Warren Buffett’s lunch auction, an annual fundraiser to benefit a San Francisco charity, drew a high bid of $400,100 in the third day of the weeklong event, putting it ahead of last year’s pace.

The auction on EBay Inc. generated 35 bids by 6:30 p.m. in New York, according to the website. Last year, bidding was still at $356,789 with less than 12 hours remaining, then surged to close at $1.68 million. The auction kicked off on June 6 this year and ends June 11 at 10:30 p.m. New York time.

Buffett, the 79-year-old investor who is chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has raised almost $6 million over the past decade for San Francisco-based Glide Foundation, which serves meals to the needy. That includes a record $2.1 million in 2008. Bidding tends to pick up late on the final day of the auction.

“The last 15 minutes is where all the action takes place,” Buffett said in an interview on Fox Business Network last year.

The auction winner gets lunch for eight with Buffett, who’s revered by other investors for his five-decade career. Buffett’s stock picks and takeovers turned Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire from a failing textile mill to a $174 billion seller of bricks, power and hurricane insurance. Berkshire’s profit rose 61 percent to $8.06 billion last year.

Glide Lunch With Warren Buffett Results:

Year Winner Winning Bid 2000 Anonymous $25,000 2001 Anonymous $18,000 2002 Anonymous $25,000 2003 David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital $250,100 2004 Jason Choo, Singapore $202,100 2005 Anonymous $351,100 2006 Yongping Duan, California $620,100 2007 Mohnish Pabrai, Guy Spier, Harina Kapoor $650,100 2008 Zhao Danyang, China $2,110,100 2009 Salida Capital, Canada $1,680,300