Kevin Gibbons, UK blogger and apparently a fan of the TV show Dragon's Den, blogged about the importance of a high ranking and how people would pay to buy sites that rank that well, especially for competitive terms. In this specific case, the key words "diamond" and "diamond engagement rings" were in positions 9 and 12. Since those organic rankings can yield really high traffic, he was willing to pay 6 digits for it.
Or not.
The ranking is gone now according to those who checked it after the shoe aired (possibly due to the shady SEO who actually made them rank well to begin with, according to forum members), but regardless, it brought enough momentum to drive the Dragon Geezer to comment on the Sphinn! The Diamond Geezer acknowledges that his expertise is in the diamond industry, not SEO. It reminds me of a post I made yesterday about expertise. The Diamond Geezer's expertise is diamonds, and he outsourced the work to an SEO firm (who probably wasn't optimal). So, while the cameras were rolling, you never really saw the other side of the story, which the "Geezer" explains rather clearly.
Forum discussion continues at Sphinn.