An Oregon Teen Found A Wilt Chamberlain Warmup Jacket At A Goodwill For $3—And It Just Sold For A Massive Price

Every thrift shopper dreams of uncovering hidden treasure, but few finds come close to this. An Oregon teenager paid just $3 for what turned out to be a Los Angeles Lakers warm-up jacket worn by NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain. The jacket recently sold at Sotheby's for $89,600.

That unbelievable find started with a routine trip to a Portland Goodwill in January. Nineteen-year-old Quinn Brown spotted a jacket with what appeared to be Los Angeles Lakers colors after someone tossed it into a bargain bin. The vintage clothing reseller, who had been flipping finds online for about three years, decided it was worth taking home.

It wasn't until Brown got home that he realized he might have stumbled onto something much bigger.

He recalled the moment everything clicked:

"I was in my room, and I looked at the measurements of the jacket. Wilt Chamberlain, being 7 foot one, the jacket measured 33 inches long. So would have gone down almost to my knees, I looked at it, and it matched up. The jersey that I saw on eBay matched up perfectly with mine."

Brown's measurements made sense given Chamberlain's enormous stature. The Lakers legend stood 7-foot-1, the same listed height as Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal, though Chamberlain was known for his leaner frame. The unusually long warm-up jacket was the first sign Brown might have uncovered something extraordinary.

He was right, as you can see in the news coverage below:

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According to Sotheby's, the jacket was likely worn throughout the Lakers' 1971-72 season before being definitively photo-matched to the 1972 NBA Finals. Chamberlain won his second NBA championship that year, helped the Lakers win their first title after moving to Los Angeles, and earned NBA Finals MVP honors.

Sotheby's also matched the jacket to the 1972-73 season, Chamberlain's final NBA campaign, when he set a single-season field goal percentage record of 72.7% that stood until the 2019-20 season.

More than two decades after Chamberlain's death on October 12, 1999, authenticated pieces from his playing career continue to command collectors' attention—making Brown's thrift store discovery all the more remarkable.

The incredible backstory quickly spread across social media, where basketball fans, collectors, and thrift shoppers alike couldn't believe Brown's $3 discovery.

Readers didn't hold back—see the reactions below:

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While ESPN was unable to reach Brown, Sotheby's confirmed the details of the discovery. Before this find, Brown's biggest vintage resale had earned him just $250.

Brown's incredible Goodwill score even landed him on CBS Evening News:

For the Portland teenager, the once-in-a-lifetime discovery is proof that sometimes the most valuable treasures really are hiding in plain sight.