A 1953 Chicago Cubs jacket, believed to be the property of Hall of Famer Ernie Banks during his rookie season, sold for $15,569 at Grey Flannel Auctions on Sunday night.
That’s 1,790 times more than 18-year-old Jack Ricketts paid for it when he found it in a bin at a Goodwill store in Oregon less than six months ago.
There wasn’t any photo-match that definitely pinned Banks to the jacket, but it had his No. 14 inside and the season of his rookie year. The authenticity of how the jacket was marked was confirmed by the Cubs to cllct.
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The buyer paid a premium for the jacket, nearly four times more than two similar 1950s Cubs jackets that both sold for $4,000 each.
Ricketts told cllct last month that the jacket weighed 3.12 pounds. At $2.79 a pound (Goodwill' rate for used clothes), he bought it for $8.70.
Banks, a first-ballot Hall of Famer, two-time National League MVP and a 14-time All-Star, signed with the Cubs in 1953 and made his MLB debut Sept. 17. He played in 10 games for Chicago that season.
While the return for Ricketts was huge, it’s not the greatest turnaround for a sports item found at Goodwill.
That title belongs to Tennessee vintage clothes buyers Sean and Rikki McAvoy, who bought a West Point sweater in 2014 for 59 cents that turned out to be Vince Lombardi’s.
The sweater sold for $43,020. Heritage Auctions donated its proceeds from the sale back to Goodwill.
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.