The Taylor Swift guitar a man spent $4k to smash wasn’t even signed by the singer

Recently, a man went viral for purchasing a Taylor Swift guitar for $4,000 to smash it. While many assume he smashed it because of some kind of ire against the singer, it has now been reported that the pricey guitar wasn’t even signed by her.

The internet was left perplexed after the video of the man inexplicably smashing the guitar arose. The man was attending an auction in Texas hosted by the nonprofit Ellis County Wild Game Dinner. When a Swift guitar was presented on the auction block, the man bid a whopping $4,000 for it. However, his bid seemingly wasn’t motivated by wanting to keep it as a collectible or gift it to someone else. Instead, he walked up to the podium and began smashing the guitar with a hammer before walking away laughing.

Although the motive isn’t known, there are currently a lot of men who have irrational anger against Swift. Her official endorsement of Kamala Harris for president made her the target of numerous hateful, threatening, and creepy outbursts from men, including Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Dave Rubin. Additionally, she has also faced attacks from misogynistic football fans disgruntled by her relationship with the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce. As a result, many suspect that the guitar-smashing-man was trying to make some sort of point against Swift, especially as the media reported she signed the guitar. However, it now seems the man paid $4,000 for a guitar with no personal connection to the singer.

Sources claim Taylor Swift guitar is a fake

The guitar-smashing incident took an amusing turn when sources began claiming the guitar wasn’t even signed by her. Variety reported that a source close to Swift’s merchandise company confirmed the lack of a signature. While it came with a signed CD insert, the guitar itself wasn’t signed. Another source close to Swift made similar allegations to HuffPost. The source pointed out that an authentic Swift-signed guitar would’ve come with an official certificate of authenticity.

In the video, the guitar was not presented with a certificate of authenticity. Regardless of the certificate, the source told HuffPost that Swift did not sign or authenticate the guitar. While TMZ claimed to have obtained the certificate of authenticity, it was noticeably missing a seal typically present on the document. The missing seal, combined with Variety and HuffPost‘s reports, strongly questions the legitimacy of the Swift-signed guitar and raises concerns that it’s a fake. Meanwhile, if the guitar was a fake, it would likely mean that the man was ripped off. Without the official signature, it doesn’t seem the guitar was worth $4,000.

On eBay, a signed Swift CD insert can be purchased for as low as $65, while the unsigned custom Eras Tour guitar can be purchased for as low as $499.99. $4,000 already seemed steep for even a signed guitar, but the man may have overpaid by a few thousand dollars if the guitar is truly a fake. Not only that, but the point the man was trying to make is even further lost. He was already only hurting himself by wasting $4,000 on a guitar to smash. However, any satisfaction he may have gotten from thinking he destroyed something Swift personally signed will now be gone along with his money. This self-own is going to be difficult to recover from.