Slowdown hits the rich: Lunch with Warren Buffett is now a cheap date

Looks like fears of a global slowdown are hitting the world’s millionaires too or how else can you explain the dramatic drop in bids for a lunch date with billionaire Warren Buffett?

Is the Oracle of Omaha losing his allure with rich fund managers or were the previous three actions just too high-priced anomalies?

[caption id=“attachment_865701” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Getty Images[/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_865705” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A lunch date with Buffett for only $1 million?[/caption]

While previous lunches with Buffett have cost around $3 to $4 million, this year’sannual charity auction of a private lunch with Buffett went for just a little more than $1 million, the lowest bid since 2007 when investor Mohnis Parbai won with a $650,100 bid.

An anonymous donor had the high bid of $1,000,100 when the bidding ended Friday night on eBay even though the private audience have drawn bids of more than $2 million in each of the past five years, including last year’s record-setting winning bid of $3,456,789.

Yet even at $1 million, this year’s meal with Buffett is still nearly twice as much as what a private coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook sold for last month ( $610,000 ).

The unidentified winner and seven companions will get to dine with Buffett, 82, at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse on Manhattan East Side. All proceeds go to the Glide Foundation, which helps the poor and homeless in San Francisco. While the auction received 106 bids, the charity supported by the auction was stunned by the auction.

Buffet has participated in the “Power Lunch” auction for the last 14 years and has helped raise nearly $15 million for the organisation.