$650,100 bid wins lunch with Buffett

The winning bid to break bread with billionaire Warren Buffett came in at $650,100, which is $30,000 more than the top bid at last year's charity auction.

The winner of the auction, which ended Friday night, was identified only by the eBay user name "mpabrai." The auction benefits the Glide Foundation, which provides social services to the poor and homeless in San Francisco.

The winning bidder and seven friends get to dine with Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York City. The restaurant owners contributed $10,000 to Glide and will host the lunch. A date has not been set.

According to eBay records of the auction, which began last Sunday, there were 72 offers from pre-qualified bidders.

One of them, known to the Web viewers as Bidder No. 3, offered $1,102,000 at 7:09 p.m. CDT on Monday. But the bidder soon retracted it. The explanation from eBay: "Entered wrong amount."

No. 3 jumped back into the bidding a minute later with an offer of $107,500.

The most expensive charity item ever sold on eBay was a Harley Davidson motorcycle autographed by celebrities that Jay Leno offered in 2005 for tsunami relief. It brought $800,100, an eBay spokesman said.

This was the fifth year Buffett auctioned a lunch on eBay and donated the proceeds to the foundation. Buffett began auctioning the lunches for the charity off-line in 2000.

On June 26 last year, Buffett announced his plan to give away the bulk of his nearly $49 billion fortune over time. Most of Buffett's shares of Berkshire stock will go to five charitable foundations, with the largest share going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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On the Net:

Buffett Auction: http://www.ebay.com/glide

eBay: http://www.ebay.com

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com

Glide Foundation: http://www.glide.org