A teen from Oregon spent $3 on a jacket from a local Goodwill. It just sold for more than $89,000 at auction

He bought it for $3 and put it up for auction with Sotheby’s. When bidding ended on July 20, the jacket sold for $89,600.

As steep as that number is, it’s notably lower than the auction house had expected the jacket would fetch. Sotheby’s estimate was between $150,000 and $250,000. (Last year, a game-worn Chamberlain jersey from those same finals sold for $4.9 million).

A close call

Brown almost missed out on the chance to get the jacket. When he first spotted it, he said, it was in the hands of another thrifter.

“I know a good amount about vintage items, so I was able to tell that it was probably worth waiting to see if they got rid of it,” he told The Oregonian.

“A lot of people just throw things back. I stood next to him, and after, like, 20 seconds of standing there, he ended up throwing it right in front of me.”

He quickly grabbed it.

Thinking it could be authentic, he posted a picture of it on Instagram, where it was spotted by Sotheby’s. It was transported, via an armored van, to New York, where the auction house authenticated it as one worn in the 1972 finals.

Last-minute three-pointer

For a while, it looked like the auction was going to end at a notably lower figure. With just 30 seconds left, bids had only reached as high as $70,000. Then, the buyer swept in at the last minute, much like Walt Frazier did past Chamberlain at the very end of Game 4 of the ‘72 NBA finals, with a bid of $89,600.