The pre-purchase checklist

Most losses in this market come from skipping a step that would have cost ten minutes. This is that list, ordered so the cheapest checks come first and disqualify a bad deal before you have invested anything.

Before you contact anyone

• **Decide your walk-away number.** Write it down. Deciding mid-negotiation is how people talk themselves upward.
• **Check the trademark registers** for your sector and jurisdiction. A handle matching an active mark can be taken from you regardless of what you paid.
• **Check the handle across the platforms you need.** Buying it on one and finding it held elsewhere splits your identity permanently.
• **Say it out loud** to someone who has not seen it written. If they cannot spell it back, you are buying a permanent tax on every mention.

Before you agree a price

• **Find comparables that actually sold.** Asking prices are unbounded and unsold listings sit visible for months.
• **Establish which state the handle is in** — unregistered, dormant, actively used, or platform-restricted. Only the middle two are realistic targets.
• **Ask how the seller obtained control.** Vague answers about "contacts" or "internal access" describe the highest-risk category, phrased to sound reassuring.

Before money moves

• **Get live proof of control.** A change you specify, made on request, visible to you. Never a screenshot.
• **Choose the escrow provider yourself,** or jointly. A provider only the seller vouches for is not a third party.
• **Write the release condition so a stranger could verify it.** "Resolves to the buyer's account and has for 72 hours" — not "when the buyer is happy".
• **Agree who pays fees and what happens if the transfer fails.** The failure clause is the most important and the least often written.
• **Confirm the payment method cannot be unilaterally reversed** after release.

Immediately after transfer

• Change the password before anything else.
• Remove every recovery email and phone number, then add your own.
• Revoke connected apps and active sessions.
• Enable two-factor authentication with a method only you control.
• Hold escrow funds for the agreed window before releasing.

The recovery routes are the critical item. A seller who keeps one can walk the handle back weeks later, and by then the escrow is closed.

Frequently asked questions

Which check catches the most problems?

Live proof of control. It is quick, it is unambiguous, and it eliminates the largest single category of fraud in one step.

Is this overkill for a cheap handle?

The checks cost the same regardless of price, so their relative cost falls as the deal grows. On a cheap handle some buyers knowingly skip a few — make that a decision rather than an oversight.

What if the seller objects to these?

None of them disadvantages an honest seller. Resistance to any of them is itself the finding.