration), the .co is developed, bought for 4-fig 8 yrs ago, and the .com is in same hands, directing to the .co site. The .org is also developed. The .io is in ParkIO inventory, probably not cheap.

I have no trouble seeing the .xyz selling at that price, personally. Domain investors can feel how they want, but in web3 world there is legitimate .xyz interest (not that most use .xyz, as my analysis shows most big web3 use .com). So if you think the name mural is the perfect match to your idea, can't get .com or .co or .org, wouldn't you look at .xyz?

Mural is registered in 240 TLDs, according to dotDB, and is used in 726 active company names according to OpenCorporates.

-Bob

 

[pinkdragon]

If you are into dict. xyz names, you may could make a quick buck ...

All domains from that list have premium renewals. This is why the current owner try to get rid of them. Because the renewals are coming.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Sorry Bob, but since most sales over $2500 are brokered, there is no way of telling what the method of payment was ie whether it was half wire and half Dogecoin or three quarters or whatever.

I am honestly trying to understand your thinking, but struggling.

Quite apart from if your statement about brokers is valid (I was told at a NamesCon Expert Roundtable Working with a Broker session run by an experienced broker that they typically only handle names retail worth of $20,000+), but let's look at the finance.

So I showed you what Afternic accept as payment. I am sure you agree all of those are valid payment. Now you are saying maybe the buyer paid a broker in something else. OK, anything possible I guess. Then the broker would convert it on some exchange, and pay for the name at Afternic with an approved payment method. The broker would not accept worthless unknown currency then be on handle for real currency.

So you are saying you want NameBio to provide a compete trail. Not just that the sale was at Afternic by a certain seller, but to require documents on one or more levels back? Like the broker got paid $5k by credit card, $20k by some crypto or whatever, and $10k by bank draft? Why stop there, how did the person earn the money? Even if most felt it was useful to do that, it is an unreasonable level. What is currently reported is the price paid where the transaction occurred in a liquid currency. Sounds right to me.

I bought a property in the past, like an actual property. It gets registered at a registry office, dutifully recording what I paid, the owners, and if a mortgage is on the property. In my jurisdiction that is all publicly accessible information. But you say they should determine my payment forms to the lawyer who represented me in the transaction, if I took out money by selling some stocks or whatever? Why? It has nothing to do directly with the sale of the property (note exception if there are valid reasons to think I am using proceeds of crime in this).

You mention stik sale. Interesting DNJournal article on the creative transaction. These create problems, though, in reporting, Note that DNJournal did NOT report any value for the prints, although mention them in the story, they just reported the cash price, as per their policy I mentioned in my earlier response to you. So far at least, NameBio have not reported the sale. It is problematic, since the cash-only part under represents the value, by an unclear amount, but valuing prints moves it beyond the direct cash sales requirement.

-Bob

 

[Andreas B.]

All domains from that list have premium renewals. This is why the current owner try to get rid of them. Because the renewals are coming.

yep, this is true.

(the one owner tries to get rid off them).

But when I said, domainers are trying to get rid off their .xyz names, I was not talking about high renewal prices (resulting in selling the names for low).

I was talking about domainers, which hold a decent amount of .xyz domains, and were not able to sell their names within a year.

For a fraction of the price, swetha in general sells her names for.

And some therefore discount to $xxx level....

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Why don't you first reg / or buy 100 - 200 .xyz domains, try to sell them for a year, and then come back and tell us from your experience?!


There are many domainers who tried exactly that, and are now fed up with it discounting their names and just trying to get rid off them...

OK I will answer cause I did that. Not counting a bunch of .com brandables that I registered the matching .xyz in case the availability of the package would help me sell the .com, I have a bit over 100 .xyz. A number of my names are worthless. Some I feel hopeful about.

In past 12 months I have sold 2 .xyz in very low $$$$ range (well 1 is now a few days over 12 months, so maybe should count as 1). Both were to web3 type startups, although one just has a splash screen yet. It is a STR I would hope for, but did not achieve in most other TLDs I tried, and a STR about what other keeper names in my portfolio, better country code and legacy, sell at. I also did a few wholesale transactions.

I did not consider any .xyz name with a premium renewal. I bought some at auction, some hand reg. I did not pay more than $25 for any single name, and most much less. When registering, I tended to use 2-year registrations. I now have enough proceeds from the two sales to cover my expenditures in xyz up to now, and still have a bunch registered for next 2 years.

But that is just me. Let's look at the numbers in your example. For simplicity I will use 100 names. I don't know Swetha exact STR but it seems (based on maybe 100 sales per year and 20,000 xyz her STR would be 0.005 or 0.5%.

Let's make the really generous assumption that all of the investor's 100 names are as good as hers. I honestly think that is not true for virtually everyone who has tried some .xyz. Definitely mine are not to her standard. But even if they were, the person holding the 100 would be expected to have sold 1/2 of a domain name at the end of one year of having them all BIN priced with good landers like her. So 0 sales is totally within the statistical expectation.

But more than that, I think many investors just looked at the big .xyz sales, wanted a piece of that, and went into acquiring .xyz names thinking that the same sorts of names that sold in the past in .com sold in .xyz. If you look at her sales, or more generally the big sales in .xyz by all the sellers, they are concentrated in a very narrow type of name. They tend to be single-word, short, familar but not common, often with a science or tech flavour. They are typically names that would appeal to a highly-educated buyer. There are exceptions, but for the most part they are not two-word, numeric, alphanumeric or product/service match names.

I bet typically that the person with 100 only has maybe 10 that were the type that have sold so far for good amounts. They probably, like me, have tried some other things brandables, service matches, two-words, etc. So that means we would expect them to maybe sell 1 name in 10 in 20 years, if they had names as strong as Swetha. She amassed her portfolio over many years, putting in the searching work every day, in an era when the registry was not reclassifying any good dropped names as premium.

I've analyzed the bigger xyz sales a few times. Let me share the secret that seems obvious to me in looking at those sales. Look at your xyz names and make sure they check ALL of these points.

1. Single dictionary word, and pretty short, probably 8 characters or less in most cases (one of my sales was 10L but that is not the normal pattern).
2. Would make a good name for a brand for a decentralized service.
3. Feels elegant and a little techy in most cases, something a university graduate would think a good name.
4. Is NOT a service or product name.
5. Has no numbers.
6. Has at least 50, ideally a few hundred, or established companies using the term in name (use OpenCorporates or similar), but NO single famous company on the term.
7. Is registered in at least 50 TLDs, ideally more (use dotDB)
8. Does NOT have premium renewal.
9. The .com, .co, .org, .io are all not available or for sale at a very high price.

The final point is particularly important, in my opinion.

I have 100+ .xyz names (not counting the matching experiment). But my names that check all of those boxes, maybe 5 or so, and even a stretch there with some points. I was super lucky to sell the two I did. The numbers suggested that statistically I should have sold one in a number of decades. Bad news for me.

Other names may sell, and xyz investors are hoping market will broaden. I have some short brandable and product names, but that is based on a hope that it will broaden, not something yet proven with much data. A gamble.

Also, make sure you follow how she has sold her names. BIN price them, appropriate to the quality of the name - many price points. Landers all operational. Use well-respected marketplaces. Don't dabble in name may be available for sale, or price on request, etc. Those all may make sense for certain names in other extensions, especially legacy, but it seems to me the typical young, educated, web3 startup founder does not want to play those negotiation games.

There is no mystery here. But there are lessons that can be applied to other TLDs and other domain opportunities.

Bob

 

[DealMaker1]

Might be 90% of Crypto will be erased from public trade in next view years. But as long as they still can be exchanged to fiat money, no problem. Seller can decide if he/she will immediatelly exchange the Crypto to fiat money or to keep it as investment. A view month ago, someone paid my service with a NFT and some amount of Crypto. I immediatelly sold the Crypto and withdraw it to my bank. I still wait the NFT to get good buyer, considering it as my investmen. Paying with Crypto is already a trend now.

So if you can do it, great. But it's not for me. The introduction of all cryptos as a form of currency has caused inflation. Introducing new currencies that have no history of supplying a product or service is a bad idea. Fiat currency has hundreds of years of economic c science behind it ie formulation of GDP etc.

Cryptos, as a form of payment, has to go to save the balance of the international economy. If you can find find a sucker who will exchange their fiat for nonsense Dogecoin, for example, that's fine. But that sucker won't be me. Cryptos, apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum, constitute the biggest scam in history. It's hard to imagine that 50000000 or more people could be scammed , but it happened. Just shows how gullible the human species can be. And with the speed and reach of the internet just that much easier.

Crypto is not even intellectual property. There is nothing that can be manifested there in the real world. Just a Hodge Podge of smoke and mirror linear concepts that some snake oil salesmen somehow managed to sell to the banks. You can't even use the de facto advertising model (which all companies fall back on in so called "hard times") with it.

Everyone should wish 99% of crypto goes in the bin. You should see that introduction of these pseudo currencies has threatened to make your fiat currency worthless and turn the entire international economy into an inflationary wasteland where your money will be worthless and you will be forced to go back to farming. There is a balance to this world and I'm afraid it's gone way to heavy in the pure conceptual direction.

Just take a look at Warren Buffet's statements about crypto as currency. No one understands the history of economics in terms of products, services and their ties to fiat currency better than this man. He won't touch crypto because he knows it's a scam. Just a bunch of keyboard weekend warriors coming up with concepts whereby they will find some sucker half way across the world they can "sell" the piece of garbage to.

 

[frank-germany]

"Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s"

- its a niche of a niche, if you like...
from the 40s.

Must be very passionate about Jazz music, to a) know it, b) reg it, c) price it. At $40k.


So, as you are so clever:

What about T-A-I-K-O ?!

Another good name, you would have regged and priced at $40k?!

>>
- its a niche of a niche, if you like...
from the 40s.<<

you are so clueless....

 

[Lox]

.... hold a decent amount of .xyz domains, and were not able to sell their names within a year.

... a 53 millions of irrelevant .com incl. .xyz etc domains. How do you know that you know what you know about the Web3 movement + broad aspects of behavior + .xyz? Test your knowledge. Get inside the Web3. Talk later.

Regards

 

[Andreas B.]

>>
- its a niche of a niche, if you like...
from the 40s.<<

you are so clueless....

so, if not, why didn't you reg it and sold it for $40k?!


it's so funny when people try to tell you, that it is almost generally known that these names are
a) generally known, and b) worth the $40k.

And that it is no surprise at all, that these niche names are sought and bought for that amount...
in a new emerging tld.


I don't believe that much in fairy tales, I am sorry.

OK I will answer cause I did that. Not counting a bunch of .com brandables that I registered the matching .xyz in case the availability of the package would help me sell the .com, I have a bit over 100 .xyz. A number of my names are worthless. Some I feel hopeful about.

In past 12 months I have sold 2 .xyz in very low $$$$ range (well 1 is now a few days over 12 months, so maybe should count as 1). Both were to web3 type startups, although one just has a splash screen yet. It is a STR I would hope for, but did not achieve in most other TLDs I tried, and a STR about what other keeper names in my portfolio, better country code and legacy, sell at. I also did a few wholesale transactions.

I did not consider any .xyz name with a premium renewal. I bought some at auction, some hand reg. I did not pay more than $25 for any single name, and most much less. When registering, I tended to use 2-year registrations. I now have enough proceeds from the two sales to cover my expenditures in xyz up to now, and still have a bunch registered for next 2 years.

But that is just me. Let's look at the numbers in your example. For simplicity I will use 100 names. I don't know Swetha exact STR but it seems (based on maybe 100 sales per year and 20,000 xyz her STR would be 0.005 or 0.5%.

Let's make the really generous assumption that all of the investor's 100 names are as good as hers. I honestly think that is not true for virtually everyone who has tried some .xyz. Definitely mine are not to her standard. But even if they were, the person holding the 100 would be expected to have sold 1/2 of a domain name at the end of one year of having them all BIN priced with good landers like her. So 0 sales is totally within the statistical expectation.

But more than that, I think many investors just looked at the big .xyz sales, wanted a piece of that, and went into acquiring .xyz names thinking that the same sorts of names that sold in the past in .com sold in .xyz. If you look at her sales, or more generally the big sales in .xyz by all the sellers, they are concentrated in a very narrow type of name. They tend to be single-word, short, familar but not common, often with a science or tech flavour. They are typically names that would appeal to a highly-educated buyer. There are exceptions, but for the most part they are not two-word, numeric, alphanumeric or product/service match names.

I bet typically that the person with 100 only has maybe 10 that were the type that have sold so far for good amounts. They probably, like me, have tried some other things brandables, service matches, two-words, etc. So that means we would expect them to maybe sell 1 name in 10 in 20 years, if they had names as strong as Swetha. She amassed her portfolio over many years, putting in the searching work every day, in an era when the registry was not reclassifying any good dropped names as premium.

I've analyzed the bigger xyz sales a few times. Let me share the secret that seems obvious to me in looking at those sales. Look at your xyz names and make sure they check ALL of these points.

1. Single dictionary word, and pretty short, probably 8 characters or less in most cases (one of my sales was 10L but that is not the normal pattern).
2. Would make a good name for a brand for a decentralized service.
3. Feels elegant and a little techy in most cases, something a university graduate would think a good name.
4. Is NOT a service or product name.
5. Has no numbers.
6. Has at least 50, ideally a few hundred, or established companies using the term in name (use OpenCorporates or similar), but NO single famous company on the term.
7. Is registered in at least 50 TLDs, ideally more (use dotDB)
8. Does NOT have premium renewal.
9. The .com, .co, .org, .io are all not available or for sale at a very high price.

The final point is particularly important, in my opinion.

I have 100+ .xyz names (not counting the matching experiment). But my names that check all of those boxes, maybe 5 or so, and even a stretch there with some points. I was super lucky to sell the two I did. The numbers suggested that statistically I should have sold one in a number of decades. Bad news for me.

Other names may sell, and xyz investors are hoping market will broaden. I have some short brandable and product names, but that is based on a hope that it will broaden, not something yet proven with much data. A gamble.

Also, make sure you follow how she has sold her names. BIN price them, appropriate to the quality of the name - many price points. Landers all operational. Use well-respected marketplaces. Don't dabble in name may be available for sale, or price on request, etc. Those all may make sense for certain names in other extensions, especially legacy, but it seems to me the typical young, educated, web3 startup founder does not want to play those negotiation games.

There is no mystery here. But there are lessons that can be applied to other TLDs and other domain opportunities.

Bob

thanks Bob.

It's just the amount of non developed names, which are then also quite unknown / unused / niche specific etc, that are being sold.

And then, some not used / not responding, or forwarded to obscure abandoned twitter accounts, only have a static logo site, etc.


Whatever, for me its clear.

I made my experience with .xyz, and hold them until they drop.

If, I will only renew 2-3 GOOD names... from over a hundred.


Thanks for everybodys participation.

 

[DealMaker1]

I am honestly trying to understand your thinking, but struggling.

Quite apart from if your statement about brokers is valid (I was told at a NamesCon Expert Roundtable Working with a Broker session run by an experienced broker that they typically only handle names retail worth of $20,000+), but let's look at the finance.

So I showed you what Afternic accept as payment. I am sure you agree all of those are valid payment. Now you are saying maybe the buyer paid a broker in something else. OK, anything possible I guess. Then the broker would convert it on some exchange, and pay for the name at Afternic with an approved payment method. The broker would not accept worthless unknown currency then be on handle for real currency.

So you are saying you want NameBio to provide a compete trail. Not just that the sale was at Afternic by a certain seller, but to require documents on one or more levels back? Like the broker got paid $5k by credit card, $20k by some crypto or whatever, and $10k by bank draft? Why stop there, how did the person earn the money? Even if most felt it was useful to do that, it is an unreasonable level. What is currently reported is the price paid where the transaction occurred in a liquid currency. Sounds right to me.

I bought a property in the past, like an actual property. It gets registered at a registry office, dutifully recording what I paid, the owners, and if a mortgage is on the property. In my jurisdiction that is all publicly accessible information. But you say they should determine my payment forms to the lawyer who represented me in the transaction, if I took out money by selling some stocks or whatever? Why? It has nothing to do directly with the sale of the property (note exception if there are valid reasons to think I am using proceeds of crime in this).

You mention stik sale. Interesting DNJournal article on the creative transaction. These create problems, though, in reporting, Note that DNJournal did NOT report any value for the prints, although mention them in the story, they just reported the cash price, as per their policy I mentioned in my earlier response to you. So far at least, NameBio have not reported the sale. It is problematic, since the cash-only part under represents the value, by an unclear amount, but valuing prints moves it beyond the direct cash sales requirement.

-Bob

Bob,

I don't want to start splitting hairs here because that is a complete waste of time.

Yes, a complete trail would be good. You cannot begin to compare the buying of a real world property with a web property. Apples and oranges. If you buy a real property within your jurisdiction, you have automatic recourse to paper records with a "live" person at the registry. You will also meet in person with the seller of the house. Maybe the form of payment may not be disclosed, but rest assured the other properties in the area will have a similar market value because they have been priced into a reliable real estate market that has been around for centuries, in some cases.

Online property is different. Prices are all over the place and have been for 25 years, (even for similar domains - unlike actual houses). Because of this wild west thinking (which lacks any true economic principle behind it), there is something inherently unreliable in it. It's much easier to be duped from a computer screen warrior/fraudster than someone you have to meet in person, so real estate exchange is generally more reliable and therefore so are the records.

To cut down on fraudulent reporting of internet domain sales, I am suggesting total transparency of how the domain was paid for. I don't want to hear about some domain someone sold to themselves for $50000 through a shell company half a world away in order to boost actual future sales (for example). Ideally, the buyer would also be mandatory disclosure. However, this would not be possible in our world of NDAs.

In essence, this domain problem will not be solved, but perhaps this is just a caution to those domainers who believe all the sales stats they read - just don't and always do due diligence to the maximum.

 

[frank-germany]

the blind leading the deaf

 

[pinkdragon]

I made my experience with .xyz, and hold them until they drop.

Can you please post here your top 5 .xyz domains? I am talking about $1 domains, not premiums.

Thanks.

 

[DealMaker1]

BTW, to all who might care, please realize domains ARE intellectual property, unlike cryptos. Brand and keyword domains are communicative symbols for products and services that are essential steps in the buying and selling process. Whereas crap cryptos are just conceptual vapour disguised as a viable form of exchange.

So perhaps you can clearly see, if you have a very nice domain ( ie solid intellectual property) and sell it for a crap crypto, you have already lost a lot of money.

Just a word to the wise.

Cheers.

 

[3sixty]

About Bebop. The word has been repurposed thanks to the late 90s Cult Anime show Cowboy Bebop, rated as one of the best ever.

With the age of the average web3 founder, I'd wager that this is the exposure to the word and why they could see it as a good brand name.