A 19-year-old Portland resident, Quinn Brown, sold a vintage Wilt Chamberlain Lakers warmup jacket for $89,600 at a Sotheby’s auction on Monday. Brown had originally purchased the piece for $3.07 at a Goodwill thrift store bin in January, unknowingly securing an item worn by the NBA legend during the 1972 season.
Quinn Brown’s thrift store purchase
From Goodwill Bin to Auction Block
The discovery began in January when Quinn Brown, who has been reselling his thrift-store clothing finds online for the past three years, spotted a yellow Lakers jacket in a clothing bin outside a Portland Goodwill. After seeing someone toss the short-sleeved jacket with “Chamberlain” on the back into the bin, Brown grabbed it for his online shop. He paid $3.07 for the item.
Brown began researching the jacket by looking for online photos of Chamberlain. He found a picture of the Hall of Famer wearing a jacket that appeared very similar. Additionally, Brown noticed small stitching details on the Lakers patch on the front matched the clothing he bought. He also researched the measurements of a different jersey worn by the 7ft 1in (2.2 meters) Chamberlain and found they were nearly aligned. Brown noted, I really just wanted to make sure, because it was so hard to believe at the time.
Sotheby’s auction house consignment
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 to be collected from his house. 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. During Game 1, a 114-92 Lakers loss, Chamberlain had 12 points and 19 rebounds. In Game 2, a 106-92 Lakers victory, he recorded 23 points and 24 rebounds.
Sotheby’s Authentication and Auction Results
Sotheby’s identified the jacket as an extraordinary piece of memorabilia from Chamberlain’s final chapter in the NBA.
The auction house provided additional photographic evidence showing the matching spacing between the letters of the player’s name on the back to verify authenticity. Sotheby’s stated that photomatching a piece of game-worn clothing to a specific finals series, for a player of this era, is genuinely exceptional.
1972 NBA Finals memorabilia
The jacket was worn by Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA Finals, in which the Lakers defeated the New York Knicks in five games and Chamberlain was named the series MVP. While Sotheby’s had initially estimated the value of the jacket between $150,000 and $250,000, it ultimately sold for $89,600. According to the auction house, the item received a total of 48 bids before the auction closed on Monday.
Historical Context and Personal Impact
Chamberlain, an NBA Hall of Famer who played in the league from 1959 to 1973, holds the record for most points scored by a player in a single game, netting 100 points in a 1962 match. He won two championship rings—one with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1967, and another with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972.
For Brown, the sale marks a significant increase from his previous reselling success. Prior to this, the most expensive item he had sold was a T-shirt for Sub Pop Records, the indie label that signed Nirvana in 1989 and released the band’s first album, which went for $250. Reflecting on the experience, Brown wrote on Instagram in January, This is Truly a once in a lifetime find. I am so grateful this jacket has landed in my hands. Following the sale, Brown told the Associated Press, I didn’t even think that finding something like this was possible. I got very, very lucky.
Worth a look
