Back in 2016, I owned multiple rare and valuable usernames across different platforms. These usernames were unique and not easy to claim, so I kept them as an investment. One day, an American YouTuber contacted me, expressing interest in purchasing one of my Twitter usernames.
After a few days of negotiation, we agreed on a price and selected a middleman to handle the transaction. However, the YouTuber had one condition—he wanted the username on a brand-new Twitter account instead of getting my existing one. This made sense because many people prefer this for security reasons or future resale. I accepted the condition and took responsibility for transferring the username to a new account.
A Costly Mistake
At around 4 AM, we gathered on a Discord server to finalize the deal. The YouTuber released the payment to the middleman, who confirmed that I had received it. Now, it was time to transfer the username.
Based on my experience, I believed that transferring a username was simple—just change the username on one account and immediately claim it on another. I followed this process, but when I tried to claim it on the new account, I received an error: "Username is already taken."
I was shocked. A quick search on Twitter revealed that someone from Russia had already claimed the username within seconds. My deal with the YouTuber collapsed because I failed to deliver the username. However, my curiosity led me to reach out to the person who had taken it.
Negotiating with the New Owner
The Russian user, who had taken the username, was also in the business of acquiring and selling usernames. When I contacted him, he confirmed that he had claimed it intentionally.
I tried negotiating with him, but he had already listed the username for sale at three times the price I had agreed upon with the YouTuber. Despite my efforts to convince him to return it, he refused. While frustrating, I had to accept that this was my mistake.
The Lesson Learned
This experience taught me an important lesson—Twitter usernames are highly valuable, and automated tools exist that instantly claim rare usernames when they become available. If you ever plan to change your Twitter username, be aware that bots can snatch it in milliseconds.
Although I lost a valuable username, this incident helped me handle future transfers more carefully. I now use better strategies to secure and transfer usernames. If you're ever in a similar situation, stay cautious—rare usernames are in high demand, and losing them can be costly.