How much will you spend to have lunch with legendary investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett? And that too to join him in his last private lunch for charity?
An unknown person has bid more than $19 million on eBay, to have lunch with the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
According to the spokesperson of eBay, the e-commerce company on which the auction happened, the lunch was the most expensive item ever sold on the platform to go to charity.
According to reports, the still anonymous personality will get the opportunity to have lunch with Warren Buffet at Smith & Wollensky steakhouse. It is located in New York. The date and time of the lunch haven’t been confirmed so far.
$19 million raised through the auction will go to Glide, a non-profit based in Tenderloin, San Francisco. Glide helps poor, ill people to have a better life. The non-profit also offers food, shelter, job training, and finance for medical care to the unfortunate people in society.
Susan, Buffet’s wife who passed away in 2004, introduced Buffet to Glide as she volunteered there during her lifetime. Since then, Buffet acted as a donor to Glide through different means.
The first auction of lunch with Warren Buffett was conducted in 2000. In that auction, an anonymous bidder won $25,000. Since then, Buffet has generated almost $34.5 million to glide.
This year will be his 21st and last time having a private lunch to generate money for charity.
The auction for lunch with Warren Buffett started with a price of $25,000. By Monday, the bidding went above $2 million. On Friday, which was the last day of the auction, events were as similar to a Hollywood film. One individual put up a bid for 11 million dollars. In the final minutes of the bidding war, bidding crossed the $19 million mark. And the auction was won by the person who bid $19,000,100. The name or other details of the winner is still unknown.
It is important to note that, the bid amount surpassed the previous record of $4.47 million. It was Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, who won the auction in 2019 for that amount.
Warren Buffett, considered to be one of the most successful investors and businessmen in the world, was born on Aug 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska.
He later became CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, which is an American multinational conglomerate holding company. Berkshire Hathaway is into businesses and investments such as insurance, energy, retail, and transportation to name a few.