A Portland teenager found a random old Lakers jacket in a Goodwill bin back in January.
He paid $3.07 for it.
Seven months later, the item sold at auction for $89,600.
Turns out the old jacket wasn’t so random after all.
Verified by Sotheby’s auction house, it was a warmup jacket worn by NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain at least three times. That includes during the 1972 NBA Finals in which the Lakers defeated the New York Knicks in five games and Chamberlain was named the series MVP.
“This is Truly a once in a lifetime find,” Brown wrote on Instagram in January. “I am so grateful this jacket has landed in my hands.”
Brown, 19, has been reselling his thrift-store clothing finds online for the past three years. When he saw someone toss the short-sleeved Lakers jacket with “Chamberlain” on the back into a bin of clothes outside Goodwill, Brown grabbed it for his online shop.
Then he did some research. Brown found an online photo of Chamberlain wearing a jacket that looked very similar. He also discovered that the four-time league MVP’s jersey measurements closely matched those of the jacket.
After he posted a photo of the jacket online, Brown was contacted by Sotheby’s about consigning it for auction. He took the auction house up on the offer, and the jacket was whisked away in an armored vehicle.
Sotheby’s photomatched the jacket to three images: an undated photo from the 1972-73 season, a photo from a January 1973 game and a photo from a 1972 home game against the Knicks that was determined to be from either Game 1 or Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Chamberlain had 12 points and 19 rebounds in Game 1, a 114-92 Lakers loss, and 23 points and 24 rebounds in Game 2, a 106-92 Lakers victory.
“I didn’t even think that finding something like this was possible,” Brown told the Associated Press. “I got very, very lucky.”
Sotheby’s estimated that the jacket could go for $150,000 to $250,000. While the final amount wasn’t quite that high, Brown told KIRO-FM (97.3) in Tacoma, Wash., that he’s “obviously happy” after making back 29,000-times his initial investment.
“$90,000 is pretty good,” he said. “I was hoping it would go higher. A little surprised, sitting there the last five minutes it didn’t really get any bids. So that was a little disappointing. But, still, a lot of money — especially since I only spent $3.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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