It was funny - all my best payouts came when Steem was worth bugger all - when it was up over $5 my good payouts were around $40 and I didn't think that was anything great (I would now!)
In Aug 2016 Jeff Berwick got $15,000 for his first post - and that was pretty much the first thing I saw happen on Steemit - my eyes popped out of my head!