Union woman top auctioneer

Grand Champion Auctioneer Heidi Hill of Union credits her success to practice and patience. Submitted photo

This is one of many reasons Hill is being recognized as the best — the top auctioneer in Oregon.

The Union resident recently was named the 2010 Oregon Grand Champion Auctioneer following the Oregon Auctioneer Association’s bid-calling contest at its annual convention in Portland.

Hill will long remember the sensation she felt when her bid-calling skills made the wings of history.

“It was a very emotional moment,’’ she said.

It was a moment she shared with her husband, Troy, who is also familiar with the winner’s circle. Troy won the OAA’s grand champion auctioneer title in 2004.

Heidi credits the help he provided with playing a major role in her climb up the auctioneering ladder — a climb that has been relatively quick because she did not begin bid-calling until 2005 after attending a World Wide College of Auctioneering program in Denver.

Hill soon discovered that bid-calling was her calling, one she has a passion for that may never be extinguished.

“I’m so excited to have the opportunity to sell,’’ she said. “There is not anything that I do not enjoy selling.’’

She credits her success to practice and patience. Countless are the hours Hill devotes to honing her craft, to doing things like reciting numbers at a head spinning rate.

“I count and count, forwards and backwards.’’

Then there are the word twisters, ones that can tie the tongues of most people into more knots than a Boy Scout knows. Twisters like “The big brown bug bit the big brown bear.’’ Hill practices these endlessly at top speed and says they still sometimes tie her up.

Many are the practices she conducts with her husband. The couple critiques one another on their delivery and appearance, sometimes invoking humor.

“If his arms are spread out too much I might say, ‘It looks like you are getting ready to  fly,’ ’’ Heidi said.

Much time is also spent developing a chant and rhythm for it.

There is one thing, though, that all auctioneers must do well and that only live experience can prepare them for — reading body language. Auctioneers must be able to pick up on the cues of bidders since many do not raise their hands. Gestures like a raised eyebrow, a nod or a leg movement are how some experienced people bid.

Auctioneers are expected to detect such cues without being alerted to them beforehand, Hill said. Some are easy to miss regardless of one’s observation skills.

Hill will take to the world stage in July when she will compete at the International Auctioneering Championship in Greensboro, N.C. Look for Hill to be in the running for the world title. She placed seventh in the women’s division at the international event in 2009.

Locally Hill, an RN, is a familiar face on the health care front. She has worked as a nurse in La Grande for 10 years. Hill moved to Union County shortly after graduating from Montana Tech in Butte in 1997.

She and Troy own and operate Hill’s Auctioneering Inc., Live Domain Auctioneers LLC and are starting a company for charity auctions named Paddle Raisers. The latter is so named because paddles are raised at charity auctions when making bids.

“We love doing charity auctions,’’ she said.

Hill has had about a month to reflect on the Oregon Auctioneers Association title she won in February. She said the magnitude of the honor did not fully hit initially.

“It took time to sink in.’’