A 19-year-old Lakers fan walked into a Goodwill store looking for bargains.
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He may have walked out with a quarter-million-dollar treasure.
Portland resident Quinn Brown says he paid just $3.07 for a vintage Los Angeles Lakers warm-up jacket he spotted at a Goodwill Outlet earlier this year. At first, he simply thought it was a cool find.
It turned out to be much more than that, as relayed by the New York Post.
After Brown shared a photo of the jacket on social media, Sotheby's reached out and arranged to have it authenticated. According to the auction house, the jacket has been photo-matched to Wilt Chamberlain during the 1972 NBA Finals and throughout the 1972-73 season, the Hall of Famer's final year in the NBA.
Now the jacket is headed to auction with an estimated value between $150,000 and $250,000.
Brown told local media another shopper actually picked up the jacket first before tossing it aside.
"He just threw it in front of me, and I immediately grabbed it," Brown recalled.
The discovery became even more surreal after the authentication process.
"They said your jacket has been matched to the 1972 NBA Finals," Brown said. "I knew the NBA Finals jersey sold for $4.9 million. That's the jersey he wore under my jacket."
Brown has been buying and reselling thrift-store finds since high school and says he's completed more than 10,000 sales over the past three years. Even so, he never imagined uncovering a piece of NBA history.
"I got so lucky with my Wilt Chamberlain jacket," Brown said. "It's an amazing feeling to find something like this."
Perhaps the most fitting part of the story?
Brown says he's been a Lakers fan for years and already owned a Wilt Chamberlain book and trading card before stumbling across what may become the greatest thrift-store find of his life.
