"So the Buffett lunch is auctioned from here!" Mr. Huang was slightly surprised, never imagining that the famous Buffett lunch of later generations would start from here.
It is said that the Buffett lunch began when Buffett was dining with a church pastor, and the pastor lamented that there were many homeless vagrants in the community who couldn't even afford a meal.
Thus, Buffett conceived the idea of auctioning off the opportunity to have lunch with him, with all proceeds donated to the church to help the homeless vagrants.
This idea sounded very noble, but the problem was that many news media in later generations focused on the person who bought the opportunity to have lunch with Buffett, and the ever-increasing auction prices. As for how many vagrants actually benefited from the Buffett lunch, only heaven knows.
After all, all the proceeds Buffett raised were directly donated to the church, and the nature of the church is a matter of opinion.
Frankly speaking, American churches receive over 10 billion US dollars in donations annually. If this 1.2 billion US dollars were all used to purchase goods or provide cheap accommodation, it would be enough for 10 million people to use.
But why are there more and more homeless people in the United States who cannot be helped?
Moreover, the US government provides food stamps that guarantee all homeless people can receive the minimum amount of food each day to ensure they don't starve.
Yet, the church's funds are still insufficient. They cry out every day that a large number of homeless people are in dire living conditions and desperately need assistance from all sectors of society.
The total population of the United States is only around 300 million, so it's impossible to say that one in thirty Americans are homeless.
Well, let's cut the digression. According to Huang He's memory, the Buffett lunch in later generations was always auctioned online. He just didn't know where it was auctioned before the online auctions.
Now he knows that it was at a private gathering organized by Buffett.
However, it seems understandable to have it here, as most of the attendees are fund managers, although they are all under 35.
To be a fund manager, especially a genius fund manager, one is rarely a pauper, and paying tens of thousands of dollars for an auction is not a problem.
Soon, the host on the scene began to announce that this year's Buffett lunch auction was starting. The starting bid was 10,000 US dollars, for the opportunity to have a two-hour lunch with Buffett and ask any questions freely.
"15,000 US dollars"
"20,000 US dollars"
"22,000 US dollars"
"23,000 US dollars"
To Mr. Huang's shock, the price of the Buffett lunch, which would later fetch millions of dollars, was only tens of thousands of dollars here.
Moreover, when the price reached 29,000 US dollars, it barely went up. Finally, when the host struck the gavel, the auction sold for 31,000 US dollars. The host also happily announced that this auction price had set a record high for the past four years.
"How much did it sell for before?" Huang He curiously asked Little Swift beside him.
"They say the 2001 auction sold for 18,000 US dollars, and it has been rising every year since then. This is the fourth year, and selling for 31,000 US dollars is already very impressive!" Little Swift said.
"Uh..." Mr. Huang fell silent. In his memory, these always started from hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Here, Huang He was ignorant. In fact, the transaction amounts for historical Buffett lunches were indeed this low because the attendees were fund managers.
Don't underestimate these fund managers; their greatest talent is meticulous calculation and frugality. They would carefully calculate the value of having lunch with Buffett and conclude that it was only worth tens of thousands of dollars.
"Is Buffett's advice at lunch not accurate?" Huang He asked curiously.
"No, it's not inaccurate, but there's almost no useful advice!" Little Swift whispered, "So Mr. Buffett will answer as many questions as possible during the lunch meeting. However, due to many confidentiality clauses in fund work, Mr. Buffett cannot give any specific operational advice. He can only provide predictions on the broad development of industries."
"For example, last year someone asked Mr. Buffett if Yahoo's stock would continue to grow and if it could be held in the short term. Then Buffett replied that from a long-term perspective, if Yahoo could overcome profitability issues, expand its reach, and not be limited to its portal website business, venturing into more successful ventures, then Yahoo's stock price would continue to grow!"
"This answer doesn't reveal anything problematic. The question is, who can guarantee whether Yahoo's future ventures will succeed or fail? Therefore, the questioner didn't know whether to hold Yahoo's stock long-term, and then Yahoo's stock price collapsed."
"This seems to validate Mr. Buffett's prediction, because Yahoo lost to Google in the search business, leading to the outbreak of internal scandals and a sharp drop in stock price. This aligns with the answer Mr. Buffett gave, depending on how you interpret it!"
"So, everyone in our industry knows that dining with Mr. Buffett is about building connections and gaining networking opportunities, but it's impossible to get definitive investment intelligence and operations from Mr. Buffett. Perhaps asking Mr. Buffett a question at today's gathering would yield more effective answers!"
"So, the price of 31,000 US dollars today is already very high. I'm a bit surprised!" Little Swift said.
"I see. No wonder no financial professionals bid in later generations. Some entrepreneurs would go to join the fun, especially Chinese entrepreneurs!" Mr. Huang muttered to himself.
Nearly half of the Buffett lunches in later generations were bought by China, and these buyers were mostly entrepreneurs. What they needed didn't quite align with Mr. Buffett's expertise. What they needed was perhaps not Buffett's advice, but the act of dining with Buffett himself, to show off back home to retail investors!
Huang He shrugged. He had no interest in showing off by using Buffett, because wasn't he richer than Buffett?
However, Huang He didn't realize that Buffett was actually very depressed at the moment because he was hoping that Huang He would bid and further persuade Huang He to list Jiangnan Group during the lunch.
This meant that this lunch auction was specifically prepared for Huang He.
Originally, at the beginning of this year, the president of eBay had contacted Buffett. After discussions, both parties had decided to move the lunch auction to eBay and change the auction time from March to June.
So, Buffett was prepared to announce at the banquet that he would no longer hold the Buffett lunch auction. However, he unexpectedly discovered that Huang He was attending the charity gala, so Buffett urgently withdrew this idea and continued to hold the auction on-site, with the aim of luring Huang He.
In Buffett's opinion, it was natural for a big boss like Huang He to spend a mere tens of thousands of dollars to buy a lunch. However, Huang He showed no interest whatsoever. As a result, Buffett could only watch with a wry smile as another fund manager bought his lunch meeting for 31,000 US dollars.
Buffett didn't know that if he had followed the historical decision this year and held the auction on eBay, it would have fetched 250,000 US dollars, making it the first Buffett lunch in history to break the 100,000 US dollar mark.
Considering this, it was a huge loss.
However, Buffett would not give up. He gave Bill Ackman a look, and Bill Ackman immediately understood and walked up to Huang He.
"Mr. Huang, won't you participate? There are many unfortunate homeless people in New York who urgently need our help, but the church's funding gap exceeds tens of millions of dollars. Wouldn't you contribute a little to help these unfortunate people?"
"No, they are not pitiable at all!" Huang He shook his head.
"Ah..." Bill Ackman was stunned by this answer.
"Pitiable is an insult to these homeless people. Even if they have no home and have lost their relatives and wealth, they are still independent individuals with their own dignity. They are free beings, and we have no right to look at them with a pitying and condescending mindset. They are equal to us!" Huang He said with conviction. The reporters nearby seized this meaningful moment again.
"..." Bill Ackman didn't know how to respond. He realized that perhaps there was no one more difficult to deal with in the world than Huang He.
Fortunately, Huang He immediately added, "Although we are not qualified to pity them, we can share our joy and happiness with them with a mindset of sharing. So I am willing to share a part of mine."
"It's a shame, but Mr. Buffett's lunch auction has already ended, so I can't share anymore!" Huang He said with regret, making Bill Ackman truly want to roll his eyes.
He had seen shameless people, but never such a shameless person!
"Mr. Huang, this is not a big problem. If you are willing, I can go and talk to Mr. Buffett. I think he would be happy to give you another opportunity to dine!" Bill Ackman said.
"Alas, why bother!" Huang He waved his hand. "Mr. Buffett is getting old, and eating greasy food like steak is not good for his health. I shouldn't add to the burden of the old gentleman."
"How about this!" Huang He said with a smile. "There is an old saying in our China, 'When you see a worthy person, think of emulating them.' Since Mr. Buffett donates funds by auctioning his lunch meetings, I will also put up one of my lunches for auction. I will also donate all the proceeds to the church fund. What do you think?"
"Damn!"