Is Someone Gaming Warren Buffett's Charity Auction?

Warren Buffett's annual lunch auction already resembles a high stakes game of chicken between two eBay users. In less than 24-hours, user o***r and s***l ratcheted up the price of lunch for eight with the investment wizard at Smith and Wollensky to $2,000,111.00. (The stars indicate confidential user names as mandated by the auction's terms and conditions.) The proceeds of the auction go to the Glide Foundation, a non-profit serving victims of poverty in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In past years, the price of sharing a steak with Warren Buffett soared well above those on the restaurant's menu. Last year, the auction closed at $2.6 million--a healthy chunch of Glide's $17 million operating budget--but this year's quick jump is unprecedented. The opening bid of $25,000 placed by o***r less than an hour after the auction began at 7:30 Sunday night, jumped to $100,000 with a bid from s***l an hour later that was immediately outdone by o***r previously placed to $1 million maximum bid. The pattern could mean one of two things. Either bidder o***r really wants to have lunch with Warren Buffett, and GLIDE will reap more than usual. It also seems possible that bidder o***r might just be gaming the price up, a practice known as "shill bidding."

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Power Lunch for 8 with Warren Buffett to benefit GLIDE

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