by Jen Wieczner @jenwieczner June 1, 2015, 4:14 PM EDT If it’s part of a charity auction, that is For a little more than $1 million, you too could dine with Warren Buffett. The annual auction of a “power lunch” with the Oracle of Omaha opened on Sunday night at $25,000, and the bidding is already up to $1,000,100. The eBay auction benefits the Glide Foundation, a charitable organization that assists the poor and homeless, which Buffett has chosen to receive the proceeds of the lunch fundraiser each year. Bidding goes until Friday, June 5, at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Still, by the time the auction closes, the winning bidder—so far only four are in the race—will likely have to pay much more than $1 million to eat steak with Buffett. Last year, a Singapore man, Andy Chua, paid $2.2 million for the lunch date, which is often held at the Smith & Wollensky restaurant in New York. The record price for the meal, however, was in 2012, when an anonymous winner paid nearly $3.5 million. At the current pace of bidding, this year’s auction stands to beat the 2012 record. The bidding was only at $500,000 with two days to go before the close of the auction that year; the current auction has already double that amount and there are still more than four days left to bid. After all, dining with Buffett has already yielded much more than bragging rights to at least one lucky winner. Ted Weschler outbid his competitors to win the Glide auction in both 2010 and 2011, paying more than $2.6 million each time. Then a hedge fund manager, Weschler spent the meals discussing his own investment strategy and success—and impressed Buffett so much that the Oracle hired Weschler to run part of his legendary investment portfolio at Berkshire Hathaway. Now considered one of Buffett’s protégés who will eventually take charge of Berkshire’s investments when Buffett eventually retires, Weschler had remained anonymous during both of the Glide auctions. His identity was first revealed by longtime Fortune writer Carol J. Loomis when his hiring was officially announced. Perhaps it’s Weschler’s kind of prize—the chance to work directly for Buffett—that is inflating the cost of the charity lunch. In 2008, investor Guy Spier paid just $650,000 to lunch with Buffett. As is typical, Buffett ordered a cherry coke with his medium-rare steak.
I find it interesting that the whole importance of eating steak with Warren usurps any importance of the charitable need itself.