A warmup jacket worn by NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain during the 1972 finals was bought by teenager Quinn Brown for $3.07 at a Goodwill store outside Portland in January and sold for $89,600 at a Sotheby’s auction on Monday, according to fortune.com. The jacket, which Chamberlain wore when the Los Angeles Lakers won the championship, attracted 48 bids and far exceeded Sotheby’s initial estimate of $150,000 to $250,000.
Brown, who has been reselling clothes found in thrift stores online for three years, spotted the Lakers jacket with Chamberlain’s name on it in a bin of clothes and quickly grabbed it after seeing it tossed back onto the pile. He described the find as extremely lucky, saying, “I didn’t even think that finding something like this was possible.” Sotheby’s listed the jacket as an extraordinary piece of memorabilia from the 1972 NBA finals, where the Lakers defeated the New York Knicks.
Wilt Chamberlain, an NBA Hall of Famer, played from 1959 to 1973 and is renowned for his records, including scoring 100 points in a single game in 1962. He won two NBA championships, one with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967 and another with the Lakers in 1972. Brown’s previous highest sale was a Sub Pop Records T-shirt, making this jacket the most valuable item he has sold to date, highlighting the potential value of thrift store finds in the resale market.
The auction closed on Monday with 48 bids, confirming strong collector interest in sports memorabilia tied to iconic athletes like Chamberlain. Sotheby’s estimate was between $150,000 and $250,000, but the final sale price of $89,600 sets a notable benchmark for similar vintage sportswear. Brown’s discovery underscores the growing market for authenticated vintage sports collectibles.