by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Abraham Rogozinsky

Age: 62

Occupation: Auctioneer

Bio: This well-roasted Hampstead heartbreaker has been amassing art, coins and all things collectable possibly since the beginning of time. Initially getting into the auction biz in the late '60s after events found him in a situation where he had to "sell a bunch of stuff in a hurry," Abraham is now the head dude at Empire Auctions, a family business that appears to have been very good to him indeed. "I've never worked in all my life."

Can he yak a mile a minute? "Yes, I can, but I don't do pony show [style] auctions. We sell more serious items here. I like to say Sotheby's tries to do what we do."

Does he ever employ this talent to fuck with poor order takers at the McDonald's drive-through counter and then giggle very loudly with the other passengers in his vehicle? "No, this doesn't really interest me."

Has eBay cut into his business at all? "Maybe on the low end a little, but not really."

Something he owned at one point: "The '11 dollar."

What the fuck an '11 dollar is: "Only one of the rarest coins in the world. The 1911 Canadian dollar. It belonged to King Farouk."

How much King Farouk would have to pay for his 1911 buck today: "It just sold for a little over a million and a quarter U.S."

One happy story: "Just the other day a lady walked in here with all her possessions, she needed money to cover her mortgage. And I was really feeling sorry for her, everything she had was worth nothing. And then, just as she was going out the door, she pulls out a roll of 20 1948 silver dollars. Gems! Real beauties! So I offered her $20,000 right on the spot. She nearly fainted. She thought I was joking."

And were these coins actually worth $500,000? "No. You can't do things like that. If you do, you lose. You have to make a fair offer to start. People check around, and you don't want to wind up looking like an idiot."

One cool thing they auctioned off recently: The original recording of "Give Peace a Chance," that John Lennon et al. made on a portable four-track machine at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel way back when. "It didn't go for much, I dunno, maybe $3,000?"

Childhood ambition: To one day become "a benevolent president of the world."

One prominent thinker whose writing has inspired him greatly: Bertrand Russell.

Literary preferences: "I only want to say that I'm very politicized, and all of my reading is a reflection of this."

Musical preferences: The Beatles, the soundtrack to The Fiddler on the Roof.

Fave local restaurant: The Rib'n'Reef on Décarie.

What he does for fun: Travel. "I try to spend at least 30 per cent of my time travelling."

Words of wisdom: "Life is not a rehearsal. It's the real thing. Do whatever you feel you want to be remembered by, because this is it."

Comments? dimwit@openface.ca