Picture digging through a giant bin of used clothes at Goodwill and pulling out a yellow Lakers warm-up jacket with a price tag of $3.07. Most of us would shrug and keep digging. One Oregon teenager took it home, and it ended up selling for $89,600.

The jacket turned out to belong to basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain, according to a report from the Hindustan Times, which cites the Associated Press.

Someone Else Picked It Up, Then Put It Back In The Bin

The seller is Quinn Brown. He found the jacket at a thrift shop in Portland while rummaging through a huge bin of clothes, where another shopper had picked it up and returned it to the store.

He paid just $3.07. At the time, he had no idea the short-sleeve yellow jacket had anything to do with one of the best basketball players ever.

Brown was no beginner. He had been buying clothes at thrift shops and reselling them online for about three years. His biggest sale before this was $250, for a Sub Pop Records T-shirt.

He Compared The Stitching And The Measurements To Prove It

After he got home, Brown searched online and found a photo of Chamberlain wearing a similar Lakers warm-up. He compared the two jackets side by side.

The stitching around the Lakers logo on the front caught his eye. He also compared the jacket’s measurements with those of another garment worn by Chamberlain.

Then he posted a picture on social media. Sotheby’s reached out and asked whether he wanted to put it up for auction.

Sotheby’s Matched It To Photos From Three Games

After studying the photos, the auction house verified that the jacket was tied to Chamberlain’s Lakers career. Sotheby’s catalog calls it a game-winning champion Lakers warm-up jacket from the 1972 finals.

The auction house matched it to photographs from three games during the 1972-73 regular season, Chamberlain’s final NBA season. It went into Sotheby’s Summer Sports Classic sale and drew 48 bids.

Sotheby’s had estimated it would bring $150,000 to $250,000. The final price was considerably lower, but $89,600 is still an astonishing return on a $3.07 purchase.

The Big Man Behind The Jacket: A 100-Point Night And Two Championships

The jacket’s value ties directly to the Lakers’ 1972 championship season. The team beat the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, and Chamberlain was named series Most Valuable Player. It was his second title, after the one he won with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967.

Chamberlain played professionally from 1959 to 1973. He is also known for scoring 100 points in a single game back in 1962, a record that still stands.

That résumé explains why anything from his playing days is in demand. The Associated Press notes that a game-worn jersey from the same championship series sold for $4.9 million at Sotheby’s in 2023.

Less Than A Cup Of Coffee At Most Places

The report sums up the journey this way: it started with a simple trip to the thrift shop, and Brown bought the piece for less than a cup of coffee at most places.

Photo comparisons and Sotheby’s verification established the link to Chamberlain. That is what turned a $3.07 purchase into an $89,600 auction sale.

Why A Warm-Up Jacket Can Fetch Nearly $90,000

Collectors of sports memorabilia care about stories they can prove. A jacket tied to a champion team, a series MVP and a player with a record that still stands has a history that buyers can point to.

That is why the matching photos mattered so much. Without the comparison to images of Chamberlain in a similar warm-up, this would have been another yellow jacket in a bin of used clothes.

It is also a reminder of how resale works. Brown spent three years learning what sells, and that habit of looking at labels, logos and details is what put him in position to notice something unusual.

Thrift Store Detective Work Anyone Can Try

Stories like this make everyone want to rush to Goodwill. Luck helps, but Brown’s method is something any careful shopper can copy.

• Stop and look closely. Brown noticed the stitching around the logo, a small detail most people would miss.
• Compare against photos. A search online can turn up pictures of similar items worn by famous people.
• Check measurements. He compared the jacket’s size to another garment Chamberlain wore.
• Keep the receipt or tag. A record of where and when you bought something helps tell its story later.
• Ask experts before you sell. Posting photos got Brown a call from Sotheby’s, and the auction house did the verifying.

It also helps to remember that estimates are only guesses. Sotheby’s thought this jacket could bring $150,000 or more, and it sold for less, yet it still beat anything Brown had ever sold.

Most thrift shoppers will never find a piece of basketball history. But the next time you flip through a rack of old jackets, take one more look at the tag, the stitching and the logo. A $3.07 jacket made one young reseller’s year, and it all began with a second look.

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