Texas woman wins international auctioneer championship

DALLAS - A young woman from North Texas talks fast and that speed helps bring in a lot of money. She was just named champion at an international competition for auctioneers.

It’s a prestigious award for Morgan Hopson. The 30-year-old, first-generation auctioneer from the small town of Bonham won the 2019 Women’s International Auctioneer Championship in New Orleans, La.

“I can’t say that I ever in a million years would have dreamed of being an auctioneer. But I wholeheartedly believe that God leads us in life where we’re supposed to be if we listen,” she said.

Hopson graduated from Texas Christian University with degrees in music and business.

A family friend then asked if she would do marketing for his real estate auction company.

“I went to auction school for 10 days just to learn about the business and really enjoyed it, found it very intriguing. And I found a lot of similarities from the music side of things as far as performance, the dedication to hone your craft, the practice it takes, the way we evoke emotion out of an audience,” she said.

The rest is history. Hopson now works upwards of 40 events a year, typically selling real estate or helping charities such as the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas bring in money.

“For them to entrust us with that opportunity to give back and to raise money knowing that they’re going out and helping others, that’s ... you couldn’t ask for more,” she said.

It’s a male-dominated industry. Only 17% of auctioneers nationwide are women.

Hopson hopes to inspire others to consider the field.

“There’s a place in the auction business for everyone, whether you’re in fundraising, whether you’re in real estate, if you’re livestock,” she said.

To bring in the bucks, it takes talent and a lot of practice. But the hard work quite literally pays off.

“We raise a couple thousand dollars in one night and the next night we may go somewhere else and raise over a million dollars,” she said.