If you've ever dreamed of bending the ear of the Oracle of Omaha, now is your chance. For the 19th straight year, you can bid on lunch for you and seven friends with billionaire Warren Buffett. Bidding began on Sunday, May 27th on eBay. The bidding started at $25,000. By Wednesday morning, bidding was at $2,900,900. All proceeds from the annual bidding for lunch with Warren Buffett are donated to charity. Bidding ran through 7:30PT on Friday, June 1st.
Last year's winner paid $2,679,001 for lunch with Buffett. It wasn't always a multi-million dollar lunch date. In 2000, during the first year of the charity auction, tech entrepreneur Pete Budlong paid $25,000 during an in-person auction for his chance to eat lunch with Buffett.
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The highest bidders have shelled out more than $25 million combined. The proceeds of the auction this year will be donated once again to San Francisco based Glide, a charity that fights poverty and inequality. Glide also works with homelessness in the midst of a severe crisis of affordable housing in San Francisco. Glide was one of Buffett's late wife Susan's favorite charities.
The winning bidder and his or her friends will have lunch at one of Warren Buffett's favorite restaurants-the steakhouse Smith & Wollensky in New York City.
Edited to Add: This year's winning bidder, who chose to remain anonymous, paid $3.3 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett.
