WINDSOR LOCKS--You can buy almost anything at auction: paintings, livestock, even houses.
If you've been to an auction, the seller is often a fast-talker--a very fast one.
That's what you get at the Hartford Springfield Auction next to Bradley International Airport, where every Tuesday night a thousand cars are up for bidding.
It all happens fast because it has to, with five auctioneers steering sales through five lanes.
They're all good, but one man is considered the world's best.
Michael Riggins, 40, was crowned champion last month at the World Automobile Auctioneers Championship in Missouri. The Somers father of two is the very first New Englander to take the title.
"I feel like I hit the lottery," Riggins said reflecting on beating out over 70 other auctioneers. "A lot of things have to go right."
The stars aligned. "(It's) how you carry yourself, how you sell the vehicles, how you sound on the auction block," Riggins pointed out.
At the same competition, he and his partner, Michael J Chambers, of New Hampshire, also placed fourth in the team competition. "We went in there with a plan," Chambers said. "I mean right down to what we were going to eat."
After watching them in action at the Hartford Springfield Auction, Riggins at the mic and Chambers on the floor...and later vice versa...we were sold.
