A good deal can feel like striking gold, but not everyone walks away happy when the true value comes to light.

When a man buys a vintage guitar from his wife’s coworker for far less than it’s worth, things quickly escalate and the fallout threatens both professional and personal boundaries.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for buying a $50,000 guitar for $4,000 and refusing to sell it back when the buyer found out the real value?

I’ve been playing the guitar for 22 years. I know guitar values and whatnot very well. I’m very into the guitar market.

At my wife’s old company, she was hanging out with co-workers one day after work and she mentioned that I play guitar.

A co-worker who I guess is very popular at work said that his dad passed away and he was selling his dads things. His dad had a guitar and asked my wife if I’d be interested in it.

My wife texted me and I said to have him send me the info on the guitar and the price. The next day he texted me the pics and price.

To the collector’s delight, the guitar was valuable!

It was a 1952 Telecaster in mint condition. He had the original receipts which was crazy! (That’s how I knew the date).

I asked what he wanted for it and he said he “Looked up Telecasters online and he thinks $4,000 is fair.”

I texted back, “I’ll take it for $4,000” and went to pick it up. The guitar had no sentimental value to him at all.

Here’s the issue at hand.

The problem is, it was much more valuable than $4,000.

The guitar was/is worth approximately $50,000, depending on the buyer, and I knew it.

When I got the guitar, I told my wife the price and what it was worth. She was floored.

It didn’t take long for the seller to catch on.

Fast forward two weeks her co-worker tells my wife he just found out what the guitar was actually worth from a family friend and wanted it back.

The wife isn’t exactly the best at keeping secrets.

She said, “well he really likes the guitar and he knew it was worth $50,000 which is why he was floored you offered it to him for $4,000. He really likes it and I doubt he will sell it back, but you can ask.”

(Probably not the smartest thing for her to say, but she was caught off guard and it’s not her fault or problem).

The seller tried their best to get it back from the collector. When he fails, he starts making threats.

He contacted me and asked to buy it back. I said that it’s not for sale.

He then said I scammed him and he was going to “Sue me and take my wife to HR for being a part of the scam.”

Which was nuts, but he actually did contact HR.

They were cool about it and said it’s not their problem. It’s between him and me.

While the collector may have saved some money, the seller started his wife pay the price.

Over the next few months, he made things very uncomfortable for my wife at work. He would bug her constantly about it.

She eventually had to go to HR for harassment and they actually let him go. (She complained twice and he was warned and didn’t stop.)

He’s contacted me several times about it so I got a restraining order for harassment too. I blocked him too. I haven’t heard from him in about a year.

AITA?

How could something that sounds so beautiful turn a situation so ugly?

Redditors chime in, but they didn’t exactly believe the buyer’s excuses.

This user thought he should have taken the recent family death of the seller into consideration.

This user acknowledges the seller was in the wrong with his intimidation tactics, but the buyer wasn’t totally innocent either.

If he knew how much the guitar was really worth, why would he take advantage of someone who was grieving?

It’s never a good idea to take advantage of someone, but especially not someone your partner has to see on a daily basis.

The deal may have seemed like a steal, but the real cost came later.

The buyer’s peace of mind and the question in the back of his head whether he did the right thing.

This transaction struck all the wrong chords.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.