Thrift store Green Jacket was bought for $5, sold for $140k

Since The Masters is “a tradition unlike any other,” it only makes sense the tournament's memorabilia is one-of-a-kind, too.

The Green Jacket has been presented to winners of the tournament since 1949, and Augusta National Golf Club has become incredibly protective of the most famous garment in golf.

In addition to trademarks on the phrase and colors of the jacket, it institutes a strict policy forbidding any of the Green Jackets — worn by winners and club members — from leaving the club. The only exception is for the most recent champion, who is permitted to keep the jacket until the following tournament.

As a result, the few jackets to escape the grounds of the club and make it into the hands of private collectors have commanded immense prices.

Arnold Palmer’s jacket was stolen from the club and “sold” for $3.6 million … until FBI agents swarmed during the planned hand-off.

Some have changed hands legally, such as Horton Smith’s Green Jacket, which sold for $682,229.45 at auction in 2013.

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But none top the story of the “Thrift Store” Green Jacket.

In 1994, a golfer came across a jacket with a price tag of $5 in a Toronto thrift store.

It turned out, it was an authentic Green Jacket, with the original owner’s name cut out of the jacket. Still, other tagging allowed experts to date it back to the early 1950s, making it among the earliest in existence.

Even Augusta National confirmed the jacket’s authenticity. However, according to Golden Age Auctions, the club then refused to answer questions regarding the identity of the original owner.

Model Jodie Kidd wore the jacket on a 2007 cover of Golf International. (Credit: Golden Age Auctions)

It generated massive media attention over the years, even appearing on the cover of “Golf International” magazine in 2007, which featured model Jodie Kidd wearing the jacket (and nothing else).

The lucky buyer of the jacket from the thrift store in 1994, whose name has remained unknown, later sold the jacket to British journalist Dominic Pedler.

Pedler wrote in a piece published in “Golf International” that he would “dust it off once a year to watch the Masters on TV, while my wife rustles up a peach cobbler … The rest of the time it lives in a bank vault, along with my Henry Cotton scrapbook and the 1974 Daily Telegraph Junior Golf trophy of a certain N.A. Faldo.”

Eventually, he was convinced to sell the jacket via Green Jacket Auctions (now Golden Age) in 2017.

More than two decades after it was purchased for $5 in a thrift store, the “Thrift Store” Green Jacket sold for $139,348.80.

As for the original owner of the Green Jacket, whether tournament-winner of club member, the first owner's identity has never surfaced. What we do know is, he was a size 42 Regular.

Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.

Thrift store Green Jacket was bought for $5, sold for $140k

Augusta National confirmed authenticity of famed jacket, which was found at a Toronto thrift store