Kinda reminds me of the time I was hemming and hawing about a Miyata six-ten at a yard sale, the guy wanted twenty bucks for. The nice one, mid 80's, with cantilever brakes and both racks and ... ooh, nice tourer. Derailleur was gummed up, chain line looked terrible, and it was too small for me, but I knew it was a great deal. Seller brought the price down to $15 and said look, fix it and sell it for a profit, maybe you can get the one you really want. Okay, quoth I.
A few minutes later the seller tried to give five bucks of the money back, to my wife that is, because he recognized she was unhappy I'd bought another bike. She didn't take it.
I sold the bike for $375 after wiping some WD40 on it, made the buyer very happy, made my wife very happy, and made me happy too.
Pushed into a life of crime. Sad.