About seven (7) years ago a older friend of mine Craig was having living and financial problems , I think he was getting some type of public assistance after he had to move out of his old family house after it was sold . I'd known him since I was 19 and am in my early forties now . I was a up and comping DJ/producer of dance music and he was a very powerful and influential promoter and manager of a popular dance music label at the time.
He had a very rare pristine vinyl recored collection that all the Dj and producers wanted to get there hands on . The recored collection reached mythical Proportion's . I was always a dedicated humble and somewhat naive friend that took on a life long journey to learn about the music that I love and wanted to create . This led me to take serval losses as I was always the one with the music equipment to throw parties with that ended up getting damaged over and over agin but I didn't mind as much because I was getting real world experience with influential people .
So my friend told me he had to move out of his apartment and could not afford storage for his records , so I jumped to offer my assistance because even tho I had dreams of being a world class DJ and producer which I still do and have made good progress over the years with some vinyl releases mostly exported to Europe dance scene , I still worked very hard and now have a very professional career outside of music that very demanding and rewarding , it's great . This is unusual for the people in the music scene I was apart of , because they mostly tend to live day to day waiting for the next party . I was like that to but I made a change when I became a father and got a great Job while I pursue my music dream . My friend Craig asked if he could move in with me but I said no because I didn't think it was a good ideal but I told him I could hold the records for him . He agreed but I would have to pay for everything to move the records to my place including UHaul truck over 100 boxes to ship vinyl records and the movers to move all the boxes . This is a very large record collection , I guess easily over 10,000 records over 100 heavy boxes had to be moved and stored in my bedroom . After about 2 years my girlfriend said dude you have to do something with all those boxes , there taking up the whole bedroom . I said your right so I told him it's been 2 years you need to do something with the records . Before this he wanted to go in and out of the boxes to take records out and record them at my house and I said no because to what end will this go on . I told him the only way I would set up the records in my house so he could record them is if they where my records if not then you need to take them . So he agreed and said I could have the records and I agreed to let him come over and recored them from time to time . So he came over and set all the records up like they were in his old place ,I had to buy an additional large record self from Ikea and everything was good for years after that .
Now after 7 years he reached out to me saying he wants the records back , he was living with a married couple so I think he plans on moving in with someone else now , not sure . I told him he gave me the records years ago and I even have him on video saying the records are mine we made a deal . He said the he meant I could have them if something happened to him , like he would will them to me . I said no this was not the agreement now your being deceitful . He said he wants every recorded and that each one needs to be accountable over 10,000 records . I said why do you lie , why not just say , hey I know I gave you the records but I miss them and want them back and I probably would just give them back . I told him I've had these records for 7 years and you gave them to me not to mention all the money I've spent to get them here and set them up .
There more but I'll leave it here for now . But this has been really bothering me because I told him years ago I will only set the records up in my house if they are mine because I don't want to get attached to something that isn't mine ,they could have just stayed in the boxes but now he's talking to me like a swindler in the music scene , which is just not true . I was really just helping a friend and when the opportunity came for me to get the records I went for it or they could have left .
Over the years he never said he wanted the records back . He only refrened to how some of the records in the collection have gone up in value price . Now he says he wants to come to my house and pack everything up personally and anything else I may have got during the moving like wall pictures , art , desk etc..
Ok so it looks like my options are .
Give thee records back and cut my losses but it's not that simple being I have to pack over 100 boxes and over 10,000 records , it's a pretty big job . And this person is no longer welcome in my home now that I see true colors . It may cause inner-resentment for not sticking up for my self. Craig may come back to me saying some records are missing that are very valuable and maybe legal action .
Keep the record collection and enjoy it as a gift of my younger years adventures and journey , cut contact and have the Law possibly on my side because I had possession for 7 years . Me being an Empath I may have to deal with the pain that maybe I made the wrong choice .
Question : Is it rude to keep a valuble gift if the giver wants it back years later stating it was a missunderstanding ? Thanks