“It was a conversational, pretty chill lunch,” Mr. Budlong said, calling Mr. Buffett “folksy, down to earth and legitimately funny.”br One of the next year’s winners, Jim Halperin, 64, a collectorbr and auction house executive who heard of the auction because he held shares in Berkshire Hathaway, said Mr. Buffett held the meal at his country club in Omaha.br This Year, It’s $2,679,001 -br By JACEY FORTINJUNE 10, 2017br A bidder on eBay offered nearly $2.7 million to have lunch with the billionaire investor Warrenbr Buffett, as part of an annual auction to benefit a nonprofit organization in San Francisco.br That gave Mr. Budlong, now 52, the opportunity to spend hours chatting with Mr. Buffett,br his then-wife, Susan Buffett, and seven friends at a San Francisco restaurant.br “He was really nice, seemed as interested in us as we were in him.”br As the years have gone by — and as the auction moved from an event based in San Franciscobr to a site on eBay — winners have come from as far as Singapore and China.br The first winner in 2000, Pete Budlong, a technology entrepreneur, placed a winning bid of $25,000 at a lively, in-person auction in San Franciscobr that was hosted by the actress Sharon Stone and the comedian Robin Williams.