Live blog – Kansas Auctioneer championship

8:30am
Just passed Junction City, KS, on I-70 headed to the KAA bid-calling championship at the fair. I’ll be updating this post in real time today so long as I have a charge on my phone, so check back regularly.

Waiting in the green room to be called in for the interview

10:30am
I made it here to find Alan VanNahmen, Jeff Ruckert, Megan McCurdy and an auctioneer from northwest Kansas named Lance all loitering around waiting to draw for order. I’ll post an updated roster and the order after we draw.

11:00am
We 19 contestants have drawn our order and are waiting to interview. I drew number 6. I think it was really a 9 but peer pressure said otherwise.

11:50am
I’ve completed the interview portion. I’ll post the questions after everyone’s done. I feel solid about my performance. While we wait, here is the list of contestants in alphabetical order.

Milling around the merchandise at 1:30pm

Byron Bina – Herington
Eric Bloomquist – Assaria
Eric Boone – Yates Center
Charly Cummings – Yates Center
Kevin Ediger – Windom
Greg Foote – Bucyrus
Lance Kinderkneckt
John Kisner – Hays
Tom Lindsay – Shawnee
Megan McCurdy – Wichita
Aaron McKee – Manhattan
Ty Mitchell – Oxford
Dennis Oller – Turon
Jeff Ruckert – Manhattan
Glen Suppes – Lindsborg
Jayton Tautfest – Park City
Jeff Temme – Petersburg, NE
Aaron Traffas – Sharon
Alan VanNahmen – Manhattan

…more in a few minutes.

1:30pm
We’re milling around, perusing the merchandise, waiting for the contest to start at 2 p.m.

Byron Bina, Aaron McKee, Megan McCurdy

2:40pm
I just finished competing. now I wait to see if I make finals. There are some great auctioneers here, so it’s anyone’s guess.

3:46pm
I made finals…already sold again, better than first round…happening fast…results soon…

4:07pm
Here are your results.

  1. Byron Bina
  2. Aaron McKee
  3. Megan McCurdy
  4. Charlie Cummings
  5. John Kisner

9:33pm
Fixed formatting

10:45pm
Added pictures

Photo by Deb Kisner
Waiting in the green room to be called in for the interview
Milling around the merchandise at 1:30pm
Byron Bina, Aaron McKee, Megan McCurdy

Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES

Aaron Traffas, CAI, AMM, CES, is an auctioneer from Sharon, Kansas. For the last 22 years he's worked for Purple Wave. Aaron served as president of the Kansas Auctioneers Association in 2017 and on the National Auctioneers Association Education Institute Board of Trustees from 2009 through 2013. He is a past instructor at CAI and co-wrote the original ATS and AMM designation courses from NAA. An active contract bid caller, he has advanced to the finals in multiple state auctioneer contests. During the summer, Aaron operates a farm in south central Kansas. Aaron is an active singer and songwriter and the Aaron Traffas Band's latest music can be found at aarontraffasband.com as well as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon.

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