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Apple CEO Tim Cook Hot Commodity in Online Charity Auction

As of Friday, Cook was the top bid at $165,000

Turns out, Apple CEO Tim Cook is more popular than singer Taylor Swift and actor Robert Downey Jr. combined.

In fact, on Friday, Cook was drawing the most intense interest - and the highest bid totals -  in the New York-based online auction Charitybuzz to benefit a nonprofit focused on human rights, according to spokeswoman Meryl Schrank.

The top bid for lunch in Cupertino at Apple headquarters with Cook and two VIP passes to an Apple Keynote was going for $165,000.  The runner up bid - two ringside tickets for Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight and hotel stay - was going for $115,000.

But even though Cook is the most popular in this year's online charity auction, his current appeal is a far cry from his stardom two years ago.

In 2013, Cook tied for breaking a Charitybuzz record when , someone paid $610,000 to have coffee with him. A Lamborghini Aventador Roadster sold for the same price, also that year, Schrank said.

Tickets and backstage passes to Swift’s world tour raised a little more than $2,000 and a meeting with Downey on the set of an upcoming film was fetching $5,750. That's about the same combined total that Hall of Fame Coach John Madden was drawing on Friday - $7,500 - for viewers who want to watch Sunday football with him and his nine flat screen HD televisions at his San Francisco Bay Area home.

Proceeds from the auction will support the Robert F, Kennedy Human Rights, a nonprofit organization that works to achieve a "just and peaceful world by partnering with human rights leaders, teaching social justice and advancing corporate responsibility."

The auction closes on May 6.
 

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