$3 Wilt Chamberlain Lakers jacket from 1972 NBA Finals found in thrift store sells for $89K at auction

A warmup jacket worn by Wilt Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA Finals that was bought by a teenager for $3.07 at an Oregon thrift store sold for $89,600 at auction on Monday.Quinn Brown had been eyeing a massive bin of clothes at a Goodwill store outside Portland in January when he saw someone toss a Lakers jacket with Chamberlain’s name on it back on the pile.Brown, who resells used clothes online, quickly grabbed it.The jacket was auctioned by Sotheby’s, which had estimated its value between $150,000 and $250,000 before bidding closed Monday.

It received a total of 48 bids, according to the auction house.Described on Sotheby’s website as an “extraordinary piece of memorabilia,” the short-sleeved yellow warmup jacket was worn by Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA finals, in which the Los Angeles Lakers beat the New York Knicks.“I didn’t even think that finding something like this was possible,” Brown said.“I got very, very lucky.”Chamberlain, an NBA Hall of Famer viewed as one of the all-time greats, played in the league from 1959 to 1973.

He won two championship rings — one with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967, and another with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972.He holds the record for most points scored by a player in a single game, netting 100 points in a 1962 match.For the past three years, Brown has been reselling clothes online after finding them in thrift stores.

The most expensive item he had sold previously was a T-shirt of Sub Pop Records, the indie label that signed Nirvana in 1989 and released the band’s first album.It went for $250.After buying the Chamberlain jacket back in January, Brown searched online to see if it was worth something.

He found a picture on Google of Chamberlain wearing such a jacket and compared it to the one he had.In examining the Lakers patch on the front, he noticed certain small stitching details that matched the photo.He also looked up the measurements of a different jersey worn by Chamberlain, a towering f...