I actually got an email about that very thing this morning. How crazy is that?
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Dear Domaining.com newsletter subscriber,
I have exchanged many domains in the past to get this domain I absolutely wanted, for example PROOF.com, Encrypt.com or Split.com
I probably successfully played the "swapping game" a dozen of times these past 10 years.
In fact one of the few reasons I created eCOP.com five years ago was to propose a service allowing to secure the exchange of domains.
Even if as you may understand it was impossible for me to use eCOP.com so I used domain swapping agreements and after prayed all went smoothly.
I admit many times I have been a bit scared when the other party was long to push me his domain when I already pushed mine.
The basic rule for exchange domains is that the person requesting a domain exchange must accept to give domain(s) more valuable than the one he wants to get.
It's normal if you want to motivate someone who never asked to do an exchange and do not have any need or motivation to replace his domain by your(s).
This also means forget about domain exchange if you do not have valuable and appealing names to propose in exchange.
Few years ago I acquired Swapping.com (Yep! I first tried to exchange it
to launch a service facilitating the exchange of domains.
But I just have one head, two hands and I have never been good at delegate work so I did not find the time to develop it.
Today I am selling the domain (5 years payment plan possible) or simply welcome suggestions on how an appealing domain swapping service should work to motivate me develop the service, if you have an idea share it.
In a side note: I am always interested to swap catchy LLL.com or LLLL.com with one of my valuable descriptive .com to offer more choice to Catchy.com visitors.