Claims

Promise · Their own work or organisation

“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)

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.

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.

Evidence

1. 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. annual letters Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Own record

   “This year we will offer 60 Years of Berkshire Hathaway.”

3. 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. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_8e83bbc93cce