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Charity Auction Bids for Coffee With Tim Cook Pass $500,000

Nah

johnnnw said:
The estimated value was $50,000, that seems more reasonable.
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Really? It seems entry level insane to me. Even if I had the money, I would not spend it unless (and only unless) the charity was a really worthy cause.

Where it's currently at is well beyond absurd.
 
Update on Kim Jung-un, a.k.a. danmcq....
 

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If you can't afford Tim Cook, there's another auction to meet Piers Morgan and the current bid is $0.
 
TimeSquareDesi said:
That's some serious cheddar. You can almost purchase a Retina MBP with that sorta cash :D
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Haha, your comment made me laugh. Well done.

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But seriously...over $500,000 dollars just for a quick coffee meeting with Tim Cook. It's not like he's going to show you the product plans for the next 5 years of Apple or give you an iPhone XL or an iWatch as a freebie! How about you take that $500,000 and you buy yourself a nice big goodie bag of Apple products, take them home and roll in them?
 
I think this is way out of hand. I hope someone that entered one of the $500,000+ bids gets stuck with the bid and has to cough up the money.

A very small percentage of people or corporations for that matter can afford to get into something like this.
 
You know what? Who cares whether you think it's worth it. Someone obviously thinks it is so more power to you! While I don't have that kind of money and I doubt I'd want to spend it on a charity I have never heard of and get coffee with Tim Cook, I have no objection to someone else doing that.

I move that we close this thread except for telling what the final bid is. Can I get a second?
 
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You people do understand that people bidding on this are making money on it right?

Its coffee with Tim or paying more taxes.
 
johnnnw said:
danmcq $499,000 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 9:50:14 AM EDT
danmcq $450,000 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 9:48:08 AM EDT
danmcq $400,000 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 9:47:56 AM EDT
danmcq $350,000 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 9:47:47 AM EDT
danmcq $310,000 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 9:47:39 AM EDT
danmcq $300,000


Big history... why is "danmcq" bidding himself up?
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Donating to his own charity perhaps?
 
The charity sponsoring this auction is Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

"After the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968, his family and friends founded a living memorial. As that effort grew, more projects came to honor his memory. Today the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights is dedicated to advancing human rights." (Wikipedia)
 
As has already been mentioned so many times: remember it's for charity. For example, Bill Gates has donated more than half of his net-worth for several years to charity, which amounts to billions of dollars, so half a million really isn't that insane, especially not for an enterprise looking to get some advertising for itself. So stop saying Tim's not worth it, because they're not necessarily doing it to meet Tim!

Would be great if Jony would do something like this, it would be insanely cool, and even though I could never afford it, I would hope for someone who's as passionate about design as Ive would get the highest bid!
 
phroggyy said:
For example, Bill Gates has donated more than half of his net-worth for several years to charity,
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Not the same things at all. Bill G. has a foundation that funds Bill's (and Melinda's) vision of how to fix the world. It's all good, but it's consistent with a mega-ego. It's not merely "donating to charity".

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phillipduran said:
his pants go on the same way yours does.
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How his pants go on is his private business. It's no concern of mine. Live and let live, is what I say.
 
champ01 said:
You people do understand that people bidding on this are making money on it right?

Its coffee with Tim or paying more taxes.
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It's taxes + cost of coffee with Tim.

Or

It's just taxes.

Doing the charitable donation will result in less money in your pocket than just paying taxes alone. You do understand that right?

Now there could be additional value here in that if you can convince Tim to do something to benefit your company, or get good exposure, you might see some nice returns on your $500K+. I never knew about clearcrate.com before this, they haven't even won yet and I've been to their website several times because of this.

Folks complain about $500K for coffee with Tim . . . Can we be fair and post our complaints about 30 seconds of commercial time during the superbowl please? :rolleyes: Lets see . . . there it is $4,000,000 on average for 30 seconds during the superbowl.
 
"Charitybuzz is a for-profit company with a mission to raise as much money as possible for charity. There are no upfront fees for a nonprofit to work with us, but we do keep 20 percent of the proceeds at the end of the auction to cover our full suite of services and website upkeep." - Their website

My understanding is also that you can only "write off" the bid amount ABOVE the retail value of the auction. In this case, the auction page estimates the value of this item at $50,000. Thus, this portion would not be tax deductible because you are actually receiving a benefit in return (of $50,000 in value). Ever dollar above the $50,000 is OVER the retail value of the coffee meeting and is considered your charitable contribution.

So, my understanding is that if an auction closes at $750,000 (example), Charity Buzz would keep 20%, which would be a $150,000 fee. The balance of $600,000 would be going to the RFK Center and you could write off $700,000. assuming your are an individual/couple. A business could possibly write off the entire amount as a business expense, just as if they paid Tim Cook $750,000 to speak to their employees at a conference. My guesses anyway.

This is my understanding, although I could be wrong. I'm not a tax professional or "in the know" more than anyone else. It is quite possible that Charity Buzz customizes their agreements with each non-profit that they work with.

My guess is that anyone bidding at these levels has already talked to Charity Buzz and to their own tax professional. My guess is that some bidders are doing it for the "experience" of it all --- and that some may be doing it for more of a business purpose.
 
Who cares if the meeting is for two minutes only. Its charity and that is what count.... Should go up to $2M
 
It's for freaking charity, people. Why is that hard to understand? The meeting with Tim Cook is just a bonus of said charity... it isn't the main purpose. People that give to charities anyway will be giving to this one and will get to meet Tim Cook as a bonus. Who cares what you think it's worth to meet him? That's not what this is about. Obviously the people bidding don't care what you think.


rpaloalto said:
Next week will see a charity auction for ''Pizza With Steve Ballmer'' :eek:
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It'll exceed their estimated value of $5 by $5.


Edit: It's currently at $580,000.
 
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