Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2013/04/24/tim_cook_auction/

Want a coffee with Tim Cook? Better start saving now

Apple boss chin-wag will cost $100,000+

By Iain Thomson in San Francisco

Posted in Bootnotes, 24th April 2013 23:48 GMT

Anyone with a suitably large checkbook will be able to sit down and have a coffee (or the beverage of their choice) with Tim Cook or meet Elon Musk for a personal tour of the SpaceX headquarters later this year.

Cook, Musk, and other well-known names have donated their time to an auction in aid of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Auctioneers Charitybuzz estimated that the guide price for the 30-60 minute meeting with Cook would be at least $50,000.

"The most money we've raised at an auction like this was $225,000 to spend a day shadowing former-President Clinton and we got a bid of $185,000 for lunch with Mayor Bloomberg," Charitybuzz director of communications told The Register. "We also got $70,000 for a behind-the scenes tour of Facebook."

The auction only opened on Wednesday and within hours bidding has reached $105,000 for the chance to chew the fat with Cook, or bend his ear about Apple's products and policies. But then, Apple fanbois are renowned for paying a lot for what they want.

The other big technology name on the auction is Elon Musk, who is offering a personal meeting and a tour of the SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles. That auction has a guide price of $25,000 but has so far attracted a single bid of $5,000.

Budding technological entrepreneurs can also bid for a guaranteed one-hour pitch meeting with the makers of shopping channel QVC's Sprouts show. The guide price for that is just $5,000 and a friendly VC might want to stump up the cash.

Star Trek fans can buy two tickets to have dinner with William Shatner at next year's Hollywood Charity Horse Show and attend as his guest. The portly actor is a keen equestrian and runs a private horse farm, so questions about the TV show might induce his memorable "get a life" quote.

This El Reg hack was very tempted by the auction for a chance to meet Piers Morgan (guide price $5,000 and no bids yet) but after checking the terms and conditions it transpires that visitors will have to undergo a security check and are expected to behave with "polite manners and respect for the generous donor," which makes it a much less attractive option.

This is the sixth celebrity auction run for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. So far, they have raised $2.5m for the organization's work in developing nations and across the world. ®