William E. and Desiree B. Moore, founders of Kelly-Moore Paint, spent 20 years acquiring this epic land holding in Montana's Rocky Mountain West, a swatch of river, ranchland, and hillside that spans three counties near Augusta. In all it's 124,000 acres of operational ranch, with a 10,000-square-foot main house, an indoor pool, horse stables, and, you know, "3,500 mother cows plus 800 replacement heifers and 175 range bulls." The property was enough to catch the eye of sports entrepreneur Stan Kroenke, owner of the Denver Nuggets among other Colorado teams, as well as has the largest share of English football club Arsenal, who paid $132.M for the spread.

A week ago Copper Beech Farm, the 50-acre Greenwich estate that was listed last May for a record-setting $190M, sold for $120M. Though that's just 61 percent of its initial ask, $120M is quite a feat for a moderately sized mansion saddled with debt and bruised by a few monstrous PriceChops, first down to $140M in September, then down to $130M just after the New Year. According to the Greenwich Town Clerk's office, the buyer is "Conservation Institute LLC," which says just about nothing about the buyer, but the broker reveals that he's "not local."

In late 2012, a nine-acre estate in Woodside, Calif., sold for $117.5M, which is particularly ridiculous because at the time an 11-acre parcel was available just down the street for a quarter of the price. This house, a 8,900-square-foot Neoclassical manor commissioned by private equity titan Tully Friedman and designed by Virginia-based architect Allan Greenberg, was built in 2005 on land purchased for $8M.

Earlier this month, L.A.'s Fleur de Lys, the estate that broke records when it hit the market in 2007 for $125M and, despite years of floundering, stuck stubbornly to its that price, sold for $102M, a record for L.A. county. The L.A. Times reported that the 100-room mansion, built in 2002 for billionaire David Saperstein and his then-wife, Suzanne, sold amid a bidding war that engaged three billionaires, with the winner agreeing to pay all cash for estate and its rare Louis XIV and Louis XV antiques. Though the sale is recorded as $88.3M, it's been widely reported that the money exchanged totaled some $102M, perhaps accounting $13.7M for the furniture.

In 2011, Russian investor Yuri Milner dropped $100M on a 30,000-square-foot mansion in Los Altos Hills in Silicon Valley. Built in 2008, the house was described by the WSJ as a "symmetrical limestone" manse "inspired by 18th-century French chateaux," which apparently equates to a ballroom, wine cellar, a tennis court, and "loggia and details like chandeliers and a frieze around a skylight in the entryway."

Though he tried to keep the purchase a secret, in 2008 Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev laid down $95M for Donald Trump's Palm Beach estate. Having bought the place for $41.35M at an auction in 2005, the real estate developer turned a pretty profit, having only done "very minor cosmetic work" on the 69,000-square-foot compound (which includes a 50-car garage) before listing it for $125M. The Times reports Rybolovlev actually paid $100M with a "$5M credit" going toward—surprise!—demolition costs.

In April 2012, a trust linked to Dmitry Rybolovlev's eldest daughter, 22-year-old Ekaterina, paid $88M for a four-bedroom penthouse on NYC's Central Park West. The seller? Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill. The apartment comes with a bedroom designed by Robert A.M. Stern, the building's architect, "as an oval for an unobstructed view of the sun rising over Central Park." There's also a huge terrace with 19 glass doors.

In 2011, 22-year-old British heiress Petra Ecclestone, who, along with her sister Tamara, is set to inherit the gazillions of dollars their father makes as the president of Formula One, became the proud new owner of the L.A.'s Spelling Manor, the 14-bedroom, 27-bathroom estate in Holmby Hills built in 1988 for TV producer Aaron Spelling. Spelling had been asking $150M, though the palace ultimately sold for a measly $85M.

In 2008, John L. Thornton, the former president and co-CEO of Goldman Sachs, paid producer Sidney Kimmel—Moneyball, Lars and the Real Girl—$81.5M for his Palm Beach estate. Included in the deal (actually a "a "$77.5 mil" sale with "$4 mil in closing costs," Politico reports): a 30,000-square-foot French limestone mansion with retractable glass walls and five oceanfront acres dotted with tropical gardens and reflecting pools.