Boy, online fundraising auctions have come a long way.

Our first charity auction was back in 2000 for Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures, which at the time had custody of the late lamented killer whale Keiko. We auctioned off all sorts of Keiko regalia, including a floating object the erstwhile Orca apparently pleasured himself with (we called it “the naughty ball”). We worked hard and had great fun, but didn’t raise a whole heck of a lot of money for marine conservation.

Flash forward six years and the bucks are finally flowing. Read on…