When the tsunami happened, there was a post over at the zoo, talking about Robb from camz.com, who was over in Thailand at the time.
http://www.camz.com/tsunami/
As to auction items being lame....it's not the point. The items don't matter. The bids do. More importantly, paying up matters even more.
Getting it to the victims is even more imperative and I just don't have much faith in the Red Cross' delivery.
On the other hand, charity is not the only one who doesn't deliver. When I won the Winter Version of the Webmaster of the Year in 2003, to this date, I have not received one of my prizes. Shit happens.