Older widows throw away fortunes every day,I am sure.
An ex-sister-in-law also “cleaned up” her grandmother’s house and threw out all that “old stuff”;old stuff was a small fortune in Depression glass and flatware plus who knows what else!It all went to Rumpke Mountain (landfill).
On the other hand I have met men who salivate over getting their hands on valuable items for scrap metal;and they truly will simply scrap antigue and collectibles for pennies on the dollar because they are ignorant and arrogant.
Got a few hundred bucks in scrap value, but the actual value was near priceless.
Greed makes foolish people do foolish things. At least in my Gram's case, she was a teetotaler who placed no value at all on what she was getting rid of. It wasn't like she just was trying to turn a quick buck.