Coffee With Apple CEO Tim Cook More Appealing Than Bieber, De Niro or Clinton

Tim Cook is a more appealing coffee date than Robert De Niro, Justin Bieber and Bill Clinton if a charity auction is anything to go by, with one person willing to pay £116,000 for a one hour coffee and a chat.

The charity auction to have Coffee with Cook has more than tripled its estimated value less than 24 hours after opening. Bidding in the 20-day auction started at $5,000 with a guide price of $50,000, but as the lot entered its second day 51 further bids pushed the price up to $180,000 (£116,000).

The winning bidder will be given the opportunity to meet with Tim Cook at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California and chat with the CEO over coffee for between 30 minutes and one hour. Whoever wins is allowed to bring one guest with them, but the meeting cannot be resold and visitors must pay for their own transport and accommodation.

Coffee with Cook is currently the most expensive auction on the site, but a private tennis lesson with Rafael Nadal has the highest estimate of $200,000, although the current highest bid is just $31,000 with two weeks to go.

Other current auctions include meeting Robert De Niro ($10,000 estimate), Bill Clinton ($20,000) and Justin Bieber ($40,000).

Proceeds from the auction, set up by CharityBuzz, will go to The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, a nonprofit human rights advocacy organisation in Washington.

Founded in 2005, Charity Buzz is a New York-based internet company that raises funds for charities through online auctions with notable celebrities and brands, as well as once-in-a-lifetime holidays and access to sports events.

Anyone who wants to bid must also bear in mind the $10 processing and handling charge and $15 shipping for tickets and certificates, although this seems unlikely to be a dealbreaker.

The auction will close on 15 May at 1am BST and the meeting will take place at "a mutually agreed upon time."

Previous notable auctions include pitching an idea to Rupert Murdoch for $85,000, shadowing former US president Bill Clinton for a day for $250,000 and a walk-on role in TV show Mad Men for $60,000.