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Lunch With Warren Buffett Will Cost At Least $2.6 Million

By Chris Isidore

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Chowing down with Warren Buffett is going to be more expensive this year. Bids for the annual charity lunch auction with the Oracle of Omaha reached $2.6 million early Friday. That's already above last year's winning bid of $2.3 million. Bidding on eBay closes at 10:30 p.m. ET Friday.

Bids started at $25,000 on June 5, and were only as high as $500,000 late Thursday. Then a bidding war started between two bidders. Bidders have to be pre-approved.

Money raised by the auction goes to GLIDE, a charity that runs a number of anti-poverty programs in San Francisco.

Buffett's late wife Susie Buffett came up with the idea for the charity power lunch, which started in 2000. Since then it's raised more than $20 million, collecting a record $3.5 million in 2012 alone.

The winning bidder will get a chance to invite up to seven friends to the lunch at Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York City.

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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