To the OP, times have changed, and the number of people interested in antiques is much smaller now. A few years ago, I had to clean out my parent's house. They had been collecting things from other relatives as their houses were cleaned out. There were some items that were 100+ years old, some of which had been deposited into my parent's house starting in the 1970s. There was a lot of stuff. Most was likely not very good or valuable, but a few items (to my thinking anyway) were at least somewhat unique. I was hoping to be able to sell the nicer things that I didn't need as I lived in a different city and transportation was an issue. Unfortunately, none of the antique stores within 30 miles wanted to see anything I had, even if I brought it to them to look at (they certainly weren't going to come to me to see anything). Once selling was off the table, I wanted to donate these things. Even then, I had to drive the items over to the charity. There was only one place that would come out to get the bigger, heavier items that I couldn't move by myself. In short, almost all of the old things that people used to hang onto as "the good stuff" is probably only of sentimental value, and probably only to you. If you watch PBS, you might think that everyone has some sort of gem hidden in an attic, basement or garage, but the reality is that finding someone else who see your stuff as a gem is quite difficult.
