Those can be very valuable. I have a little library of Victorian angling books that someone will donate similarly, yet cost several hundreds to accumulate. As the saying goes: "pray your wife doesn't sell it for what you told her you paid for it"
As I've got older though I'm starting to realize I don't care what my wife sells my stuff for after I'm gone. What I care about is she sells it to someone who wants it. I want my stuff sold to some collectors who will appreciate it, and not the scrap dealer. If the collector gets it for less than the scrap dealer will pay that would be fine with me. (and I think I'll leave my wife enough that she can afford to give it away like that)
I thought that saying was about a fellow's workshop tools? (not me, honest luv...) However, anyone who's dealt in rare/collectable/used ANYTHING has also run into the opposite problem: when someone's sure what they inherited is super valuable, and it's really not. Worse when it goes to waste because they want thousands for it and nobody sane will pay that, then they dump it out of spite. I probably ought to leave a note in the safe about which of my own things are worth appraising (not many) and which not to bother (99%).
