Teen's $3 Goodwill Find Turns Out to Be Wilt Chamberlain's 1972 Lakers Jacket
A 19-year-old reseller's eye for vintage gear paid off close to $100,000
A 19-year-old thrift-shop hunter turned a $3 purchase into a nearly six-figure payday after discovering an original 1972 NBA warm-up jacket worn by Lakers legend Wilt Chamberlain at a Goodwill store, according to CBS News.
Quinn Brown, who has built a hobby out of selling secondhand finds online, bought the jacket for just over $3 without initially knowing its full significance. The garment traces back to the Lakers' 1972 NBA Finals championship season, one of the most storied runs in franchise history, when Chamberlain anchored a Los Angeles team that won a then-record 33 consecutive games.
Once authenticated and put up for sale, the jacket fetched close to $100,000, CBS News reported, highlighting how rare pieces of sports memorabilia can surface in the most ordinary places.
The find is a reminder of the surprisingly lucrative world of thrift-store resale, where collectors and casual shoppers alike comb secondhand racks hoping to stumble on overlooked treasures. Vintage sports apparel, in particular, has become a hot category among collectors, with items tied to marquee names and championship teams commanding steep premiums at auction and on resale platforms.
Brown's discovery adds to a string of viral thrift-store windfalls in recent years, in which items purchased for pocket change have turned out to be worth small fortunes once their provenance was established.
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News.