Buffett amazed a Chinese investor will pay $2.1m for lunch with him

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-02 13:29

Warren Buffett stops by his favorite local Dairy Queen(R) to enjoy the debut of the Dairy Queen Girl Scouts Thin Mint Cookie Blizzard(R) with Omaha Girl Scout Molly Maloy, 10. [Agencies]

OMAHA, Nebraska -- The amount a Chinese investment fund manager agreed to pay for the chance to have lunch with billionaire Warren Buffett surprised even Buffett.

Zhao Danyang of the Hong Kong-based Pureheart China Growth Investment Fund won the auction, which ended Friday evening with a bid of $2,110,100. That set a new record for the most expensive charity auction ever on eBay.

"It kind of blew me away," Buffett said Tuesday.

But the Oracle of Omaha said the size of Zhao's bid doesn't necessarily mean the lunch will last longer than the usual three hours he spends with auction winners.

All of the auction's proceeds go to the Glide Foundation, which provides social services to the poor and homeless in San Francisco.

This was the sixth year that Buffett auctioned a lunch on eBay to benefit Glide. Buffett began auctioning the lunches for the charity off-line in 2000.

Last year, two investors bid $650,100 to win lunch with Buffett.

Buffett visited a Dairy Queen in Omaha Tuesday morning to sample one of the first Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookie Blizzards. Tasting the latest ice cream treats is one of the perks to Buffett's job as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. because Berkshire owns International Dairy Queen Inc.

Buffett sat down with six area Girl Scouts to enjoy the new Blizzard flavor, and answered some of the girls' questions.

Buffett told the girls, who ranged in middle school aged to college aged, that he would recommend doing a lot of reading before jumping into investing.

"It's better if you've done some thinking about it," Buffett said.

The girls also got some advice from the world's richest man about how to manage their money when they go off to college.

Buffett told the girls to avoid credit cards if at all possible because the interest rates are so high, and it's easy to get into credit card debt.

"If I borrowed money at 18 or 20 percent, I'd be broke," Buffett said.

Every day Buffett said he gets letters from people who are having financial trouble. He said the three most common reasons for the financial trouble are losing a job, enduring a terrible illness and accumulating credit card debt.

One of the girls asked Buffett about how to chose which charities to support because he has become known as much for his philanthropy as his investing.

Buffett said the most important thing may be finding nonprofits that you believe and that do a good job.

"You want to get tied into people that will really get the job done," said Buffett, who chose Bill and Melinda Gates to get things done with his fortune.

In 2006, Buffett announced his plan to give away the bulk of his fortune over time. Most of his shares of Berkshire stock will go to five charitable foundations, with the largest going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The other four foundations Buffett plans to give large gifts to include the three foundations run by his three children and a foundation he and his first wife established. But Buffett also gives other small gifts to foundations.

Besides Dairy Queen, Berkshire owns more than 60 other companies including insurance, clothing, furniture, jewelry and candy companies, restaurants, natural gas and corporate jet firms. The Omaha-based company also has major investments in such companies as Coca-Cola Co., Anheuser-Busch Cos. and Wells Fargo & Co.