Man thrifted a sweater for 58 cents at Goodwill—then discovered its connection to Vince Lombardi made it worth over $40K
People never know when they might chance upon a jackpot at a thrift store. One man also thought that he was just buying a cool sweater from Goodwill for 58 cents. He had no idea that he had won a lottery by finding that the sweater turned out to be an original one, once worn by Vince Lombardi, a legendary American football coach. It all started when the man, Sean McEvoy, made a connection with a tag on his new purchase and decided to dig deeper, per ESPN.
The sweater was bought by Rikki and Sean back in June 2014 in Asheville, North Carolina. The duo was at Goodwill as they sold vintage clothes online and were out to find something interesting. "I picked it up and thought it was cool. At first, I thought it was a basketball warm-up," Sean explained. The sweater was sold to the man by weight at Goodwill and cost even less than a dollar. "I didn't see the Lombardi tag when we walked out with it, or I might have made a connection. My wife saw it, but she didn't know who that could be." A few months later, the man saw a documentary featuring Lombardi and noticed that the sweater the former coach was wearing looked surprisingly similar to the one he purchased at Goodwill.
He checked the sweater and found a tag near the neck that read, "Lombardi." Sean had a strong feeling that the sweater was much more valuable than he had thought. The man contacted the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and they were able to authenticate it. However, the center wanted Sean to donate the sweater, so he got in touch with Heritage Auctions in Dallas instead. He drove with the sweater to get it to the Auction House, and Uniform authentication company Mears confirmed that the sweater was an original. When the sweater was auctioned in 2015, its price had already gone up to $20,000.
"It's kind of hard to fathom spending that kind of money on a sweater, but these are the times we live in. Whoever gets it, I hope they treasure it," Vince Lombardi Jr, the legendary coach's son, remarked. An anonymous bidder ended up getting the sweater for $36,000. The person also paid a buyer's premium worth 19.5 percent of the auction value, bringing the total value to $43,020. "There are two great joys in collecting: owning a relic of true historical significance and the unexpected discovery of something believed to have been lost. This is a tale that supplies both in full measure," Chris Ivy, the sports director at the auction house, mentioned.
The auction house ended up donating its share of the money, $4000, to Goodwill. Sean was happy with his fortune and also about the fact that the sweater would now be preserved well by a collector. "There's a chance that if I didn't buy that, it would have sat there and the next stop would be getting ground up into a rag." The sweater was owned by Vince Lombardi between 1949 and 1953 while he was still working as a coach. It had West Point written in yellow on its front.