Shirt Once Worn By Frank Sinatra Nets $1,200 At Auction
ORANGE (CBS) — An unemployed construction worker who purchased a shirt once worn by Frank Sinatra for $5 at a yard sale sold it Saturday to an auctioneer for $1,200.
Rick Gorski bought the shirt at his neighbor's yard sale last year, said Don Presley, who tried to auction off the shirt at his shop in Orange Saturday afternoon.
"A lot of other people just passed it up, but he picked it up and asked her about it," Presley said. The neighbor told him it was made for Sinatra.
"He said, 'How much?' and she said, 'Five bucks for you, Rick,"' Presley said.
The shirt's tags had Sinatra's name on it and are dated February 1987, Presley said. When Gorski investigated the shirt, he learned that it was made by Beverly Hills men's clothier Nat Wise and worn during a benefit concert in 1988, Presley added.
Before the auction, Presley said it wouldn't surprise him if the shirt went for $10,000 to $15,000.
But when Sinatra's shirt went on the auction block, no one bid close to that, so Presley bought the item for $1,200, the Orange County Register reported.
"I don't know what to say, brother," Presley said to Gorski in front of bidders during the auction.
Presley said he had loaned Gorski $1,500 because of his financial situation. He told the Register he will let Gorski keep the loan, adding that he plans to try to get Christie's or Sotheby's to auction off the shirt.
Gorski, who sometimes works as a handyman, said he will use the money to pay for utilities and rent for a townhouse he lives in with his son and two brothers, the newspaper reported.
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