Strickland Auctioneers Featured in Voyage Dallas Magazine
- Strickland Auctioneers
- Apr 23
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 23
Strickland Auctioneers was recently featured in Voyage Dallas Magazine as part of their ongoing Local Stories series, which highlights the entrepreneurs, creatives, and hidden-gem businesses shaping the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In the interview, founder and lead auctioneer Jacob Strickland opens up about the unconventional path that led him from more than a decade in public service into the auction industry, the mentors who helped shape his craft, and the reasoning behind building a DFW auction company designed to serve three very different kinds of clients: nonprofits raising critical funds, families navigating estate transitions, and business owners working through difficult liquidations. The conversation reflects the values that have guided every gavel we've dropped since the day Strickland Auctioneers opened for business — service, trust, and a genuine commitment to the North Texas communities we're proud to call home.
About the Feature
Voyage Dallas is a Dallas-area digital publication that highlights inspiring entrepreneurs, small businesses, and creatives across the metroplex. Their editorial team has a long-standing focus on uncovering the stories behind local companies — the kind of backstory that usually doesn't make it onto a homepage or a service page, but that explains why a business operates the way it does.
Being featured in a publication like Voyage Dallas matters to us for reasons that go beyond visibility. Our clients — particularly the nonprofit boards we work with on benefit fundraising auctions and the families we help through estate transitions — are making significant decisions about who they trust in moments that genuinely matter. Editorial features from respected local outlets help them see the people behind the company, not just the services on a quote sheet.
From Corrections Officer to Licensed Texas Auctioneer
The path Jacob took to become a licensed Texas auctioneer is not the one most people in this industry travel. It's one of the things the Voyage Dallas interview digs into, and it's the reason Strickland Auctioneers approaches every engagement the way we do.
A Decade of Service Before the Gavel
Twenty days after graduating high school, Jacob started his first career in corrections — working overnight shifts at the jail while attending college during the day, eventually earning a degree in Criminal Justice. From there he moved into private security, working everything from government-assisted housing communities and manufacturing plants to clubs, restaurants, and armored transport routes hauling cash and gold between Texas banks and depositories.
That stretch of his career taught him two things that still show up in how Strickland Auctioneers operates today. The first was discipline under pressure — you learn a lot about handling yourself when you're responsible for large sums of money that aren't yours. The second was trust. In the vending and amusement machine industry that followed his security career, Jacob was given route responsibility precisely because he had a proven track record of bringing back every dollar he was supposed to bring back. That same principle — account for every penny, handle every client's property as if it were your own — carries straight through to how we run estate sales, business liquidations, and benefit fundraisers today.
Finding a Calling at America's Auction Academy
Jacob's introduction to the auction world came through the vending and amusement industry. Equipment auctions were the standard way of moving machines in and out of the business, and he spent years attending them as a buyer and consignor before ever considering the other side of the gavel. Watching how auctioneers worked the room, read the crowd, and built momentum convinced him there was a craft there worth learning.
He trained at America's Auction Academy in Frisco, Texas, under the guidance of Mike Jones — one of the most respected names in the industry, with a career that spans nearly every category of auction work. Jacob is a licensed Texas auctioneer (TX License #18533) and holds active membership in both the Texas Auctioneers Association (TAA) and the National Auctioneers Association (NAA), the two governing bodies that set professional and ethical standards for licensed auctioneers operating in this state and nationally.
The Services Built Around Helping DFW
One of the themes the Voyage Dallas interview returns to is why Strickland Auctioneers offers the specific mix of services we do. The short answer is that each of our three verticals exists because we saw a real gap in how DFW-area clients were being served — and we built the offering to close it.
Benefit Fundraising Auctions
Benefit auctions are the heart of what we do. We work with nonprofits, churches, schools, and community organizations across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex to design live fundraising auctions, silent auctions, and hybrid events that actually move the needle on their annual goals.
One of the stories Jacob shares in the Voyage Dallas feature is the Godley Methodist Church Lord's Acre fundraiser — a long-running annual event where the church had historically raised around $13,000. The year we partnered with them, we helped them raise $34,000, more than two and a half times their typical number. That's the kind of outcome a well-designed benefit auction is capable of delivering when a licensed professional auctioneer is running the room, and it's why we've built this vertical into the core of our business.
Estate Sales & Online Estate Liquidations
The estate side of our work exists because Jacob has personally watched family members navigate the difficult process of liquidating a loved one's estate. It's rarely just a logistics problem — it's emotional, time-pressured, and often handled during one of the hardest seasons of a family's life.
We offer traditional in-home tag sales for estates with strong walk-through appeal, and we run online estate auctions for estates where reach, bidder competition, and transparent pricing matter more than foot traffic. Both options are delivered through our dedicated estate services brand, North Texas Estate Sales, which specializes exclusively in estate liquidation work across the DFW metroplex.
Business Liquidation Services
When a business is closing — whether by choice, by circumstance, or under pressure — the difference between a well-run liquidation and a poorly run one can be the difference between walking away whole and walking away in the red. We help DFW-area business owners recover value from their remaining assets through structured liquidation auctions that are tailored to the category of business and the timeline involved. Whether it's retail inventory, restaurant equipment, commercial vehicles, office fit-outs, or specialized industry equipment, our job is to maximize recovery and move clean on a defined schedule.
Why Local Press Matters to Us
We don't chase press coverage for its own sake. But when a publication like Voyage Dallas takes the time to tell a business's story honestly — backstory, values, and all — it creates something a marketing page can't replicate: context. The nonprofit board chair weighing whether to trust us with their annual gala, the family interviewing estate liquidators in the week after a funeral, the business owner calling us during the hardest quarter of their career — they're all making decisions that matter. Editorial coverage helps them see who they're actually hiring.
The values Jacob shares at the end of the Voyage interview — faith, service, and a belief that the work you do should benefit the people you do it for — aren't marketing language for us. They're the reason the business exists, and they're the standard every member of our team is held to.
Read the Full Interview in Voyage Dallas Magazine
The full interview covers Jacob's path through corrections, security, and the amusement industry before finding auctioneering, along with the moment he realized this was the work he was meant to do.
About Strickland Auctioneers
Strickland Auctioneers (a DBA of Global Gavel Auctions, LLC) is a licensed Texas auction company based in Burleson, Texas, serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. We specialize in three service verticals: benefit fundraising auctions for nonprofits and community organizations, estate sales and online estate liquidations through our sister brand North Texas Estate Sales, and business liquidation services for owners closing or restructuring their operations.
Lead Auctioneer: Jacob Strickland Texas Auctioneer License: #18533
Phone: (817) 381-5543 | Email: info@stricklandauctioneers.com
Based in: Burleson, Texas Service Area: Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and surrounding North Texas communities
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