Is selling datasets way harder than building them? Or is it just me?

Is selling datasets way harder than building them? Or is it just me?

Maybe I’m thinking wrong, but I keep running into this.

Let’s say you spent months building a really good dataset.

Now you want to sell it.

The buyer says:

• “Can you prove the labels are accurate?”
• “How do I know it’s not full of duplicates?”
• “How do I know it’s actually good for fine-tuning?”
• “Can we audit it first?”

But if they audit the whole dataset… they’ve basically seen the dataset already.

So both sides are stuck.

The seller can’t prove quality without exposing too much.

The buyer can’t trust quality without seeing enough.

Am I the only one seeing this problem?

If you’ve ever sold datasets (or bought them), I’d love to know:

• What’s the biggest reason deals get delayed or don’t happen?
• What questions do buyers always ask?
• How do you currently build trust before the purchase?
• Would an independent certification/report actually help, or is there a better solution?

Not selling anything here—just trying to understand if this is a real industry problem or if I’m overthinking it.