Moneybox

How Much Would You Pay to Eat Steak With Warren Buffett?

How much would you pay for lunch with this man?

Photo by Leslie E. Kossoff-Pool/Getty Images

Want to dine on steak with the third-richest man in the world? You have until Friday at 7:30 p.m. to place an eBay bid on lunch at New York City’s Smith & Wollensky with Warren Buffett.

For the 15th straight year, the billionaire investor is making himself available to the winner of an online auction for lunch at one of Manhattan’s signature steakhouses as part of an annual charity event to support Glide, an antipoverty organization in San Francisco. Bidding for the event opened on Sunday night at $25,000 and had risen to $350,300 after just 33 bids by noon on Monday.

The first-ever lunch was auctioned off for $25,000 in 2000, but the price has since soared into the multimillions. Last year the winning bid came in at about $1 million. In 2012, an unidentified winner set a record for the third consecutive year, paying $3.5 million to dine with Buffett and seven companions.* On that occasion, Bloomberg reported that the bidding “almost tripled from $1.23 million” just seconds before the weeklong auction ended—so it really isn’t over until it’s over.

If history is any guide, the price tag of this year’s meal will likely continue to climb throughout the week and finish at a hefty sum. On the bright side, eBay notes that your purchase will come with free standard shipping.

*Correction, June 2, 2014: This post originally misstated that the winning bidder paid $3.5 billion for lunch with Warren Buffett in 2012. It was $3.5 million.