Coffee lovers are being lured to bid for a free fix for life - a caffeine pitch that could be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Auckland cafe chain Eightyeight Cups Coffee has taken to Trade Me with its promotion, putting the offer up at a reserve price of $1.

By lunchtime today the auction, which ends next Thursday, had climbed in 16 bids to $63.

The winner will be entitled to a "lifetime supply", which the chain defines as two hot drinks a day, five days a week, "indefinitely".

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The chain's owner, Josh Love, indicated the auction's winner might be in for a lot of hot drinks as the business "will be around for a while".

Eightyeight has three cafes in central Auckland - one in Beach Rd and two in Queen St - all of which are open daytime hours from Monday to Friday.

Love told the Herald he had long leases at all three premises and was in the process of establishing a fourth cafe, in Albert St.

"I thought it would be a pretty cool idea - to do something weird," he said of the auction.

"I don't expect to make much money out of it."

"But wouldn't it be great to know whenever you're in the city, you can grab a great coffee WHENEVER YOU WANT!" the cafe says on the auction website.

Love calculated that if the winner of the auction is a dedicated drinker, downing the full two a day, five days a week, 48 weeks a year for three decades, they would sip their way through $43,200 of product - based on a $3 coffee.

He doubted the auction price would reach anywhere near that, but said: "If I got anywhere close, a big chunk would have to go to charity."