(Newswire.net — June 13, 2016) — The winning amount of $3,456,789 offered for the lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett, matches the record from 2012, when an anonymous bidder also offered $3,456,789 for a lunch with Buffett, making it the most expensive individual charity item ever sold on eBay, reports the Associated Press (AP).
The auction on eBay lasted a week, from Sunday June 5th to Sunday June 12th. The aim of the auction was to raise funds for the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco homeless charity.
By noon on Friday, the bidding amount exceeded $2.6 million, nearly $300,000 more than last year’s winning bid by Dalian Zeus Entertainment Co., a company based in Beijing.
Six of the last eight auction winners paid more than $2 million for a lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett, the investor who leads the Berkshire Hathaway Inc., an American multinational conglomerate holding company.
Buffett has raised more than $20 million for the Glide Foundation. The billionaire began offering the lunch auction after his first wife Susan Thompson Buffett, who was volunteering at the Foundation, showed him the charity.
Susan Buffett died in 2004, but the connection between Warren Buffett and Glide has endured.
He explained that he is proud to be a part of something that’s directly helped so many people in need. For him, Glide is a bridge of salvation for thousands of people on the brink of despair. The foundation helps them to regain dignity and new opportunities. Glide offers the basic services to the poor and homeless: meals, health care, job training, rehabilitation and housing support.
Last years lunch was at Smith and Wollensky steakhouse in New York City, which donates at least $10,000 to Glide each year in order to host the lunch. But if the winner wishes to remain anonymous, the lunch takes place elsewhere.
During the lunch, that usually runs for several hours, Buffet is open to all questions and subjects, except the question of what he might invest in next.
Warren Edward Buffett, 86, is a business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the most successful investor in the world and is consistently ranked among the world’s wealthiest people. In 2012, Time magazine named Buffett one of the world’s most influential people.