Should I keep the money?

[Deucebumps]

A couple of years ago, my bike was stolen. A lovely relative offered to sell me their ancient bike for a runaround as they weren't using it and it was just gathering dust. I gave them £60 for it.

I've recently bought a new bike. I put the old one on gumtree for £35 thinking I might get £30/25 for it. Phone lit up like a Christmas tree - turns out this particular model is a retro collectors item. I've now had a look online and similar condition models are going for £200-300!

My problem is, although the bike is mine and I paid relative for it, a part of me feels I should split whatever it sells for with her. She obviously had no idea of the resale value or desirability when she sold it to me, and she must have paid a fair amount when it was new as it was state of the art back then. But then if I hadn't bought it she probably would've given it to a charity shop or taken it to the tip, so she'd never know its value anyway.

WWYD? Keep the money or split it?

I'd split it. I certainly don't think you're obliged to, but you describe her as a lovely relative so I think you should at least offer. She might tell you to keep the money anyway.

Split it. You were only expecting £30 so anything else is a bonus.

I woukd split it tbh

Why would you split it? just sell the bike and forget about it.

Keep it and take care of it. You can never have too many bikes and it won't lose value.

I don't want to keep it really, it's too big for me and I find it sodding uncomfortable to ride. I don't have the storage space for two bikes, and I'm not a bike fanatic so it would be better with someone who wants to ride/restore it to its former glory.

In that case, I'd take £60 off whatever it sells for and then split the remainder.

Take the £60 off and split the difference. She was lovely to you; now you have your chance to be lovely to her.

That's true! And also the OP's had a lot of use out of it.

Definitely split. She might have been aware you didn't give her anywhere near enough but knew you couldn't afford more. But even if not, it's a nice thing to do, and I'd not enjoy the extra money if I knew I'd been stingy. Making others happy is much nicer

But she chose to sell a bike she wasn't using for £60 in the first place. I think that was more cheeky, I've given away bikes I've stopped used to friends, I wouldn't dream of asking them for money.

Keep what you paid for it and give her the rest or donate it to charity.

I imagine your relative 'sold' you her bike instead of gifting it to you because money is a bit tight for her, too. If that is the case, splitting it would be the right thing to do. No, you don't have to. But I think you would feel better about it...

Relative is (or appears) quite comfortably off. She would've given it to me as a gift I think, it was my parents who insisted I pay her something. They're of the 'oh no we can't possibly accept a gift, let us pay you something for it!' type. I had no say at all in it, but that's a whole other story!

Split it. Take it to her telling her excitedly how much it was worth. She might tell you to keep it.

Split it, definitely. (She might just tell you to keep the money!)

Split it

Would you be able to get away with just selling it and keeping quiet?

I'd offer her half of the profit - it sounds like she will probably say "don't be silly, it's yours, you keep the money" and then you can feel virtuous plus keep the dosh.

It's not like you gave her £60 for the bike knowing it worth a lot more so really she sold it to you, it's yours now to sell for as much or as little as you like or give it away for free.
However in this situationI'd probably split it or at least offer to. Then it's up to her to accept or not.
You could take off the £60 you paid for it and split the rest.

Hmm, she sold it for a price she was (presumably) happy with and has (presumably) forgotten all about it by now. If she had sold to a stranger or you had bought from a stranger then splitting the money wouldn't even be a consideration. So on that basis you could sell and keep the money with a clear conscience.

However, splitting the money would be a nice thing to do and it sounds like she did a nice thing for you when you needed it. Karma and all that. So I think that's what I would do. You were only hoping for £25 anyway so it costs you nothing to do a nice thing.

On a similar note, we bought a new build house in the same estate that a relative of DH was buying (she paid her deposit first). It was a coincidence and we would have always been buying the house, but we filled in a form saying that she had referred a friend so she would get £500. It was just a nice thing to do. When she got the money she was so delighted she insisted on splitting it with us. There was no need, we were all going to buy those houses anyway so it was just a nice bonus. We all did something nice in that situation when we didn't really need to. That's what family is about imo.