ClaimsWarren Buffett

“And that will be the only book next year.”

Warren Buffett, Berkshire chairman 5 May 2024 Transcript: Berkshire's 2024 annual shareholder meeting (Steady Compounding) archived copy

Promise Their own work or organisation

Poor Charlie's Almanack will be the only book at the Berkshire meeting bookstore next year.

Resolved false The record shows it did not happen or was not so.

Promise: Commitments to the person's or organisation's own future action, with something to deliver: was it delivered?

The evidence is the person's or their organisation's own records.

Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.

What would count as true or false

True: evidence from the 2025 annual meeting (held May 2025) shows that Poor Charlie's Almanack was the only book sold at the meeting's bookstore. Mostly true: it was the only book title, with trivial exceptions such as different editions or formats of the same book. Mostly false: Poor Charlie's Almanack was sold or featured, but one or more other book titles were also sold. False: other books were sold and Poor Charlie's Almanack was not the sole or featured book, or no such bookstore arrangement existed.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (3)

  1. E1 annual letters Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Own record

    “Again, we will have only one book for sale. Last year we featured Poor Charlie’s Almanack and sold out – 5,000 copies disappeared before the close of business on Saturday.”
  2. E2 annual letters Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Own record

    “This year we will offer 60 Years of Berkshire Hathaway.”
  3. E3 2025Annual Meeting berkshireletters.com (transcript of the 2025 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting) · 3 May 2025 Own record

    “Yesterday we sold about 4,400 books. We printed 8,000 – we intended to print 5,000 – so we have roughly 3,600 left for today.”

Reasoning

Berkshire's shareholder letter released before the 2025 meeting says the meeting would again offer only one book (E1). It names that book as "60 Years of Berkshire Hathaway" and refers to Poor Charlie's Almanack only as last year's book (E1, E2). The 2025 meeting transcript confirms books were sold that weekend but does not name a different title (E3). Berkshire's own pre-meeting letter says a different book, 60 Years of Berkshire Hathaway, would be the only book offered at the 2025 meeting instead of Poor Charlie's Almanack [E1][E2], so the claim resolves false on that record; the meeting transcript does not name the title actually sold [E3]. This rests only on Berkshire's own official records, not on an independent source.

Cite this claim

Warren Buffett, “Poor Charlie's Almanack will be the only book at the Berkshire meeting bookstore next year.” (said 5 May 2024). Verdict: resolved false. Reliability API, claim c_8e83bbc93cce, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_8e83bbc93cce

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Warren Buffett, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More promise claims by Warren Buffett

  1. Delivered on time Promise 18 September 2026
    “I will become Chairman Emeritus and remain a Director.”

    Warren Buffett becomes Chairman Emeritus of Berkshire and remains a director.

  2. Delivered on time Promise 10 November 2025
    “Greg Abel will become the boss at yearend.”

    Greg Abel will become Berkshire Hathaway's chief executive at the end of 2025.

  3. Mostly true Promise 2025
    “Whatever is raised through the sale of the 20 autographed books, I will match.”

    Buffett will personally match whatever is raised through the sale of the 20 autographed "Charlie" books for the Stephen Center.

  4. Delivered on time Promise 27 February 2017
    “We're going to have the same contest among our employees that we had last year.”

    Berkshire will run the same NCAA bracket contest among its employees in 2017 as it did in 2016.

  5. Mostly true Promise 28 February 2002
    “Additionally, I will keep well over 99% of my net worth in Berkshire.”

    Buffett will keep well over 99% of his net worth in Berkshire.

All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.