Early december, a coworker asked me if I wanted Magic the Gathering cards her husband wanted to get rid off. I accepted and end up with 5 briefcases full of cards.
Going through the cards, I found that they were a lot (and I mean a lot) of cards ranging from anywhere between 15$ and 80$. I thought it was a little weird that her husband would just gifted away that many expensive cards, so I texted my coworker to ask if she was sure that her husband was giving everything to me. Her response was "yes, he is sure. He doesn’t play with them anymore. Enjoy". So I kept the cards to built deck, trade some and sold a bunch of them at my local card shop for a couple hundread of bucks.
Fast foward to yesterday. Coworker came to me during lunch to ask if I can give her back all the cards. Turns out that she didn’t ask her husband at all before giving everything to me and he’s extremely pissed about it. I told her that I could give back the cards I still own, but I’ve traded and sold a lot of them and didn’t have them anymore. She got pretty desperate when I told her that and then ask if I could also give her, in addition of the collection I still own, the money I made so her husband can buy the cards I trade/sold again.
I told her that I thought that I was already pretty nice to gave back some of her husband collection but it’s to late for the card I’ve traded/solded and I’m keeping the money, so it’s either that or I’m keeping everything. She got very mad and when she started yelling at me to give everything, money included, back to fix this, I told her that’s her problem and she stormed off. She didn’t talk to me since and I still have the cards.
AITA?
Edit:
Just to clarify some thing, I did told my coworker that they were valuable cards in her husband collection when I text her to reconfirm. The collection I was "gifted" wasn’t just valuable cards, the majority of cards were pretty cheap (like under 1$). It’s just that with the amount of cards given, the number of valuable cards grow pretty quickly.
Also, I’ve read a lot of comment about keeping "stolen goods" for myself. I’m willing to give back the rest of the cards I have to her husband, but my coworker is the only way I have to gave it back to him.
NTA.
This sucks though. Depending what lies shes telling, he might end up filing a police report.
If you have text/emails about this, save them. Don’t chat about it on phone or in person any longer. Make her put what she has to say in writing.
Don’t worry, your good but until her lies are revealed, this could get annoying.
I have text about this. We talked on messenger when I tried to confirm she was sure her husband was giving everything to me.
Make a screenshot and safe it.
NTA. She made a mistake – twice. First in giving you the cards, and then in not verifying with her husband when you asked if they were sure. I think giving her back the cards that you have is the right move here.
ESH, anyone who plays any card games knows 5 briefcase worth and giving away means the wife hates his hobby and is sneaking to get rid of it.
Any normal person would be selling the collection as that’s a good 150k+ value if not way more. OP is simply playing dumb regarding the gift, knew and sold/traded anyway.
Any reasonable person would have held on to everything knowing this would go to court eventually with stolen property.
This is the equivalent of being given a boat full of cars by someone, you know it is stolen goods but you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth so you start selling the cars only for the owner to demand it back.
No one is sane enough to gift that much money to a random co worker.
I don’t know why you would assume OP would know the inner workings of his coworker’s relationship with her husband or the husband’s understanding of the cards. My brother had a shit ton of MTG cards from 25 years ago sitting in his basement until last summer. He was happy to get rid of them and had no desire to sort through them or try to sell them. It happens. Not everyone with a ton of cards actually cares about them.
You’re NTA but damn I feel for the husband here. Just try to imagine yourself in his place: someone close to you gave away your belongings and can’t get them back. Like, you’re under no obligation to return the cards/money, but it really sucks for him. So keep that in mind.
giving back the cards best you can do to keep the peace. what’s sold is sold though
Actually in just about every jurisdiction OP is legally obligated to return the cards.
If you buy a stolen car you typically don’t get to keep the car. The original owner can reclaim the car, and then it is up to you to file a police report or sue the person you paid, in order to get your money back.
There are a few exceptions to various things in some places… but stolen property does not become legally yours just because you pay for it, or are given it.
Except if its considered marital property, the wife had the right to get rid of them without them being considered stolen.
Definitely NTA. She screwed up. However, the right thing to do would be to give her back whatever’s left, as this was not her husband’s fault & he should not have to pay for her mistake. As for the money? She can go suck an egg.
NTA, she is and having a FAFO moment. I see divorce in her future
It isn’t your problem that she gave away her husband’s stuff without his knowledge and consent.
It isn’t your problem that she lied to you.
You’re being generous to offer to return the remaining cards.
Forget about giving her the money from what you sold.
NTA – and take/save a screenshot of the texts in which you asked (and she confirmed) that her husband agreed to give you the cards. You may need that evidence in the future.
NTA. This is her problem to fix with her husband. I think you did the right thing by offering to return the cards you still have from his collection, but you should have left it with saying you traded/gave away others. Mentioning that you sold them was a mistake, because of course she would ask for the cash.