Collectors have very few opportunities to add a game-worn Wilt Chamberlain jersey to their collection.
The Dipper played in an era long before significant value was given to the jerseys worn by athletes, and an unknown number of items from his career have been lost in the decades since.
The few that have survived have attracted massive sums at auction, like the $4.9 million record price paid last year for his Lakers jersey from the 1972 NBA Finals.
But the Chamberlain gamer sold Saturday night at Heritage Auctions is unlike any other seen at public auction.
The jersey, which fetched $504,000, is possibly the very same Philadelphia Warriors jersey worn by Chamberlain in his 1961 Fleer rookie card, one of the most famous and valuable basketball cards ever created.
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While this claim is not definitive — Heritage went as far as to say it would stop short of making that claim out of “an abundance of caution,” the letter of authenticity from third-party authenticator MEARS offers a tantalizing claim.
MEARS, which graded the jersey a near-perfect 9.5, noted it could only identify a single shirt worn by Chamberlain during the 1960-61 time period.
“This shirt is very consistent with the image used on the 1961 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain rookie card,” MEARS noted in its authentication letter. “MEARS found nothing which would preclude this as being the shirt worn by Wilt when he was photographed for the card.”
The card, which is undoubtedly on the “Mount Rushmore” of basketball cards, has sold for as much as $670,000 in a PSA 9 grade.
Other jerseys from players which have been found to appear in iconic photos have earned premiums at auction in the past, most notably the LeBron James “The Chosen One” jersey, which he wore on the cover of the iconic Sports Illustrated issue from 2002. Julien’s sold the jersey for $512,000 in 2021, a remarkable sum for a high school jersey.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.