Domain investor Greg Ricks just sold poe.com for $260,000, and there’s an interesting backstory to this sale.
Ricks bought the domain name in August 2002 for $3,200.
In 2003, an author named Richard Poe sued Ricks for cybersquatting. Ricks hired John Berryhill to represent him, and the parties settled during a court-mandated mediation (which Berryhill described to me as “colorful”). Part of the settlement was that the author got the domain name.
In 2009, a domain investor offered Ricks the opportunity to buy the domain back for $18,500. It’s not clear at what point the author relinquished the domain; it doesn’t appear that the domain expired. Ricks jumped at the opportunity.
He held onto the domain since buying it in 2009 and sold it on December 12 through Afternic for $260,000.
The Whois record for the domain is private, but the nameservers changed post-sale. Today, it forwards to poe.quora.com, which throws a 500 error. So it’s possible (but not certain) that Quora acquired the domain.
Update: Quora was the buyer.