A lunch date with Warren Buffett goes on sale on eBay (EBAY) this Sunday.
The annual charity auction, now in its 17th year, offers a chance to have a “power lunch” with the legendary investor known as the “Oracle of Omaha,” at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York City. But while the lunch itself is free—the restaurant picks up the tab—the ticket there most certainly is not: Bidding starts at $25,000, and in recent years has always topped $1 million.
Last year, Zhu Ye, chairman of Beijing-based online gaming company Da Lian Zeus Entertainment, dined with Buffett after bidding more than $2.3 million. The record price for the lunch is nearly $3.5 million, which an anonymous bidder paid in 2012. Proceeds benefit Glide, a San Francisco church that provides meals, shelter and other services to the city’s homeless and poor.
The eBay auction opens at 10:30 p.m. EDT on June 5 and runs until Friday, June 10 at 10:30 p.m. EDT. Since Buffett’s first lunch date fundraiser in 2000, the auction has raised more than $20 million for Glide.
The winning bidder is allowed to invite up to seven guests to dine at the Oracle’s table, though some have chosen to keep the meal one-on-one. Ted Weschler, one of two deputies who help manage Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) investment portfolio, famously got the job after he won the lunch two years in a row.
Don’t have quite enough cash to enter the bidding? You can still pick up a souvenir t-shirt on the eBay auction page this month for $25 to $1000, also benefiting Glide’s philanthropy.
