Quinn Brown walked out of a Hillsboro Goodwill store in January with a Los Angeles Lakers warm-up jacket he had paid $3 for. Months later, that same jacket is up for auction at Sotheby’s after being authenticated as one worn by Wilt Chamberlain, with bidding open Wednesday and set to run through July 20.
The 19-year-old Portland resident said he spotted the jacket in someone else’s hands before the person put it down. Brown, who spends 15 to 20 hours a week digging through Goodwill Outlet bins, later posted a photo of the jacket on Instagram, and Sotheby’s took notice. The jacket was then sent to New York for professional authentication through SIA Photo Match.
The match is what turned a thrift-store score into a major collectible. SIA Photo Match said the jacket was matched to the 1972 NBA Finals, and Sotheby’s said it was also photo-matched to images of Chamberlain wearing it during the 1972-73 NBA season. Based on that work, Sotheby’s estimated the jacket could sell for $150,000 to $250,000.
Brown said he knew he had found something unusual, but he did not expect it to land in an auction catalog. He said, after hearing the jacket had been matched to the 1972 NBA Finals, that he understood the significance because he knew the NBA Finals jersey sold for $4.9 million. Brown said the jacket sat over that jersey, a detail that made the find even more striking once the authentication came back.
There is still one part of the story that no appraisal can explain: why a Wilt Chamberlain jacket ended up at a Goodwill store in the first place. The path from donation bin to Sotheby’s estimate is clear enough, but the reason it was there at all is not. Brown said he plans to save the proceeds and hopes the windfall will help him retire early.
For Brown, the find fits a longer pattern. He said he started reselling as a high school junior and turned it into a full-time career about three years later. He said he has more than 10,000 sales, calls himself a Lakers fan and keeps a Wilt Chamberlain book on his dresser, along with a Chamberlain card that was a gift from a friend. Hayley Platt called his experience a perfect example of how treasure hunting at Goodwill can be thrilling and, in this case, magical. What comes next is simple: the jacket stays on the block through July 20, and Brown is waiting to see how far a $3 purchase can go.
