Teen’s Thrift-Store Find of Wilt Chamberlain Warm-up Jacket Nets $89,600 at Sotheby’s

In January 2026, 19-year-old Quinn Brown spotted a yellow Lakers warm-up jacket with “Chamberlain” on the back in a Goodwill bin outside Portland, Oregon. He purchased the item for $3.07 and later posted a photo online. Sotheby’s contacted Brown, arranged consignment, and auctioned the jacket on July 20, 2026. The sale closed at $89,600, including the buyer’s premium, after 48 bids. Sotheby’s had originally estimated the piece between $150,000 and $250,000.

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Sotheby’s enlisted SIA Photo Match to compare the jacket with archival images of Wilt Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA Finals, when the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the New York Knicks and Chamberlain earned Finals MVP honors. The verification confirmed the jacket was worn in that series and likely throughout the 1971-72 season, making it one of the few surviving game-worn items from that era. A Chamberlain jersey from the same finals fetched $4.9 million at Sotheby’s in 2023, underscoring the market’s appetite for rare 1970s NBA memorabilia.

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Sotheby’s described the jacket as “extraordinary” and highlighted the rarity of photomatched items from Chamberlain’s career. The auction house noted that such verification “is genuinely exceptional” for a player of Chamberlain’s era and that the piece represents “a piece of sports history” as similarly authenticated items become increasingly scarce.

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• “I didn’t even think that finding something like this was possible,” — Quinn Brown, thrift-store buyer

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• “I got very, very lucky.” — Quinn Brown

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• “Photomatching a piece of game-worn clothing to a specific Finals series, for a player of this era, is genuinely exceptional,” — Sotheby’s website

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• “As photomatched items worn by Chamberlain become exceedingly rare, this jacket is a piece of sports history.” — Sotheby’s website

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