(Photo: From left to right, the ringmen of Kruse Energy: Kenny Garman, Jim Richie, Dylan Hall, Frank McGrade, Marty Hill)
Kenny Garman, one of Kruse Energy’s ringmen and a big believer in the time-honored live auction tradition, knows exactly what he’s looking for when he scans a room full of buyers.
“When they lean forward. They’re all sitting in chairs behind rows and rows of tables, their books are open, they’re talking to their neighbors. But when you see someone stop talking to his friend, look at his book, and lean forward to look at the picture of the item up for purchase, you know they’re going to get in,” he says. “It’s all about body language.”
A ringman’s job is to be among the buyers, spotting bids and communicating these bids with the auctioneer. The job is challenging, fast-paced, and a genuine joy for those ringmen who love the interaction. Beyond spotting bids, they’re also informally tasked with monitoring the energy of the room and hope prices continue to rise in the market place. Down in what Kenny calls “the trenches,” he simultaneously tries to get bidders a good deal while helping sellers maximize their profits.
“It’s all split-second decisions, and everything happens really fast. You’ve got to really read the bidder,” Kenny says. “You’re talking to the bidders, pressing the flesh. You’re in there figuring out their emotions and thoughts, trying to convince them why they should be bidding.
“There's types of guys that don't want you to come up and approach them, and you have to take their bid from far away. And there are guys that don't mind if you put your hand on their shoulder and say ‘Come on, let's try one more time.’ You have to really read them. Guys that don't want to be approached, and guys that have no problem laughing and goofing off and you just have to read that. Some guys will bid when they have a cigar in their mouth, and when they take it out, they're done. Some will just wink at you. Some will say, ‘Put me in until my arms are uncrossed.’”
Kenny comes from a family that knows auction; his relatives owned a classic car auction company, and that was his introduction to what is now his life’s work as an auctioneer and ringman at auctions around the country. Ringmen don’t need to be licensed, but auctioneers do in most states, and Kenny’s gone through enough training to be well-versed in the legal and lifestyle requirements of his trade.
“We do a lot of traveling, in different towns just about every week,” he says. “Sometimes people think traveling’s real glamorous, and often it's not. When you show up the next morning, you have to have your game face on and be ready to go. Sometimes we’re running only on adrenaline.”
In the moment, in the heat of a bidding war, there’s no time for a ringman who isn’t firing on all cylinders. Sometimes, Kenny says, a good ringman is so attuned to the room that he can pick up on seemingly non-existent signals that a bid is about to emerge. “This may sound crazy, but sometimes you get a sixth sense, a feeling there’s going to be a bid coming over in a certain area of the room. I don’t know how to explain it. It could be the last bid, the winning bid, and you just feel something is coming. It happens time and time again. It’s like you have ESP.”
Kenny and his fellow ringmen push each other to be better and faster at their job with each auction.
“We memorize the customers’ bidding numbers,” Kenny says. “It’s a challenge among all the ringmen. When people are buying items, they really like it when we remember their number so they don’t’ have to get out their bidders cards.”
All of his hard work is worth it in the end. “When you look over at a bidder and see a smile on his face, it means he’s going to come back. That makes me really happy, to see that. When someone’s really working hard to get an item, and it's really competitive, it goes back and forth like a tennis match, everyone gets excited and into it, and the high bidder wins, you go up and give him a big handshake. You make him feel good that he got that item, in a big fight to get it. It drives the excitement up and adds to the excitement in the room,” Kenny says. “It’s fun.”
Kruse Energy's next auction is September 16, in Duncan, Oklahoma. Items are available to preview now!
