Online Trading - Warren Buffett Lunch Auction

UPDATE 2 : High Bid - $123,888

Bidders:4

Bids:53

Time left:2 days 11 hours 58 mins

UPDATE 1 : The Warren Buffet lunch auction is underway
Current Bid - $71,100

Bidders:4 Bids:29 Time left:3 days 15 hours 21 mins

Each year an auction is held for people who would like to have lunch with Warren Buffett aka the Oracle of Omaha and get the benefit of his Omaha wisdom. Last year the winning bid was over $2.1 million, so it's not for your normal online auction junkie. This year, who knows, there is a degree of economic turmoil around, but then there was last year too, and somebody still managed to come up with $2 million.

(Warren Buffett - The Oracle of Omaha)

There were 35,000 people at recent Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders meeting, so maybe Buffett should consider going out to lunch more often.

Online bidding for the Buffet lunch starts at $25,000 next Sunday. The proceeds of the auction will go to the Glide Foundation, which provides assistance to the poor and homeless in San Francisco. The auction closes Friday evening at 10 p.m. EDT.

Glide has a budget of $17 million budget most of which comes from charity, so they are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for some frenzied bidding.

Warren Buffett is known for his legendary investing success long before online stock trading was ever heard of, but also now for his philanthropy. In 2006, he announced he would be giving away most of his $36 billion fortune. A large chunk of which will go to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

(Smith and Wollensky Restaurant - New York)

The winner of the auction and a maximum of seven friends will have lunch with Buffett at the Smith and Wollensky restaurant in New York, which describes itself as America's "premier traditional steakhouse". The restaurant contributed $10,000 to Glide.

Last year's winner was Mr Zhao Danyang from Pureheart China Growth Investment Fund in Hong Kong, and he due to eat his lunch with Buffett on Wednesday.

"I am looking forward to enjoying lunch with Warren Buffett. This is truly the chance of a lifetime." he said.