Ask PG: How much did the lunch with you sell for? | Hacker News Reader

Ask PG: How much did the lunch with you sell for?

63 pointsbradly21 comments

Just curious how much the Lunch with Paul went for at the Harvest Moon Auction.

Thanks!

$1600 - 2 spots (so total $3200 for two hours), I was there. It was a silent auction before and it became a live auction due to high demand.

I was there too, I don't remember there being two lunches auctioned off?

The first one went for 1600 and the second one was done sort of in private immediately after since there were two hours available.

Original post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1863923

If anybody is interested for a comparison, a lunch with Randi Zuckerberg recently sold for $10k at a charity auction. Mike Arrington was the winning bidder:

http://twitter.com/randizuckerberg/status/2954716698906624

So she is sister of Mark.

Also, do we know what the value of the silent auction was when it was converted to a live auction? Several people had commented that they couldn't be there in person, but wanted to bid anyway.

@zck - no idea - I spent almost an hour looking for the item and then was told that it had already been converted to a live auction due to high demand.

And while we wait for pg to tell us the amount, I propose a game of HN Predictions. The rules:

* You must make your prediction before the event is determined.

* You can't edit your prediction afterwards.

* As a participant, you commit to going through the winner's past comments on HN and giving them at least 3 karma points. The winner would therefore need to have made at least 3 comments...

Let whoever is the closest to the actual amount, win! At the very least this should make for an entertaining Sunday morning =)

Here's my prediction: $2,400

$1050

What's with the downvotes, people? I agree that Karma points shouldn't be used as a reward, but I think most people here participated because guessing/estimating value of a lunch with pg was a challenging and fun thing to do. Now, is that against HN spirit? Does it deserve a punishment? Relax, geez.

I guess the reason is this: OP has asked a specific question to Paul with a specific answer. Why do we need predictions here?

$801

$950.

I'm surprised you're so flagrantly suggesting the use of HN karma points as a reward for a contest.

If they have any value at all, it is in their use as a proxy for someone's contribution to the HN community (which is very much undermined by stunts like this).

A lot of users make very valuable comments which are often overlooked for various reasons. I was hoping this would give them some deserved attention. Also, having spent a bit of time looking at various users' comment streams, I've found myself having a better understanding of them — makes for a stronger HN community. And, finally, being able to make decent predictions is a valuable skill for any entrepreneur...

Hope that helps explain why I believe this is beneficial and not just fun.

I agree with the sentiment but not with how you're proposing to implement it.

You say "overlooked for various reasons". Let's work on those reasons not try to patch a system. Why should me being able to guess (not "predict" as you say) the value of a dinner translate into retrospective karma?

Also, what is karma, really? What is it really measuring?

That contest should have been announced for the bragging rights alone.

I thought he was just being funny on a Sunday morning.

I was going to guess something like $10K for a PG breakfast.

IAmSpartacus

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